And thorough this distemperature, we see
The seasons alter; hoary-headed frosts
Fall in the fresh lap of the crimson rose :
And on old Hyem's chin, and icy crown,
An odorous chaplet of sweet summer buds
Is, as in mockery, set: The spring, the summer,
The childing autumn, angry winter, change
Their wonted liveries; and the mazed world,
By their increase, now knows not which is which.
FAME. Difficulty of attaining.
Ah! who can tell how hard it is to climb
The steep where fame's proud temple shines afar,
Ah! who can tell how many a soul sublime
Has felt the influence of malignant star,
And waged with fortune an eternal war;
Check'd by the scoff of pride, by envy's frown,
And poverty's unconquerable bar,
In life's low vale remote has pin'd alone,
Then dropt into the grave, unpitied and unknown, Beattie.
What's fame? a fancy'd life in other's breath;
A thing beyond us, ev'n before our death.
Just what you hear, you have, and what's unknown
The same (my Lord) if Tully's, or your own,
All that we feel of it begins and ends
In the small circle of our foes or friends;
To all beside as much an empty shade
An Eugene living, or a Cæsar dead;
Alike or when, or where, they shone or shine,
Or on the Rubicon or on the Rhine.
A wit's a feather, and a chief a rod;
An honest man's the noblest work of God.
Heaven from all creatures hides the book of fate,
All but the page describ'd, their present state;
From brutes what men, from men what spirits know;
Or who could suffer being here below?
The lamb thy riot dooms to bleed to-day,
Had he thy reason, would he skip and play?
Pleased to the last, he crops the flowery food,
And licks the hand just rais'd to shed his blood.
Oh blindness to the future kindly given,
That each may fill the circle mark'd by Heaven;
Who sees with equal eye, as God of all,
A hero perish, or a sparrow fall,
Atoms or systems into ruin hurl'd;
And now a bubble burst, and now a world.
Success, the mark no mortal wit,
Or surest hand, can always hit :
For whatsoe'er we perpetrate,
We do but row, we're steer'd by fate,
Which in success oft disinherits,
For spurious causes, noblest merits.
Great actions are not always true sons
Of great and mighty resolutions;
Nor do the bold attempts bring forth
Events still equal to their worth:
But sometimes fail, and in their stead,
Fortune and cowardice succeed.
FEARS. A woman's.
Thou shalt be punish'd thus for frighting me,
For I am sick, and capable of fears;
Oppress'd with wrongs, and therefore full of fears;
A widow, husbandless, subject to fears;
A woman, naturally born to fears;
And though thou now confess thou didst but jest,
With my vex'd spirits I cannot take a truce,
But they will quake and tremble all this day. Shakspeare.
FELICITY. To be found under every government.
Vain, very vain, my weary search to find
That bliss which only centres in the mind!-
How small, of all that human hearts endure,
That part which laws or kings can cause or cure!
Still to ourselves in every place consign'd,
Our own felicity, we make or find:
With secret course, which no loud storms annoy,
Glides the smooth current of domestic joy.
The lifted axe, the agonizing wheel,
Luke's iron crown, and Damien's bed of steel,
To men remote from pow'r but rarely known,
Leave reason, faith, and conscience, all our own.
FEMALES. Caution to Young.
For Hamlet and the trifling of his favour,
Hold it a fashion, and a toy in blood:
A violet in the youth of primy nature,
Forward, not permanent,-sweet, not lasting,
The perfume and suppliance of a minute :-
Fear it, Ophelia, fear it, my dear sister:
And keep you in the rear of your affection
Out of the shot and danger of desire.
The chariest maid is prodigal enough,
If she unmask her beauty to the moon :
Virtue itself 'scapes not calumnious strokes :
The canker galls the infants of the spring,
Too oft before their buttons be disclos'd;
And in the morn and liquid dew of youth
Contagious blastments are most imminent.
FOLLY. Danger of Disturbing.
Undisturb'd by folly, and appris'd
How great the danger of disturbing her,
To muse in silence, or, at least, confine
Remarks, that gall so many, to the few
My partners in retreat, Disgust conceal'd
Is oftimes proof of wisdom, when the fault
Is obstinate, and cure beyond our reach.
FOOL. His liberty of Speech.
Withal, as large a charter as the wind,
To blow on whom I please; for so fools have:
And they that are most galled with my folly,
They most must laugh: And why, Sir, must they so?
The why is plain as way to parish church:
He that a fool doth very wisely hit,
Doth very foolishly, although he smart,
Not to seem senseless of the bob; if not,
The wise man's folly is anatomiz'd
Even by the squandering glances of the fool. Shakspeare. FOOL. His moralizing on Time.
"Good-morrow, fool," quoth I: "No, sir," quoth he, "Call me not fool, till heaven hath sent me fortune;" And then he drew a dial from his poke,
And looking on it with lack-lustre eye,
Says, very wisely, "It is ten o'clock;
Thus may we see," quoth he, "how the world wags:
"Tis but an hour ago since it was nine;
And after an hour more, 'twill be eleven;
And so, from hour to hour, we ripe, and ripe,
And then, from hour to hour, we rot, and rot,
And thereby hangs a tale." When I did hear
The motley fool thus moral on the time,
My lungs began to crow like chanticleer,
That fools should be so deep contemplative
And I did laugh, sans intermission,
An hour by his dial-O noble fool!
A worthy fool! Motley's the only wear.
I see men's judgments are
FORTUNE. Forms our judgments.
A parcel of their fortunes: and things outward
Do draw the inward quality after them,
FORTUNE-TELLER. Description of one.
A hungry lean-fac'd villain,
A mere anatomy, a mountebank,
A thread-bare juggler, and a fortune teller;
A needy, hollow-eye'd, sharp looking wretch,
A living dead man: this pernicious slave,
Forsooth, took on him as a conjurer;
And, gazing in mine eyes, feeling my pulse,
And with no face, as 'twere outfacing me,
Cries out, I was possess'd.
FRAILTIES. Happy ones.
But heaven's great view is one, and that the whole : That counterworks each folly and caprice;
That disappoints th' effect of ev'ry vice;
That, happy frailties to all ranks applied-
Shame to the virgin, to the matron pride,
Fear to the statesman, rashness to the chief,
To kings presumption, and to crowds belief;
That virtue's ends from vanity can raise,
Which seeks no int'rest, no reward but praise;
And builds on wants, and on defects of mind
The joy, the peace, the glory of mankind.
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