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Between the pass and fell incensed points

Of mighty opposites.

93

Development.

36-v. 2.

Time shall unfold what plaited cunning hides;
Who cover faults, at last shame them derides."

34-i. l.

94

Obstinacy, its evil.

To persist

26-ii. 2.

In doing wrong, extenuates not wrong,
But makes it much more heavy.

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What rein can hold licentious wickedness,

When down the hill he holds his fierce career?

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That nature which contemns its origin,

Cannot be border'd certain in itself;s

She, that herself will slivert and disbranch

20-iii. 3.

From her material sap, perforce must wither,
And come to deadly use.

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34-iv. 2.

Dangerous conceits are, in their natures, poisons,
Which, at the first, are scarce found to distaste;
But with a little act upon the blood,

Burn like the mines of sulphur.

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Men shall deal unadvisedly sometimes,

Which after-hours give leisure to repent.

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37-iii. 3.

24-iv. 4.

Where's that palace, whereinto foul things Sometimes intrude not? who has a breast so pure,

But some uncleanly apprehensions

q Folded, doubled.

r' He that covereth his sins shall not prosper.'

First folio reads,

Prov. xxviii. 13.

'Who covers faults at last with shame derides.' Restrained within any certain bounds.

t Tear off.

Keep leets," and law-days, and in session sit
With meditations lawful?w

100

Timidity and self-confidence.

37-iii. 3.

Blind Fear, that seeing Reason leads, finds safer footing than blind Reason stumbling without Fear.

101

Judgment influenced by circumstances.

Men's judgments are

26-iii. 2.

A parcel of their fortunes; and things outward
Do draw the inward quality after them,
To suffer all alike.

30-iii. 11.'

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Gnarlingy sorrow hath less power to bite The man that mocks at it, and sets it light.

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Cold ways,

17-i. 3.

That seem like prudent helps, are very poisonous
Where the disease is violent.

28-iii. 1.

104

Knowledge to be communicated.

That man

n-how dearly ever parted,"

How much in having, or without, or in,—
Cannot make boast to have that which he hath,
Nor feels not what he owes, but by reflection;
As when his virtues shining upon others
Heat them, and they retort that heat again
To the first giver.

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26-iii. 3.

The beauty that is borne here in the face,
The bearer knows not, but commends itself
To others' eyes: nor doth the eye itself
(That most pure spirit of sense) behold itself,
Not going from itself; but eye to eye opposed

u Courts of equity.

w Who has so virtuous a breast, that some impure conceptions will not sometimes enter into it; hold a session there as in a regular court, and bench by the side' of authorized and lawful thoughts? Rom. vii. 18-24. x Are of a piece with them.

Prov. v. 14.

y Growling.

z Excellently endowed.

Salutes each other with each other's form.
For speculation turns not to itself,
Till it hath travell'd, and is married there,
Where it may see itself.

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26-iii. 3.

(Though in and of him there be much consisting), Till he communicate his parts to others:

· Nor doth he of himself know them for aught,
Till he behold them form'd in the applause,
Where they're extended; which, like an arch, re-
verberates

The voice again; or, like a gate of steel,
Fronting the sun, receives and renders back
His figure and his heat.

107

Man not to be a slave to sense.

What is a man,

If his chief good, and marketa of his time,

26-iii. 3.

Be but to sleep, and feed? a beast, no more.
Sure, He, that made us with such large discourse, b
Looking before, and after, gave us not

That capability and godlike reason

To fuste in us unused.

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36-iv. 4.

We play the fools with the time; and the spirits of the wise sit in the clouds, and mock us.

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19-ii. 2.

If a man do not erect in this age his own tomb ere he dies, he shall live no longer in monument than the bell rings, and the widow weeps. 6-v. 2.

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Ah! when the means are gone, that buy this praise,
The breath is gone whereof this praise is made:
Feast won-fast lost; one cloud of winter showers,
These flies are couch'd.

2 Profit. b Power of comprehension.

27-ii. 2.

c Grow mouldy.

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Love, and tongue-tied simplicity,

In least, speak most, to my capacity.

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The worst is not,

7-v. 1.

So long as we can say, This is the worst. 34-iv. 1.'

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'Tis the mind that makes the body rich;

And as the sun breaks through the darkest clouds,
So honour peereth" in the meanest habit.
What, is the jay more precious than the lark,
Because his feathers are more beautiful?
Or is the adder better than the eel,
Because his painted skin contents the eye?

114

Cultivation and Sterility.

12-iv. 3.

Our bodies are our gardens; to the which, our wills are gardeners: so that if we will plant nettles, or sow lettuce; set hyssop, and weed up thyme; supply it with one gender of herbs, or distract it with many; either to have it steril with idleness, or manured with industry; why, the power and corrigible authority of this lies in our wills. If the balance of our lives had not one scale of reason to poise another of sensuality, the blood and baseness of our natures would conduct us to most preposterous conclusions. 37-i. 3.

115

Misconception of motives.

I am in this earthly world; where, to do harm,
Is often laudable; to do good, sometime,
Accounted dangerous folly.

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15-iv. 2.

Let the subject see, to make them know, That outward courtesies would fain proclaim Favours that keep within.e

d Appeareth.

e Then only shows of kindness have their worth,
When outward courtesies truly declare

The heart that keeps within.

5-v. 1.

117

Merit, its value.

Who shall go about

To cozen fortune, and be honourable

Without the stamp of merit! Let none presume
To wear an undeserved dignity.

118

Merit, too often unrewarded.

O, that estates, degrees, and offices,

9-ii. 9.

Were not derived corruptly! and that clear honour
Were purchased by the merit of the wearer!
How many then should cover, that stand bare!
How many be commanded, that command!

How much low peasantry would then be glean'd

From the true seed of honour! and how much honour
Pick'd from the chaff and ruin of the times,
To be new varnish'd!

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No ceremony that to great ones 'longs,

9-ii. 9.

Not the king's crown, nor the deputed sword,
The marshal's truncheon, nor the judge's robe,
Become them with one half so good a grace,
As mercy does.

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5-ii. 2.

Will fortune never come with both hands full,
But write her fair words still in foulest letters?
She either gives a stomach, and no food,-
Such are the poor, in health; or else a feast,
And takes away the stomach,-such are the rich,
That have abundance, and enjoy it not.

121

The power of prejudice.

There be in the cup

may

19-iv. 4.

A spider steep'd, and one may drink; depart,
And yet partake no venom; for his knowledge
Is not infected; but if one present

The abhorr'd ingredient to his eye, make known
How he hath drank, he cracks his gorge, his sides,
With violent hefts.f
13-ii. 1.

f Heavings.

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