596

If

Honesty misinterpreted.

my offence be of such mortal kind,

That neither service past, nor present sorrows,
Nor purposed merit in futurity,

Can ransom me into his love again,
But to know so must be my benefit;
So shall I clothe me in a forced content,
And shut myself up in some other course,
To fortune's alms.

Let us teach our trial patience, Because it is a customary cross.

Oh, you blessed ministers above,

37-iii. 4.

Keep me in patience; and with ripen'd time,
Unfold the evil which is here wrapt up

In countenance !"

7-i. 1.

5-v. 1.

Give sorrow words; the grief, that does not speak, Whispers the o'erfraught heart, and bids it break.

Your gentleness shall force,

More than your force move us to gentleness.

601

An over-regard for the world.

You have too much respect upon the world:
They lose it, that do buy it with much care.

602

The necessity of mental cultivation.

15-iv. 3.

10-ii. 7.

9-i. 1.

Now 'tis the spring, and weeds are shallow-rooted;
Suffer them now, and they'll o'ergrow the garden,
And choke the herbs for want of husbandry.

22-iii. 1.

Now we have shewn our power,

Let us seem humbler after it is done,

Than when it was a doing.

z False appearance, hypocrisy.

28-iv. 2.

You talk of pride; O, that you could turn your eyes towards the napes of your necks, and make but an interior survey of your good selves! 28-ii. 1.

605 Studies to be pursued according to taste and pleasure.

Continue your resolve,

To suck the sweets of sweet philosophy.

Only, while we do admire

This virtue, and this moral discipline,
Let's be no stoics, nor no stocks, I pray;
Or so devote to Aristotle's checks, b
As Ovid be an outcast quite abjured:
Talk logic with acquaintance that you have,
And practise rhetoric in your common talk;
Music and poesy use to quicken you;
The mathematics, and the metaphysics,

Fall to them, as you find your stomach serves you:
No profit grows, where is no pleasure ta'en;-
In brief, study what you most affect.

12-i. 1.

Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you, trippingly on the tongue: but if you mouth it, I had as lief the town-crier spoke my lines. Nor do not saw the air too much with your hand; but use all gently: for in the very torrent, tempest, and (as I may say) whirlwind of your passion, you must acquire and beget a temperance, that may give it smoothness. Be not too tame

neither, but let your own discretion be your tutor: suit the action to the word, the word to the action; with this special observance, that you o'er-step not the modesty of nature. 36-iii. 2.

Hold, as 'twere, the mirror up to nature; to shew virtue her own feature, scorn her own image, and

a With allusion to the fable, which says that every man has a bag hanging before him, in which he puts his neighbour's faults, and another behind him, in which he stows his own.

b Harsh rules. Perhaps it should be ethics instead of checks.

c Animate.

the very age and body of the time, his form and pressure.d

Speak of me as I am; nothing extenuate,
Nor set down aught in malice.

609

36-iii. 2.

37-v. 2.

Submission to the will of God.

Look, what thy soul holds dear, imagine it
To lie that way thou go'st, not whence thou com'st.

O, see the monstrousness of man,

When he looks out in an ungrateful shape!

611

Sincerity.

17-i. 3.

27-iii. 2.

May your deeds approve,

That good effects may spring from words of love.

612

Wisdom without action.

Of your philosophy you make no use,
If you give place to accidental evils.

34-i. 1.

29-iv. 3.

The grace of heaven,

Before, behind thee, and on every hand,

Enwheel thee round!

37-ii. 1.

614

Nature content with little.

O, reason not the need: our basest beggars
Are in the poorest thing superfluous:
Allow not nature more than nature needs,
Man's life is cheap as beast's.

If ever you have look'd on better days;

34-ii. 4.

If ever been, where bells have knoll'd to church;
If ever sat at any good man's feast;
If ever from your eye-lids wiped a tear,
And know what 'tis to pity and be pitied;
Let gentleness my strong enforcement be.

d Impression, resemblance.

10-ii. 7.

Thou can'st tell, why one's nose stands i' the middle of his face?

Why, to keep his eyes on either side his nose; what a man cannot smell out, he may spy into.

617

Reverence due to wisdom.

that

34-i. 5.

Those that I reverence, those I fear; the wise:
At fools I laugh, not fear them.

618

Our

The benefit of reparation.

If we do now make our atonement well, peace will, like a broken limb united, Grow stronger for the breaking.

619

The mind to be regulated.

31-iv. 2.

19-iv. 1.

Weed your better judgments

Of all opinion that grows rank in them.

620

10-ii. 7.

You are old;

Discretion necessary to old age.

Nature in you stands on the very verge
Of her confine: you should be ruled and led
By some discretion, that discerns your state
Better than you yourself.

621

A heart fortified by patience.

34-ii. 4.

Since he stands obdurate,
And that no lawful means can carry me
Out of his envy's reach, I do oppose
My patience to his fury; and am arm'd
To suffer, with a quietness of spirit,
The very tyranny and rage of his.

622

9-iv. I.

Self-examination.

Go to your bosom;

Knock there; and ask your heart, what it doth know That's like my brother's fault: if it confess

A natural guiltiness, such as his is,

Let it not sound a thought upon your tongue
Against my brother.

5-ii. 2.

• Hatred, malice.

623

Precipitancy to be avoided.

Reason with the fellow,

Before you punish him,

Lest, you should chance to whip your information,
And beat the messenger, who bids beware
Of what is to be dreaded.

624 Accusation to be supported by knowledge.
If I shall be condemn'd

Upon surmises; all proofs sleeping else,
But what your jealousies awake; I tell you,
'Tis rigour, and not law.

28-iv. 6.

13-iii. 2.

My voice shall sound as you do prompt mine ear;
And I will stoop and humble my intents
To your well-practised, wise directions.

19-v. 2.

Obey thy parents, keep thy word justly; swear not; commit not with man's sworn spouse; set not thy sweet heart on proud array.

Keep thy foot out of brothels, thy pen from lenders'

34-iii. 4.

Give thy thoughts no tongue,

Nor any unproportion'd thought his act.

36-i. 3.

Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar. 36-i. 3.

The friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them to thy soul with hooks of steel;
But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
Of each new-hatch'd, unfledged comrade.

f Palm of the hand.

36-i. 3.