planè est, ipsum creaturarum venenum commodis usibus inservire quanto magis qualitates earum beneficas! Si quid fortè nobis noceat, in nos cudendum est ilicet; pro bono malum incautè imprudenterque eligentibus. Interim, Creatori laudes, creaturis verò æquam gratamque comprobationem, debemus.

CXXVIII. Viso lilio.

FLOS iste satis ingratum præbet naribus odorem; cujus tamen radix adeò redolet, ut ab heroinis delicatissimis inter aromata fragrantissma reponi soleat: rosa, è contrà, florem habet admodum dulcem, radicem verò planè inodoram: crocus, flavas quasdam virgulas emittit non minùs suaves quàm salutares, dum et flos et radix sensui meritò displiceant. Ut vegetabilibus hisce fit, sic pariter et metallis.

Noluit Deus optima quæque semper oculis patere neque, ex adverso, præstantissima quæque celari voluit. Scire nempe nos voluit esse se, et clàm divitem, et palàm beneficum. Si unoquoque Dei dono, suo genere ac loco, parùm utamur; amittit Deus debitas gratias, nos fructum et beneficium.

CXXIX. De arboribus duabus, altâ unâ, latâ alterâ.

QUE proceriores sunt arbores, rarò admodum expanduntur latiùs; è contrà, rarissima est in latioribus plantis proceritas : ambitione nimiâ laboraret illa plantarum, quæ utroque modo eminere contenderet.

Idem et hominibus usuvenit. Avarus, cui divitiæ maximo in pretio sunt quique ad metalla sese damnavit, ultrò honoris adsequi fastigium parùm curat: ex adverso, superbus, cujus animus honoribus ambiendis totus incumbit, præ his, divitias facilè aspernatur. Est quidem humilis frutex in valle subsidens, qui neque procerus neque amplus est, neutri tamen invidet, utroque longè fœlicior. Procerior nempe hæc arbor, ædificiis struendis exscinditur; latior verò illa, alendo igni resecatur; adde, quòd tempestatibus utraque magis sit obnoxia : dum arbustum humilius à venti invidiâ et securis ictu, securum usque crescit; magisque fovetur indies, ut pastori decumbenti tantillum umbræ præbeat. Esto in summâ dignitate gloria, sua est mediocritati securitas. Ne mihi invidiam moveat unquam illorum optio, qui malètuti malunt esse, quàm inglorii.

CXXX. Ad conspectum ebrii.

FACULTAS longè omnium præstantissima ratio est; et quæ, revera, sola nos à brutis distinguit: sine quâ, quid aliud est homo, quàm brutum bipes? Pretiosa quæque uti teneriora vulgò sunt, tantoque magis periculis obnoxia; ita, præ aliis, ratio: brevis quædam aypurvía, febris violentia, unumve plus æquo poculum, totam disturbat distrahitque. Quid de hoc

we make of this thing? man, I cannot call him. He hath shape; so hath a dead corpse, as well as he: he hath life; so bath a beast, as well as he reason, either for the time he hath not; or, if he have it he hath it so depraved and marred for the exercise of it, that brutishness is much less ill-beseeming. Surely, the natural bestiality is so much less odious than the moral, as there is difference in the causes of both: that is of God's making; this, of our own: it is no shame to the beast, that God hath made him so; it is a just shame to a man, that he hath made himself a beast.

CXXXI. On the whetting of a scythe.

RECREATION is intended to the mind, as whetting is to the scythe; to sharpen the edge of it, which otherwise would grow dull and blunt. He, therefore, that spends his whole. time in recreation, is ever whetting, never mowing: his grass may grow, and his steed starve. As, contrarily, he, that always toils and never recreates, is ever mowing, never whetting; labouring much_to_little_purpose: as good no scythe, as no edge. Then only doth the work go forward, when the scythe is so seasonably and moderately whetted, that it may cut; and so cuts, that it may have the help of sharpening. I would so interchange, that I neither be dull with work, nor idle and wanton with recreation.

