Contraries
are not mixed.
Ben Jonson - Discoveries Made Upon Men, and Some Poems
M.
SYLVA
_Rerum et sententiarum quasi ? ? ? dicta a multiplici materia et varietate
in iis contenta_. _Quemadmodum enim vulgo solemus infinitam arborum
nascentium indiscriminatim multitudinem Sylvam dicere: ita etiam libros
suos in quibus variae et diversae materiae opuscula temere congesta erant_,
Sylvas _appellabant antiqui_: Timber-trees.
TIMBER;
OR,
DISCOVERIES MADE UPON MEN AND MATTER,
AS THEY HAVE FLOWED OUT OF HIS DAILY READINGS,
OR HAD THEIR REFLUX TO HIS PECULIAR
NOTION OF THE TIMES.
_Tecum habita_, _ut noris quam sit tibi curta supellex_ {11}
PERS. Sat. 4.
_Fortuna_. --Ill fortune never crushed that man whom good fortune deceived
not. I therefore have counselled my friends never to trust to her fairer
side, though she seemed to make peace with them; but to place all things
she gave them, so as she might ask them again without their trouble, she
might take them from them, not pull them: to keep always a distance
between her and themselves. He knows not his own strength that hath not
met adversity. Heaven prepares good men with crosses; but no ill can
happen to a good man.
Contraries are not mixed. Yet that which happens
to any man may to every man. But it is in his reason, what he accounts
it and will make it.
_Casus_. --Change into extremity is very frequent and easy. As when a
beggar suddenly grows rich, he commonly becomes a prodigal; for, to
obscure his former obscurity, he puts on riot and excess.
_Consilia_. --No man is so foolish but may give another good counsel
sometimes; and no man is so wise but may easily err, if he will take no
others' counsel but his own. But very few men are wise by their own
counsel, or learned by their own teaching. For he that was only taught
by himself {12} had a fool to his master.
_Fama_. --A Fame that is wounded to the world would be better cured by
another's apology than its own: for few can apply medicines well
themselves. Besides, the man that is once hated, both his good and his
evil deeds oppress him. He is not easily emergent.
_Negotia_. --In great affairs it is a work of difficulty to please all.
SYLVA
_Rerum et sententiarum quasi ? ? ? dicta a multiplici materia et varietate
in iis contenta_. _Quemadmodum enim vulgo solemus infinitam arborum
nascentium indiscriminatim multitudinem Sylvam dicere: ita etiam libros
suos in quibus variae et diversae materiae opuscula temere congesta erant_,
Sylvas _appellabant antiqui_: Timber-trees.
TIMBER;
OR,
DISCOVERIES MADE UPON MEN AND MATTER,
AS THEY HAVE FLOWED OUT OF HIS DAILY READINGS,
OR HAD THEIR REFLUX TO HIS PECULIAR
NOTION OF THE TIMES.
_Tecum habita_, _ut noris quam sit tibi curta supellex_ {11}
PERS. Sat. 4.
_Fortuna_. --Ill fortune never crushed that man whom good fortune deceived
not. I therefore have counselled my friends never to trust to her fairer
side, though she seemed to make peace with them; but to place all things
she gave them, so as she might ask them again without their trouble, she
might take them from them, not pull them: to keep always a distance
between her and themselves. He knows not his own strength that hath not
met adversity. Heaven prepares good men with crosses; but no ill can
happen to a good man.
Contraries are not mixed. Yet that which happens
to any man may to every man. But it is in his reason, what he accounts
it and will make it.
_Casus_. --Change into extremity is very frequent and easy. As when a
beggar suddenly grows rich, he commonly becomes a prodigal; for, to
obscure his former obscurity, he puts on riot and excess.
_Consilia_. --No man is so foolish but may give another good counsel
sometimes; and no man is so wise but may easily err, if he will take no
others' counsel but his own. But very few men are wise by their own
counsel, or learned by their own teaching. For he that was only taught
by himself {12} had a fool to his master.
_Fama_. --A Fame that is wounded to the world would be better cured by
another's apology than its own: for few can apply medicines well
themselves. Besides, the man that is once hated, both his good and his
evil deeds oppress him. He is not easily emergent.
_Negotia_. --In great affairs it is a work of difficulty to please all.
