No More Learning

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.


1118. NO DANGER TO MEN DESPERATE.

When fear admits no hope of safety, then
Necessity makes dastards valiant men.


1119. SAUCE FOR SORROWS.

Although our suffering meet with no relief,
_An equal mind is the best sauce for grief_.


1120. TO CUPID.

I have a leaden, thou a shaft of gold;
Thou kill'st with heat, and I strike dead with cold.
Let's try of us who shall the first expire;
Or thou by frost, or I by quenchless fire:
_Extremes are fatal where they once do strike,
And bring to th' heart destruction both alike_.


1121. DISTRUST.

Whatever men for loyalty pretend,
_'Tis wisdom's part to doubt a faithful friend_.


1123. THE MOUNT OF THE MUSES.