CXXXII. On the sight of a looking-glass,

WHEN I look in another man's face, I see that man; and that man sees me, as I do him: but, when I look in my glass, I do not see myself; I see only an image or representation of myself: howsoever it is like me, yet it is not I. It is for an ignorant child, to look behind the glass; to find out the babe, that he seeth: I know it is not there; and that the resemblance varies, according to the dimness or different fashion of the glass.

At our best, we do but thus see God, here below. One sees him more clearly; another, more obscurely: but all, in a glass. Hereafter, we shall see him, not as he appears, but as he is: so shall we see him in the face, as he sees us: the face of our glorified spirits shall see the glorious face of him, who is the God of Spirits. In the mean time, the proudest dame shall not more ply her glass, to look upon that face of hers, which she thinks beautiful; than I shall gaze upon the clearest glass of my thoughts, to see that face of God, which I know to be infinitely fair and glorious.

animali, homo certè quidem non est, tandem dicemus? Externam adhuc formam habet; habet et cadaver, æquè perfectam: vitam sortitur insuper; sortitur æquè et brutum: rationem, aut pro tempore penitùs perdidit; aut, saltem ita prorsùs, quoad exercitium corrupit vitiavitque, ut ipsa, fas mihi sic loqui, brutalitas multò minùs dedeceat. Certè, bestia naturalis, eo est morali minùs odiosa, quo causæ utriusque differunt magis: illum Deus ipse fecit; hanc, nos quidem ipsi: nihil est, quod brutum pudeat sic fuisse conditum; hominem autem est, quod maximè dispudeat in brutum turpiter degenerâsse.

CXXXI. Viso messore falcem coticulâ exacuente.

OTIUM ludusque animo, ut cos falci, aciei scilicet quæ nimis aliter hebesceret exacuendæ, inservire et solet et debet. Quisquis, itaque, totum temporis sui ludo otiove impendit, semper exacuit, nunquam metit: floridum illi fortè gramen est, equus famelicus. Quique, è contrà, sine intermissione ullâ laboribus desudat, metit ille semper, exacuit nunquam; multum operæ nequicquam perdens: quid enim juvat falx, cui deest acies? Tum demum res benè succedit, cùm ita tempestivè ac moderatè falx acuitur, ut scindere possit; atque ita scindit, ut cote interim indigeat. Sic mihi intermutentur vices, ut neque hebescam labore, nec otio nimio torpeam.

CXXXII. Admoto speculo.

CUM alterius faciem intueor, hominem video; qui et me vicissim, æquè videt: at, cùm speculum inspicio, mei tantùm imaginem, per omnia quidem mihi persimilem, video; meipsum interea non video. Puerorum est, puerulum, quem vident, pone speculum latentem quærere: ego nihil ibi subesse sat novi; sed et similitudinem quoque variari, juxta vel obscuritatem vel formam speculi variam.

Cùm vel optimè sumus dispositi, non aliter nos Deum, in terris, videre possumus. Hic quidem clariùs ipsum videt; obscuriùs, ille: uterque, in speculo tamen. In cœlis, Deum videbimus, non uti apparet, sed ut revera est: faciem ejus intuebimur, quemadmodum et ille nostram: spiritûs nostri glorificata facies, gloriosissimam illius faciem, qui est Spirituum Deus, liberè intuebitur. Interea temporis, non frequentiùs fixis in speculum oculis hærebit fæminarum superbissima, vultum, quem ipsa credit formosissimum, curiosè speculando; quàm ego clarissimum cogitationum mearum speculum oculis usurpabo meis, ut vultum illum Dei contempler, quem infinitè pulchrum et splendidum esse novi.

CXXXIII. On the shining of a piece of rotten wood.

How bright doth this wood shine! When it is in the fire, it will not so beam forth, as it doth in this cold darkness. What an emblem is here of our future estate! This piece, while it grew in the tree, shone not at all: now, that it is putrified, it casts forth this pleasing lustre.

Thus it is with us: while we live here, we neither are nor seem other than miserable; when we are dead once, then begins our glory then doth the soul shine in the brightness of heavenly glory; then doth our good name shine upon earth, in those beams, which, before, envy had either held in or overcast. Why are we so over-desirous of our growth, when we may be thus advantaged, by our rottenness?

