Virtue's clean
conclave
is sobriety.
Robert Herrick
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.
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.