out of the field, and be led captive by our vices ; to beat down our foes, and fall down to our concupiscences; are solecisms in moral schools, and no laurel attends them. To well manage our affections, and wild horses of Plato, are the highest Circenses; and the noblest digladiation is in the theatre of ourselves; for therein our inward antagonists, not only like common gladiators, with ordinary weapons and downright blows make at us, but also like retiary and laqueary combatants, with nets, frauds, and entanglements, fall upon us. Weapons for such combats are not to be forged at Lipara; Vulcan's art doth nothing in this internal militia; wherein not the armour of Achilles, but ⚫ the armature of St. Paul, gives the glorious day, and triumphs not leading up into capitols, but up into the highest heavens. And therefore while so many think it the only valour to command and master others, study thou the dominion of thyself, and quiet thine own commotions. Let right reason be thy Lycurgus, and lift up thy hand unto the law of it; move by the intelligences of the superiour faculties, not by the rapt of passion, nor merely by that of temper and constitution. They who are merely carried on by the wheel of such inclinations,

without the hand and guidance of sovereign reason, are but the automatous part of mankind, rather lived than living, or at least underliving themselves.

XXV. Let not fortune, which hath no name in Scripture, have any in thy divinity. Let Providence, not chance, have the honour of thy acknowledgments, and be thy Edipus in contingencies. Mark well the paths and winding ways thereof; but be not too wise in the construction, or sudden in the application. The hand of Providence writes often by abbreviatures, hieroglyphicks, or short characters, which, like the laconism on the wall, are not to be made out but by a hint or key from that Spirit which indited them. Leave future occurrences to their uncertainties, think that which is present thy own; and since 'tis easier to foretel an eclipse, than a foul day at some distance, look for little regular below. Attend with patience the uncertainty of things, and what lieth yet unexerted in the chaos of futurity. The uncertainty and ignorance of things to come makes the world new unto us by unexpected emergencies; whereby we pass not our days in the trite road of affairs affording no novity; for the novellizing spirit of man lives by variety, and the new faces of things.

XXVI. Though a contented mind enlargeth the dimension of little things, and unto some 'tis wealth enough not to be poor, and others are well content, if they be but rich enough to be honest, and to give every man his due; yet fall not into that obsolete affectation of bravery to throw away thy money, and to reject all honours or honourable stations in this courtly and splendid world. Old generosity is superannuated, and such contempt of the world out of date. No man is now like to refuse the favour of great ones, or be content to say unto princes, stand out of my sun. And if any there be of such antiquated resolutions, they are not like to be tempted out of them by great ones; and 'tis fair if they escape the name of hypochondriacks from the genius of latter times, unto whom contempt of the world is the most contemptible opinion, and to be able, like Bias, to carry all they have about them were to be the eighth wise man. However, the old tetrick philosophers looked always with indignation upon such a face of things, and observing the unnatural current of riches, power, and honour in the world, and withal the imperfection and demerit of persons often advanced unto them, were tempted unto angry opinions, that

affairs were ordered more by stars than reason, and that things went on rather by lottery than election.

XXVII. If thy vessel be but small in the ocean of this world, if meanness of possessions be thy allotment upon earth, forgot not those virtues which the great Disposer of all bids thee to entertain from thy quality and condition, that is, submission, humility, content of mind, and industry. Content may dwell in all stations. To be low, but above contempt, may be high enough to be happy. But many of low degree may be higher than computed, and some cubits above the common commensuration; for in all states virtue gives qualifications, and allowances, which make out defects. Rough diamonds are sometimes mistaken for pebbles, and meanness may be rich in accomplishments which riches in vain desire. If our merits be above our stations, if our intrinsecal value be greater than what we go for, or our value than our valuation, and if we stand higher in God's, than in the censor's book; it may make some equitable balance in the inequalities of this world, and there may be no such vast chasm or gulph between disparities as common measures determine. The divine eye looks upon high and low differently from that of

man.

They who seem to stand upon Olympus, and high mounted unto our eyes, may be but in the valleys, and low ground unto his; for he looks upon those as highest who nearest approach his divinity, and upon those as lowest who are farthest from it.

XXVIII. When thou lookest upon the imperfections of others, allow one eye for what is laudable in them, and the balance they have from some excellency, which may render them considerable. While we look with fear or hatred upon the teeth of the viper, we may behold his eye with love. In venemous natures something may be amiable : poisons afford antipoisons; nothing is totally, or Notable virtues are altogether uselessly bad. sometimes dashed with notorious vices, and in some vicious tempers have been found illustrious acts of virtue; which makes such observable worth in some actions of king Demetrius, Antonius, and Ahab, as are not to be found in the same kind in Aristides, Numa, or David. Constancy, generosity, clemency, and liberality, have been highly conspicuous in some persons not markt out in other But since concerns for example or imitation. goodness is exemplary in all, if others have not our