CXXXIV. On an ivy-tree.

BEHOLD a true emblem of false love. Here are kind embracements, but deadly: how close doth this weed cling unto that oak, and seems to hug and shade it! but, in the mean time, draws away the sap; and, at last, kills it.

Such is a harlot's love: such is a parasite's. Give me that love and friendship, which is between the vine and the elm; whereby, the elm is no whit worse, and the vine much the better. That wholesome and noble plant doth not so close wind itself about the tree that upholds it, as to gall the bark, or to suck away the moisture: and, again, the elm yields a beneficial supportation to that weak, though generous, plant. As God, so wise men, know to measure love, not by profession and compliment, which is commonly most high and vehement in the falsest, but by reality of performance. He is no enemy, that hurts me not: I am not his friend, whom I desire not to benefit.

CXXXV. On a quartan ague.

I HAVE known, when those things, which have made a healthful man sick, have been the means of making a sick man whole. The quartan hath of old been justly styled the shame of physicians; yet, I have more than once observed it to be cured by a surfeit. One devil is sometime used, for the ejection of another.

Thus have I also seen it, in the sickness of the soul. The same God, whose justice is wont to punish sin with sin, even his mercy doth so use the matter, that he cures one sin by another. So have we known a proud man healed, by the shame of his uncleanness; a furious man healed, by a rash bloodshed.

CXXXIII. Viso ligni cariosi splendore.

QUAM clarè micat lignum istud! In foco, non ita radiabit, ac jam modò sub mediis tenebris facit. Quàm pulchrum hic est futuræ conditionis nostræ emblema! Quamdiu lignum hoc arbori concreverat, nihil quicquam splenduit: jam verò, putrefactum, fulgorem illico et lucem emittit.

Ita nos homines, quamdiu vitam istìc degimus, toti et sumus et videmur miseri; non citiùs morti cessimus, quàm gloria nostra statim elucere cæperit: ecce tunc, et cælestis gloriæ fulgore coruscat anima; et nomen nostrum, in terris superstes, radios illos liberè emittit, quos, antea aut prorsùs suppresserat invidia, aut saltem obfuscârat. Quìd nunc ita crescere nimis discupimus, cùm nos, ex ipsâ quidem putredine, tantum lucrari constiterit.

CXXXIV. Visá hederá.

ECCE istic fucati amoris verum emblema. Blandi hi sunt, sed fatales amplexus: quàm intimè herba hæc quercui se adjungit, arctequè amplexa umbram præbet non ingratam! dum, interea, succum illi suffuratur clanculùm; vitamque, tandem, exugit.

Talis est meretricis affectus: talis et parasiti. Da mihi veram mutuamque vitis et ulmi amicitiam; eam scilicet, quâ et viti melius sit, et ulmo nihilo pejus. Salutaris illa nobilisque planta suffulcientem arborem non adeò rudibus ulmis circumplectitur, ut corticem lædere possit, succumve exhaurire: ulmus, è contrà, debilem quidem illam, at generosam tamen, alumnam benignè sustinet. Ut Deus, ita et homines, satis nôrunt, amorem, non ex merâ professione externisque ceremoniis, quæ vel simulatoribus excidunt sæpenumerò calidiores, sed ex ipsis actionibus, æstimare. Ille mihi inimicus non est, qui nocere nollet: nec ego illi amicus, cui non cupiam benefacere.

CXXXV. De febre quartana.

EXPERTUS Sum aliquando, ea ipsa, quibus morbum contrahit sanus, media etiam fuisse, quibus ægrotus sanaretur. Febris quartana medicorum opprobium olim, nec immeritò, audiit; quam tamen, merâ crapulâ, non semel sede suâ pulsam observavi. Est ubi dæmonum unus, alterius ejectioni operam elocat.

Sed et idem etiam, in animæ morbis comperi. Idem Deus, cujus justitia peccatum peccato plectere solet, non rarò etiam, mirificè operante ipsius miserecordiâ, peccatum etiam peccato, justissimè tamen, medetur. Sic superbum turpissimæ, in quam inciderat, libidinis, pudore conversum aliquando novimus; sicfuriosè iracundum, temero quodam homicidio cicuratum vidit

VO L. XI.

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