'Tis a known principle in war,
The eyes be first that conquered are.
The eyes be first that conquered are.
Robert Herrick
But if horror cannot slake
Flames which would an entrance make
Then the next thing I desire
Is, to love and live i' th' fire.
_An end_, on end.
287. REVERENCE TO RICHES.
Like to the income must be our expense;
_Man's fortune must be had in reverence_.
288. DEVOTION MAKES THE DEITY.
_Who forms a godhead out of gold or stone
Makes not a god, but he that prays to one. _
289. TO ALL YOUNG MEN THAT LOVE.
I could wish you all who love,
That ye could your thoughts remove
From your mistresses, and be
Wisely wanton, like to me,
I could wish you dispossessed
Of that _fiend that mars your rest_,
And with tapers comes to fright
Your weak senses in the night.
I could wish ye all who fry
Cold as ice, or cool as I;
But if flames best like ye, then,
Much good do 't ye, gentlemen.
I a merry heart will keep,
While you wring your hands and weep.
290. THE EYES.
'Tis a known principle in war,
The eyes be first that conquered are.
291. NO FAULT IN WOMEN.
No fault in women to refuse
The offer which they most would choose.
No fault in women to confess
How tedious they are in their dress.
No fault in women to lay on
The tincture of vermilion:
And there to give the cheek a dye
Of white, where nature doth deny.
No fault in women to make show
Of largeness when they're nothing so:
(When true it is the outside swells
With inward buckram, little else).
No fault in women, though they be
But seldom from suspicion free.
No fault in womankind at all
If they but slip and never fall.
293. OBERON'S FEAST.
_Shapcot! to thee the fairy state
I, with discretion, dedicate.
Because thou prizest things that are
Curious and unfamiliar.
Take first the feast; these dishes gone,
We'll see the Fairy Court anon. _
A little mushroom table spread,
After short prayers, they set on bread;
A moon-parch'd grain of purest wheat,
With some small glittering grit to eat
His choice bits with; then in a trice
They make a feast less great than nice.