But flattery is a fine pick-lock of tender ears; especially of those whom
fortune hath borne high upon their wings, that submit their dignity and
authority to it, by a soothing of themselves.
fortune hath borne high upon their wings, that submit their dignity and
authority to it, by a soothing of themselves.
Ben Jonson - Discoveries Made Upon Men, and Some Poems
Their
arguments are as fluxive as liquor spilt upon a table, which with your
finger you may drain as you will. Such controversies or disputations
(carried with more labour than profit) are odious; where most times the
truth is lost in the midst or left untouched. And the fruit of their
fight is, that they spit one upon another, and are both defiled. These
fencers in religion I like not.
_Morbi_. --The body hath certain diseases that are with less evil tolerated
than removed. As if to cure a leprosy a man should bathe himself with
the warm blood of a murdered child, so in the Church some errors may be
dissimuled with less inconvenience than they can be discovered.
_Jactantia intempestiva_. --Men that talk of their own benefits are not
believed to talk of them because they have done them; but to have done
them because they might talk of them. That which had been great, if
another had reported it of them, vanisheth, and is nothing, if he that
did it speak of it. For men, when they cannot destroy the deed, will yet
be glad to take advantage of the boasting, and lessen it.
_Adulatio_. --I have seen that poverty makes me do unfit things; but honest
men should not do them; they should gain otherwise. Though a man be
hungry, he should not play the parasite. That hour wherein I would
repent me to be honest, there were ways enough open for me to be rich.
But flattery is a fine pick-lock of tender ears; especially of those whom
fortune hath borne high upon their wings, that submit their dignity and
authority to it, by a soothing of themselves. For, indeed, men could
never be taken in that abundance with the springes of others' flattery,
if they began not there; if they did but remember how much more
profitable the bitterness of truth were, than all the honey distilling
from a whorish voice, which is not praise, but poison. But now it is
come to that extreme folly, or rather madness, with some, that he that
flatters them modestly or sparingly is thought to malign them. If their
friend consent not to their vices, though he do not contradict them, he
is nevertheless an enemy. When they do all things the worst way, even
then they look for praise. Nay, they will hire fellows to flatter them
with suits and suppers, and to prostitute their judgments. They have
livery-friends, friends of the dish, and of the spit, that wait their
turns, as my lord has his feasts and guests.
_De vita humana_. --I have considered our whole life is like a play:
wherein every man forgetful of himself, is in travail with expression of
another. Nay, we so insist in imitating others, as we cannot when it is
necessary return to ourselves; like children, that imitate the vices of
stammerers so long, till at last they become such; and make the habit to
another nature, as it is never forgotten.
_De piis et probis_. --Good men are the stars, the planets of the ages
wherein they live and illustrate the times. God did never let them be
wanting to the world: as Abel, for an example of innocency, Enoch of
purity, Noah of trust in God's mercies, Abraham of faith, and so of the
rest. These, sensual men thought mad because they would not be partakers
or practisers of their madness. But they, placed high on the top of all
virtue, looked down on the stage of the world and contemned the play of
fortune. For though the most be players, some must be spectators.
arguments are as fluxive as liquor spilt upon a table, which with your
finger you may drain as you will. Such controversies or disputations
(carried with more labour than profit) are odious; where most times the
truth is lost in the midst or left untouched. And the fruit of their
fight is, that they spit one upon another, and are both defiled. These
fencers in religion I like not.
_Morbi_. --The body hath certain diseases that are with less evil tolerated
than removed. As if to cure a leprosy a man should bathe himself with
the warm blood of a murdered child, so in the Church some errors may be
dissimuled with less inconvenience than they can be discovered.
_Jactantia intempestiva_. --Men that talk of their own benefits are not
believed to talk of them because they have done them; but to have done
them because they might talk of them. That which had been great, if
another had reported it of them, vanisheth, and is nothing, if he that
did it speak of it. For men, when they cannot destroy the deed, will yet
be glad to take advantage of the boasting, and lessen it.
_Adulatio_. --I have seen that poverty makes me do unfit things; but honest
men should not do them; they should gain otherwise. Though a man be
hungry, he should not play the parasite. That hour wherein I would
repent me to be honest, there were ways enough open for me to be rich.
But flattery is a fine pick-lock of tender ears; especially of those whom
fortune hath borne high upon their wings, that submit their dignity and
authority to it, by a soothing of themselves. For, indeed, men could
never be taken in that abundance with the springes of others' flattery,
if they began not there; if they did but remember how much more
profitable the bitterness of truth were, than all the honey distilling
from a whorish voice, which is not praise, but poison. But now it is
come to that extreme folly, or rather madness, with some, that he that
flatters them modestly or sparingly is thought to malign them. If their
friend consent not to their vices, though he do not contradict them, he
is nevertheless an enemy. When they do all things the worst way, even
then they look for praise. Nay, they will hire fellows to flatter them
with suits and suppers, and to prostitute their judgments. They have
livery-friends, friends of the dish, and of the spit, that wait their
turns, as my lord has his feasts and guests.
_De vita humana_. --I have considered our whole life is like a play:
wherein every man forgetful of himself, is in travail with expression of
another. Nay, we so insist in imitating others, as we cannot when it is
necessary return to ourselves; like children, that imitate the vices of
stammerers so long, till at last they become such; and make the habit to
another nature, as it is never forgotten.
_De piis et probis_. --Good men are the stars, the planets of the ages
wherein they live and illustrate the times. God did never let them be
wanting to the world: as Abel, for an example of innocency, Enoch of
purity, Noah of trust in God's mercies, Abraham of faith, and so of the
rest. These, sensual men thought mad because they would not be partakers
or practisers of their madness. But they, placed high on the top of all
virtue, looked down on the stage of the world and contemned the play of
fortune. For though the most be players, some must be spectators.
