No More Learning

What others have with cheapness seen and ease
In varnish'd maps, by th' help of compasses,
Or read in volumes and those books with all
Their large narrations incanonical,
Thou hast beheld those seas and countries far,
And tell'st to us what once they were, and are.
So that with bold truth thou can'st now relate
This kingdom's fortune, and that empire's fate:
Can'st talk to us of Sharon, where a spring
Of roses have an endless flourishing;
Of Sion, Sinai, Nebo, and with them
Make known to us the new Jerusalem;
The Mount of Olives, Calvary, and where
Is, and hast seen, thy Saviour's sepulchre.
So that the man that will but lay his ears
As inapostate to the thing he hears,
Shall by his hearing quickly come to see
The truth of travels less in books than thee.

_Large_, exaggerated.
_Incanonical_, untrustworthy.


1101. THE VOICE AND VIOL.

Rare is the voice itself: but when we sing
To th' lute or viol, then 'tis ravishing.


1102. WAR.

If kings and kingdoms once distracted be,
The sword of war must try the sovereignty


1103. A KING AND NO KING.

_That prince who may do nothing but what's just,
Rules but by leave, and takes his crown on trust. _


1104. PLOTS NOT STILL PROSPEROUS.
All are not ill plots that do sometimes fail;
Nor those false vows which ofttimes don't prevail.


1105. FLATTERY.

What is't that wastes a prince? example shows,
'Tis flattery spends a king, more than his foes.


1109. EXCESS.

Excess is sluttish: keep the mean; for why?
Virtue's clean conclave is sobriety.

_Conclave_, guard.


1111. THE SOUL IS THE SALT.

The body's salt the soul is; which when gone,
The flesh soon sucks in putrefaction.


1117. ABSTINENCE.

Against diseases here the strongest fence
Is the defensive virtue, abstinence.