And as this wit fhould goodness truly know,
We have a will, which that true good fhould chufe,
Though will doth oft (when wit falfe forms doth fhew)
Take ill for good, and good for ill refuse :
Will puts in practice, what the wit devifeth:
Will ever acts, and wit contemplates ftill:
And as from wit, the pow'r of wisdom rifeth,
All other virtues daughters are of will.
Will is the prince, and wit the counsellor,
Which doth for common good in council fit ;`
And when wit is refolv'd, will lends her pow'r
To execute what is advis'd by wit.
Wit is the mind's chief judge, which doth controul
Of fancy's courts the judgments false and vain;
Will holds the royal fcepter in the foul,
And o'er the paffions of the heart doth reign.
Will is as free as any emperor,
Nought can reftrain her gentle liberty : No tyrant, nor no torment hath the pow'r To make us will, when we unwilling be.
We shou'd do, when we would; for this would changes,
And hath abatements and delays as many,
As there are tongues, are hands, are accidents;
And then this fhould, is like a fpend-thrift figh
That hurts by easing.
But orderly to end where I begun,
Our wills and fates do fo contrary run,
That our devices ftill are overthrown;
Our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our own.
My will enkindled by mine eyes and ears,
Two traded pilots 'twixt the dang'rous fhores
Of will and judgment.
Shakespear's Troilus and Creffida.
That fatiate, yet unfatisfy'd defire, (that tub
Both fill'd, and running ;) rav'ning first the lamb,
Longs after, for the garbage.
r. It is not in my virtue to amend it.
2. Virtue a fig: 'tis in ourselves that we
Are thus, or thus. Our bodies are our gardens,
To the which our wills are gardiners: fo
That if we plant nettles, or fow lettice ;
Set hyffop, and weed up thyme; fupply it
With one gender of herbs, or distract it
With many; either have it fteril with
Idlenefs, or manur'd with industry;
Why, the pow'r and corrigible authority
Of this, lies in our will.
Shakespear's Othello.
Humours are man's religion, pow'r his laws;
His wit confufion, and his will the cause.
Lord Brooke's Inquifition on Fame and Honour. What certainty is in our bloods, our flates? What we ftill write, is blotted out by fates: Our wills are like a caufe, that is law-toft, What one court orders, by another's croft.
Middleton's Game at Chefs.
I'll make you know my will is like
A flint, fmooth and cold; but being strucken,
Sparkles forth fire ev'n in the ftriker's eyes.
Cupid's Whirligig.
No grief is grown fo defp'rate, but the ill
Is half way cured, if the party will.
When man is punifh'd, he is plagued ftill,
Not for the fault of nature, but of will.
The wrathful winter hast'ning on apace,
With bluftring blasts had all ybar'd the treen, And old Saturnus with his frofty face
With chilling cold had pierc'd the tender green; The mantles rent wherein enwrapped been The glad fome groves, that now lay overthrown, The tapets torn, and ev'ry tree down blown.
The foil that erft fo feemingly was feen,
Was all defpoiled of her beauty's hue,
And ftole fresh flow'rs (wherewith the fummer's queen
Had clad the earth :) now Boreas blafts down blew,
And small fowls flocking, in their fong did rew
The winter's wrath, wherewith each thing defac'd,
In woful wife bewail'd the fummer past.
Hawthorn had loft his motley livery;
The naked twigs were fhiv'ring all for cold,
And dropping down the tears abundantly;
Each thing (methought) with weeping eye me told
The cruel feason, bidding me withhold
Myfelf within, for I was gotten out
Into the fields, whereas I walk'd about.
Earl of Dorjet in the Mirror for Magiftrates
My age, nor think, 'cause I appear forlorn,
I ferve for no ufe; 'tis my fharper breath
Does purge grofs exhalations from the earth :
My frofts and fnows do purify the air
From choking fogs, make the sky clear and fair:
And though by nature cold and chill I be,
-Yet I am warm in bounteous charity.
John Ford and Thomas Dekker's Sun's Darling.
In winter's time when hardly fed the flocks,
And ificles hung dangling on the rocks ;
When Hyems bound the floods in filver chains,
And hoary frofts had candy'd all the plains;
When ev'ry barn rung with the threshing flails,
And fhepherds boys for cold 'gan blow their nails.
Brown's Paftorals.
-When winter doth the earth array
In filver fuit, and when the night and day
Are in diffention, night locks up the ground,
Which by the help of day is oft unbound.
Fair Flora's pride into the earth again
Was funk: cold winter had begun his reign,
And fummon'd beauteous daylight to restore
To night, thofe hours, which he had ftol'n before.
May's Henry II.
December rag'd, the northern winds did blow,
And by their pow'r had glaz'd the filver flood
Of near adjoyning Thames, whofe waters flood
Congealed ftill; o'er which the fnow around
Had fall'n, and with white fleeces cloath'd the ground.
Ibid.
Now fhiv'ring winter fledg'd with feather'd rain,
Cover'd the earth with beds of watrish down,
Which warns the prince to quit the open plain,
And have his foldiers winter'd in a town ;-
Who unto Bourdeaux unimpeach'd retreats,
And for this year takes leave of martial feats.
The piercing frofts candy'd in Gallick skies,
Against their countrys foes would fo combine,
The tunicles fhould not fecure their eyes,
And all the humours would turn criftalline :
In their blue channels the red ftreams had flood,
And fpirits been congealled in that flood..
Therefore the prince will not his men beftow,
In fields unfhelter'd, whilft the leagu'ring cold,
And batt'ring engines of chill ice and now,
Affault the fpirits, and furprize their hold:
Who let their men i'th' field in winter lie,
Both combat nature, and the enemy.
And as from fenfes, reafon's work doth spring,
So many reasons understanding gain,
And many underftandings knowledge bring,
And by much knowledge, wisdom we obtain.
So many ftairs we must afcend upright,
Ere we attain to wifdom's high degree:
So doth this earth eclipfe our reafon's light,
Which else in inftants would like angels fee.
By the fame fteps by which they fell, may rife.
Shakespear and Rowley's Birth of Merlin.
Wisdom wishes to appear most bright,
When it doth tax itfelf; as thefe black masques
Proclaim an en-fhield beauty ten times louder,
Than beauty could display'd.
Shakespear's Measure for Measure.
A wife man's home is wherefo'ere he's wife;
Now that, from man, not from the place doth rife. Marfion's Second Part of Antonio and Mellida.
A wife man wrongfully, but never wrong
Can take; his breaft's of fuch well-temper'd proof,
may be rac'd, not pierc'd by favage tooth
Of foaming malice: fhow'rs of darts may dark
Heav'n's ample brow, but not ftrike out a spark;
Much lefs pierce the fun's cheek.
He that's a man for men,
Ambitious as a god, muft like a god
Live free from paffions; his full aim'd at end,
Immenfe to others, fole felf to comprehend;
Round in's own globe, not to be clasp'd, but holds
Within him all, his heart being of more folds,
Than fhield of Telamon ; not to be pierc'd, though ftruck:
The God of wile men is themselves, not luck.
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