_Still take advice; though counsels, when they fly
At random, sometimes hit most happily.
At random, sometimes hit most happily.
Robert Herrick
Which known, let us make
Joy-sops with the cake;
And let not a man then be seen here,
Who unurg'd will not drink
To the base from the brink
A health to the king and the queen here.
Next crown the bowl full
With gentle lamb's wool:
Add sugar, nutmeg, and ginger,
With store of ale too;
And thus ye must do
To make the wassail a swinger.
Give then to the king
And queen wassailing:
And though with ale ye be whet here,
Yet part ye from hence,
As free from offence
As when ye innocent met here.
1036. HIS DESIRE.
Give me a man that is not dull
When all the world with rifts is full;
But unamaz'd dares clearly sing,
Whenas the roof's a-tottering:
And, though it falls, continues still
Tickling the cittern with his quill.
_Cittern_, a kind of lute; _quill_, the plectrum for striking it.
1037. CAUTION IN COUNSEL.
Know when to speak; for many times it brings
Danger to give the best advice to kings.
1038. MODERATION.
Let moderation on thy passions wait;
Who loves too much, too much the lov'd will hate.
1039. ADVICE THE BEST ACTOR.
_Still take advice; though counsels, when they fly
At random, sometimes hit most happily. _
1040. CONFORMITY IS COMELY.
_Conformity gives comeliness to things:
And equal shares exclude all murmurings. _
1041. LAWS.
Who violates the customs, hurts the health,
Not of one man, but all the commonwealth.
1042. THE MEAN.
'Tis much among the filthy to be clean;
_Our heat of youth can hardly keep the mean_.
1043. LIKE LOVES HIS LIKE.
Like will to like, each creature loves his kind;
Chaste words proceed still from a bashful mind.
1044. HIS HOPE OR SHEET ANCHOR.
Among these tempests great and manifold
My ship has here one only anchor-hold;
That is my hope, which if that slip, I'm one
Wildered in this vast wat'ry region.
