DESTINY.

Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie,

Which we ascribe to Heaven: the fated sky Gives us free scope; only, doth backward pull Our slow designs when we ourselves are dull.

THE POWER OF LITTLE THINGS.

He, that of greatest works is finisher,
Oft does them by the weakest minister :
So holy writ in babes hath judgment shown,
When judges have been babes.

have flown

Great floods

From simple sources: and great seas have dried,
When miracles have by the greatest been denied.
Oft expectation fails, and most oft there
Where most it promises; and oft it hits,
Where hope is coldest, and despair most sits.

THE KING'S APPEAL TO BERTRAM.

Strange is it, that our bloods,

Of colour, weight, and heat, pour'd all together, Would quite confound distinction, yet stand off In differences so mighty. If she be

All that is virtuous (save what thou dislik'st,

A poor physician's daughter), thou dislik'st
Of virtue for the name: but do not so:
From lowest place when virtuous things proceed,
The place is dignified by the doer's deed :
Where great additions swell, and virtue none,
It is a dropsied honour: good alone

Is good, without a name : vileness is so :
The property by what it is should go,
Not by the title. She is young, wise, fair;
In these to nature she's immediate heir;
And these breed honour : that is honour's scorn,
Which challenges itself as honour's born,
And is not like the sire: honours best thrive,
When rather from our acts we them derive
Than our fore-goers: the mere word's a slave,
Debauch'd on every tomb; on every grave,
A lying trophy; and as oft is dumb,

Where dust and damn'd oblivion is the tomb
Of honour'd bones indeed.

PAROLLES DESCRIBED.

Believe it, my lord, in mine own direct knowledge, without any malice, but to speak of him as my kinsman, he's a most notable coward, an

infinite and endless liar, an hourly promisebreaker, the owner of no one good quality worthy your lordship's entertainment.

THE WEB Of Life.

The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together: our virtues would be proud, if our faults whipped them not; and our crimes would despair, if they were not cherished by our virtues.

DELAYED LOVE DANGEROUS.

Love that comes too late,

Like a remorseful pardon slowly carried,
To the great sender turns a sour offence,
Crying, That's good that's gone. Our rash

faults

Make trivial price of serious things we have, Not knowing them until we know their grave: Oft our displeasures, to ourselves unjust, Destroy our friends, and after weep their dust: Our own love waking cries to see what's done, While shameful hate sleeps out the after

noon.

ADAGES AND APOTHEGMS.

Where an unclean mind carries virtuous qualities, there commendations go with pity.

Moderate lamentation is the right of the dead, excessive grief the enemy of the living.

Full oft we see cold wisdom waiting on super

fluous folly.

The court's a learning-place.

Service is no heritage.

He must needs go that the devil drives.
Marriage comes by destiny.

'Tis often seen, adoption strives with nature; and choice breeds a native slip to us from foreign seeds.

Proffers, not took, reap thanks for their reward.
Things may serve long, but not serve ever.
War is no strife to the dark house and the de-

tested wife.

A young man married is a man that's marred.
One that lies three-thirds, and uses a known truth

to pass a thousand nothings with, should be
once heard, and thrice beaten.

We must do good against evil.

The honour of a maid is her name; and no legacy is so rich as honesty.

'Tis not the many oaths that make the truth, but the plain single vow that is vow'd true.

Half won is match well made.

Who cannot be crushed with a plot?

There's place and means for every man alive.

A scar nobly got, or a noble scar, is a good livery of honour.

Praising what is lost makes the remembrance dear.

On our quick'st decrees the inaudible and noiseless foot of time steals ere we can effect them. All impediments in fancy's course are motives of mere fancy.