All things are lawful that do profit bring;
A wife man's bow goes with a two-fold string.

John Day's Ile of Gulls The opinion of wisdom, is a foul tetter, That runs all over a man's body: if fimplicity Directs us to have no evil, it directs us To a happy being, for the fubtileft folly Proceeds from the fubtileft wisdom.

This is the wife man's cure,

Webfler's Dutchess of Malfy.

That any thing, fate wills, he can endure.

Daubourne's Poor Man's Comfort.

Let a wife man place his ftrength
Within himself, nor truft to outward aids:
That whatsoever from the gods can come,
May find him ready to receive their doom.

May's Cleopatra.
Move on then stars, work your pernicious will:
Only the wife rule, and prevent your ill.

Maffinger and Field's Fatal Dowry.
True wifdom, planted in the hearts of kings,
Needs no more glory than the glory't brings;
And like the fun, is view'd by her own light,
B'ing, by her own reflection, made more bright.
Quarles.

Wealth, without wifdom, may live more content,
Than wit's enjoyers can, debarr'd of wealth;

All

pray for riches, but I ne'er heard yet

Of any fince Solomon that pray'd for wit:

He's counted wife enough in these vain times,

That hath but means enough to wear gay cloaths,

And be an outside of humanity; what matters it a pin,
How indifcreet fo e'er a natural be,

So that his wealth be great? that's it doth caufe
Wisdom in these days to give fools applaufe.
And when gay folly speaks, how vain foe're ;
Wisdom muft filent fit, and fpeech forbear.

Tailor's Hog hath loft his Pearl.
N 6

In

-In fuch like affairs,

Which do concern th' uncertain rule of states,
Wife men fhould always be above their fates.
Glapthorne's Albertus Wallenftein.

-But let

Ev'n the plotting deftinies contrive,

And be themselves of council; all their malice
Shall only thew an idle fruitlefs hate,

While wisdom takes the upper hand of fate.

Cartwright's Royal Slave. Excellent morality! O the vaft extent O'th' kingdom of a wife man! fuch a mind Can fleep fecure, when the brine kiffes the moon, And thank the courteous ftorm for rocking him! Baron's Mirza: 'The wife men were but feven: now we scarce know So many fools, the world fo wife doth grow.

Heath's Claraftella.

Your wifdom hath the skill to cure
Distempers, ftronger than your fortune feels.

Sir W. Davenant's Unfortunate Lovers.

The wife I here obferve,

Are wife tow'rds God; in whofe great fervice ftill,
More than in that of kings, themselves they serve.
Sir W Davenant's Gondibert.

I can but fmile to think how foolish wife

Those women are, that chufe their loves for wisdom.

Wisdom in man's a golden chain, to tie

Poor women in a glorious flavery. .

Juftice and faith never forfake the wife,
Yet may occafion put him in difguife;

Sicelides

Not turning like the wind, but if the ftate
Of things muft change, he is not obstinate;
Things paft, and future, with the present weighs,
Nor credulous of what vain rumour fays;
Few things, by wisdom are at first believ'd';
An eafy ear deceives, and is deceiv'd.

Denham

But feven wife men the antient world did know;
We scarce know feven, who think themselves not fo.
Denham.

Wisdom of what her felf approves, makes choice;
Nor is led captive by the common voice.

Clear fighted reafon wifdom's judgement leads,
And fenfe, her vaffall, in her footsteps treads.

All human wisdom to divine, is folly;
This truth, the wifeft man made melancholy.

Greatnefs we owe to fortune, or to fate;
But wisdom only can fecure a ftate.

1. Are there divinities below?

Ibid,

Ibid.

Denham's Sophy.

2, There are; ev'ry wife thing is a divinity, That can dispose, and check the fate of things.

Sir Robert Howard's Great Favourite

1. Confult a little with your prudence.
2. Wisdom's too froward to let any find
Truft in himself, or pleafure in his mind;
She takes by what the gives; her help deftroys;
She shakes our courage, and disturbs our joys:
Rashness allows unto the fudden sense

All it's own joys, and adds her confidence.

Sir Robert Howard's Veftal Virgins. For 'tis the fate of wife men, to be thought To act what int'reft, not justice, bids them: And Hiftories do oft'ner palliate crimes, Than publish them.

Were all things of one temper,

Fane's Sacrifice.

The universe would not fubfift one minute :

Were all men wife, the world would be at a
Stand, whilft each do prove unmalleable
Unto others defigns.

Hectors.

The

The wife do always govern their own fates,
And fortune with officious zeal attends
To crown their enterprizes with fuccefs.

W IT.

Abdicated Prince:

Wit not avails, late bought with care and cost;
Too late it comes, when life and all is loft.

Mirror for Magiftrates.

The wit, the pupil of the foul's clear eye,
And in man's world the only fhining star:
Look in the mirror of the fantafy,

Where all the gath'rings of the senses are:

From thence, this pow'r the shapes of things abstracts,
And them within her paffive part receives,
Which are enlightned by that part which acts,
And fo the forms of fingle things perceives:
But after, by difcourfing to and fro,
Anticipating, and comparing things,
She doth all universal natures know,
And all effects into their caufes brings:

When the rates things,and moves from ground to ground,
The name of reafon fhe obtains by this:
But when by reason fhe the truth hath found,
And ftandeth fix'd, fhe understanding is.

When her affent fhe lightly doth encline
To either part, fhe has opinion's light:
But when the doth by principles define
A certain truth, fhe hath true judgment's fight.
Sir John Davies.
But they that know that wit can fhew no skill,
But when the things in fenfes glafs doth view,
Do know, if accident this glass do fpill,

It nothing fees, or fees the falfe for true :

For if that region of the tender brain,
Where th' inward sense of fantasy should fit,-
And th' outward fenfe's gath'rings fhould retain,
By nature, or by chance, become unfit :

Either at firft uncapable it is,

And fo few things, or none at all receives: Or marr'd by accident, which haps amifs, And fo amifs it ev'ry thing perceives.

As the moft forward bud

Sir John Davies

Is eaten by the canker, ere it blow;
Ev'n fo by love, the young and tender wit
Is turn'd to folly, blafting in the bud;
Lofing his verdure, ev'n in the prime,
And all the fair effects of future hopes.

Shakespear's Two Gentlemen of Verona.

The only foil of his fair vertae's glofs,
If vertue's glofs will ftain with any foil,
Is a fharp wit, match'd with too blunt a will;
Whofe edge hath pow'r to cut, whofe will still wills,
It should fpare none that come within his pow'r.

Shakespear's Love's Labour's loft.

Short-liv'd wits do wither as they grow.

Ibid.

Your wit makes wife things foolish; when we greet
With eyes best seeming heaven's fiery eye,
By light we lofe light; your capacity
If of that nature, as to your huge store

Wife things feems foolish, and rich things but poor,

Good wits are greatest in extremities.

But as of lions it is faid, and eagles,

Ibid.

Johnson's Volpone.

That when they go, they draw their feres and talons
Close up, to fhun rebating of their sharpness:
So our wit's fharpnefs, which we fhould employ
In nobleft knowledge, we should never waite
In vile and vulgar admirations.

Chapman's Revenge of Buffy D'ambois.
Her wit ftings, blifters, galls off the skin
With the tart acrimony of her fharp quickness:

By