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harmfulness to an everlasting qui innocentiam nostram caula slaughter. Onwards, if they assignavit, eorumque nequitiam climb higher than we; and feed perpetuæ, quam meriti sunt, upon those craggy cliffs, which cliffs, which laniena. Interim verò scandant we dare scarce reach to with illi, quantum lubet; celsissimè, our eyes; their boldness is not præruptisque in montibus, quos greater than their danger, neither vix quidem nos oculis audemus is their ascent more perilous than attingere, securè pascantur; non their ruin deadly. est audacia ipsorum periculo suo major, nec ascensus præceps magis quàm ruina certa deploranda.

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HERE is a true natural commerce

of senses. legs; the lame man hath eyes: the lame man lends his eyes to the blind; the blind man lends his legs to the lame; and now both of them move, where otherwise both must sit still and perish. It is hard to say, whether is more beholden to other: the one gives strength, the other direction; both of them equally necessary to motion.

The blind man hath

Though it be not in other cases so sensible, yet surely this very traffic of faculties is that, whereby we live; neither could the world subsist without it: one man lends a brain; another, an arm: one, a tongue; another, a hand. He, that knows wherefore he made all, hath taken order, to improve every part to the benefit of the whole. What do I wish ought that is not useful? And if there be any thing in me, that may serve to the good of others, it is not mine, but the Church's. I cannot live, but by others: it were injurious, if others should not likewise share with me.

Caco et claudo unà conspectis. VERUM istìc est et naturale sensuum commercium. Cæco pedes sunt; claudo, oculi: claudus cæco oculos commodat; cæcus claudo pedes; jamque movet uterque, aliter verò quiescant ambo pereantque necesse est. Uter horum plus alteri debeat, nescio: hic vires dat, ille viam dirigit; utrunque motui æquè necessarium.

Certè, ipsum hoc facultatum commercium, etsi aliis in rebus non ita liquidò pateat, illud est, quo vivimus; et siue quo, ne mundus quidem posset subsistere: hic cerebrum affert; ille, brachium: linguam, hic; ille, manum. Qui solus novit cur ista omnia creaverit, ita etiam singula disposuit, ut unaquæque pars communi totius universi beneficio aliquid conferat. Quorsum optarim ego inutile quicquam? Si quid verò in me sit, quod aliorum bono inserviat, non meum est, ilicet, sed Ecclesia. Absque aliorum ope, vivere non possum: injurius essem, nisi me aliis itidem æquè communi

carem.

On the sight of a map of the world. CXXVI. Visá tabulâ orbis geographicâ.

WHAT a poor little spot is a country! A man may hide with his thumb, the great territories of those, that would be accounted Monarchs. In vain, should the great Cham, or the great Mogul, or Prester John, seek here for his court: it is well, if he can find his kingdom, amongst these parcels. And, if we take all together, these shreds of islands and these patches of continent, what a mere indivisible point they are, in comparison of that vast circle of heaven, wherewith they are encompassed!

It is not easy for a man to be known to that whole land wherein he lives: but if he could be so famous, the next country perhaps never hears of his name: and, if he can attain to be talked of there, yet the remoter parts cannot take notice that there is such a thing: and if they did all speak of nothing else, what were he the better? O the narrow bounds of earthly glory! O the vain affection of human applause! Only that man is happily famous, who is known and recorded in heaven.,

Quàm minutula est, parvæque lituræ similis, regio aliqua tota! Magna eorum imperia, qui Monarchæ audire volunt, facilè quis vel pollice uno tegat. Frustrà, hic aulam sibi quærat magnus ille Tartarorum Chamus, Mogores Indus, aut Ethiopum, quisquis est, Imperator: satis est, si regnum quisque suum, inter tot orbis segmina, indigitare possit. Et, si insularum ista fragmenta continentisque insuper minutiæ in unum colligantur, quàm nihil aliud sunt hæc omnia nisi punctum indivisibile, præ vasto cœli ambitu, quo cinguntur universa!

