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If we shall stand still,
In fear our motion will be mock'd or carp'd at,
We should take root here where we sit, or sit
State statues only.

577

Mildness to be used in differences.

25-i. 2.

That which combined us was most great, and let not
A leaner action rend us. What's amiss,

May it be gently heard: When we debate
Our trivial difference loud, we do commit
Murder in healing wounds: Then,

Touch you the sourest points with sweetest terms,
Nor curstness grow to the matter.

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30-ii. 2.

Now, for the love of Love, and her soft hours,
Let's not confound† the time with conference harsh:
There's not a minute of our lives should stretch
Without some pleasure now.

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30-i. 1.

May'st thou have the spirit of persuasion, and he the ears of profiting, that what thou speakest may move, and what he hears may be believed.

580

Ingratitude, how extinguished.

We sent to thee; to give thy rages balm,
To wipe out our ingratitude with loves
Above their quantity.

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18-i. 2.

27-v. 5.

Let your best love draw to that point, which seeks
Best to preserve it.

582

30-iii. 4.

Reason to be regarded.

Do not banish reason

For inequality: but let your reason serve

To make the truth appear, where it seems hid;
And hide the false, seems true.

* Let not ill-humour be added.

Their refers to rages.

† Censure.

5-v. 1.

§ Apparent inconsistency.

583 Praise to be bestowed seasonably.

Praise us as we are tasted, allow us as we prove; our head shall go bare, till merit crown it: no perfection in reversion shall have a praise in present: we will not name desert, before his birth; and, being born, his addition* shall be humble.

26-iii. 2. 584

Injuries. We thought not good to bruise an injury, till it were full ripe.

20-iii. 6. 585 Passion allayed by reason.

Be advised :
I say again, there is no English soul
More stronger to direct you than yourself,
If with the sap of reason you would quench,
Or but allay, the fire of passion.

25–1. 1. 586

Suspicion.

If I mistake
In those foundations which I build upon,
The centret is not big enough to bear
A schoolboy's top.

13-ü. 1. 587

The exuberance of lenity.

This too much lenity
And harmful pity, must be laid aside.
To whom do lions cast their gentle looks?
Not to the beast that would usurp their den.
Whose hand is that the forest bear doth lick?
Not his, that spoils her young before her face.
Who 'scapes the lurking serpent's mortal sting?
Not he, that sets his foot upon her back.
The smallest worm will turn, being trodden on;
And doves will peck, in safeguard of their brood.

23-ii. 2. 588

Humanity.
I love not to see wretchedness o'ercharged,
And duty in his service perishing.

7-v. 1.

* Title. ti.e. If the proofs which I can offer will not support the opinion I have formed, no foundation can be trusted.

589

Honour and policy. Honour and policy, like unsevered friends, I'the war do grow together: Grant that, and tell me, In peace, what each of them by th' other lose, That they combine not there.

28-iii. 2.

590

Drunkenness. Drinking : I could well wish courtesy would invent some other custom of entertainment. 37-ii. 3.

591

The necessity of repose.
These should be hours for necessities,
Not for delights; times to repair our nature
With comforting repose, and not for us
To waste.

25-v.1. 592

Honour.

See, that you come Not to woo honour, but to wed it.

11-ii. 1. 593

Justice to self.
Believe not thy disdain, but presently
Do thine own fortunes that obedient right,
Which thy duty owes.

11-ii. 3. 594

Honour disinterested.
If you shall cleave to my consent,*-when 'tis,
It shall make honour for you.-

So I lose none,
In seeking to augment it, but still keep
My bosom franchised, and allegiance clear,
I shall be counsell’d.

15-ii. 1. 595

Caution in choosing friends. Where you are liberal of your loves, and counsels, Be sure, you be not loose : for those you make friends, And give your hearts to, when they once perceive The least rub in your fortunes, fall away Like water from ye, never found again But where they mean to sink ye.

25-ii. 1.

* Cleave to me constant.

596

Honesty misinterpreted.

If 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.

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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 !*

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7—i. 1.

5—v. 1.

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

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

602

The necessity of mental cultivation.

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.

Forbearance.

22-iii. 1.

603

Now we have shown our power,

Let us seem humbler after it is done,

Than when it was a doing.

* False appearance, hypocrisy.

28-iv. 2.

604

Self-inspection. 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,t 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 quickenț 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.

606

Action and elocution. 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-jii. 2. 607

The mirror of nature. Hold, as 'twere, the mirror up to nature; to show virtue her own feature, scorn her own image, and

* 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.

| Harsh rules. Perhaps it should be ethics instead of checks. | Animate.

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