Haud facile homini est patriæ suæ toti innotescere: quòd si forsan eò usque fama ipsius pertingere possit, terræ tamen vicinæ nomen ejus prorsùs inauditum est: vel, si et illic per hominum ora volitare meruerit, partes saltem remotiores tale quiddam esse in rerum naturâ penitùs ignorant: tandem verò si demus, quod tamen nemo unquam mortalium assecutus est, uno omnium ore solum celebrari, quanto interim est ille reliquis melior beatiorve? O angustos terrenæ gloria fines! O inanem popularis auræ captationem! Solus ille, demum, verè faliciterque celebris est, cujus nomen cœlo et notum est et inscriptum.

CXXVII.

On the sight of hemlock. THERE is no creature of itself evil: misapplication may make the best so: and there is a good use to be made of the worst. This weed, which is too well proved to be poisonous, yet to the goat is medicinal; as serving, by the coldness of it, to

Ad conspectum cicuta. NULLA creaturarum ex se suâque naturâ mala est: applicatione quidem sinistrà, vel optima quæque fit mala: uti et, è contrà, pessima fieri potest usu salutaris. Herba hæc, quam nimia experientia venenosam probavit, capro tamen benignum satis

temper the feverous heat of that beast. So we see the marmoset eating of spiders; both for pleasure and cure.

Our ignorance may not bring a scandal upon God's workmanship; or, if it do, his wisdom knows how, to make a good use even of our injury. I cannot say, but the very venom of the creatures is to excellent purpose: how much more their beneficial qualities! If ought hurt us, the fault is ours; in mistaking the evil for good: in the mean time, we owe praise to the Maker, and to the creature a just and thankful allowance.

pharmacum est; quippe quæ, frigiditate nimiâ, febricitantis animalis calorem optimè temperet. Ita cercopithecus araneas liberè comedit; dapes hinc sibi parans et remedia.

Non est quòd ignorantia nostra opificio Dei contumeliam inferat; vel, si nos istoc ausi, satis novit summa ipsius sapientia, hoc, quicquid est injuriæ, in bonum sibi convertere. Indubium 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 aquam gratamque comprobationem, debemus.

CXXVIII.

On a flower-de-luce. THIS flower is but unpleasingly fulsome for scent; but the root of it is so fragrant, that the delicatest ladies are glad to put it into their sweet bags: contrarily, the rose tree hath a sweet flower, but a savourless root: and the saffron yields an odoriferous and cordial spire, while both the flower and the root are unpleasing. It is with vegetables, as with metals.

God never meant to have his best always in view: neither meant he to have all eminences concealed. He would have us to know him, to be both secretly rich, and openly bountiful. If we do not use every grace in its own kind, God loses the thanks, and we the benefit,

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 uno quoque Dei dono, suo genere ac loco, parùm utamur; amittit Deus debitas gratias, nos fructum et beneficium,

On the sight of two trees, one high, the other broad.

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

THOSE trees, that shoot up in height, are seldom broad; as, contrarily, those trees, that are spreading, are seldom tall: it were too much ambition in that plant, which would be both ways eminent.

Thus it is with men. The covetous man, that affects to spread in wealth, seldom cares to aspire unto height of honour: the proud man, whose heart is set upon preferment, regards not, in comparison thereof, the growth of his wealth. There is a poor shrub in a valley, that is neither tall nor broad, nor cares to be either, which speeds better than they both. The tall tree is cut down, for timber; the broad tree is lopped, for fire-wood; besides, that the tempest hath power on them both whereas the low shrub is neither envied by the wind, nor threatened by the axe; but fostered rather, for that little shelter which it affords the shepherd. If there be glory in greatness, meanness hath security. Let me never envy their diet, that would rather be unsafe, than inglorious.

.

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 igui 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.

On the sight of a drunken man. REASON is an excellent faculty; and, indeed, that, which alone differenceth us from brute creatures: without which, what is man, but a two-legged beast? And, as all precious things are tender, and subject to miscarriage; so is this, above others: the want of some little sleep,

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

:

the violence of a fever, or one cup too much, puts it into utter distemper. What can 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 hath 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.

violentia, unumve plus æquo poculum, totam disturbat distrahitque. Quid de hoc animali, homo certè quidem non est, tandem dicemus? Externam adhuc formam habet; habet et cadaver, aquè 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.

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.

Viso messore falcem coticula

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.

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