Marrying for beauty, only pleases me, Obliges her, and keeps her humble too. 'Twould be an injuftice to all human kind, If ftill the rich fhould only wed the rich; The world would then confist only of Us'rers and beggars: But if rich men Marry the poor and hand fome women, and The rich women the poor and handsome men ; The gifts of nature and of fortune, will Be equally diftributed: Delight
And wealth fo fhar'd, will restore to both the Sexes that happiness, which the old formal Ways of acting have fo long depriv'd them of. 1. Young and handsome is portion enough to Him that needs not any: I hate constraint In any thing, and in love above all things.
1. Though your structure be Noble and high, if you will build it on A low foundation, it can ne'er appear So high, as if your basis higher were. You may appear yourself; but when Join with an equal, you appear him too. 2. Pardon me, fir, I only him appear, I lose my name, and all I was before. I am not greater, when his wife, because I was a princess; for fhould he but wed The meanest lafs in all Arcadia, he
In doing fo, would make her full as great As I should be. Ambitious rivers, whilst They needs will strive to join with greater floods, Do add indeed to them; but lose themselves: Whilft those that court fome fmaller brook, at once Encrease their waters, and preserve their names. Fountain's Rewards of Virtue The hour of marriage ends the female reign; And we give all we have to buy a chain;
Hire men to be our lords, who were our flaves; And bribe our lovers to be perjur'd knaves. O how they fwear to heaven and the bride, They will be kind to her, and none befide; And to themselves, the while in fecret swear, They will be kind to ev'ry one, but her!
MASTER.
The mafter which in paffion kills his flave That may be useful to him, does himself The injury.
Malinger's Unnatural Combat.
An equal mafter; whofe fincere intents Ne'er chang'd good fervants, to bad inftruments.
By children, fervants, neighbours so esteem'd, He not a master, but a monarch seem'd : All his relations his admirers were;
His fons paid rev'rence, and his fervants fear.
MEDIOCRITY
Stand who fo lift for me,
In highest flipp'ry place: Though great their glory be, Yet greater their difgrace: And who fo fubject to mischance, As thofe whom fortune doth advance
These base, earth-creeping mates, Proud envy never spies :
When at the greatest states Her poifon'd quiver flies.
Each tempeft doth turmoil the feas, When little lakes have quiet ease.
Ants live fafely, till they have gotten wings, And juniper is not blown up till it
Hath gotten an high top: The mean estate Is without care, as long as it continueth Without pride.
Lilly's Alexander and Campafpe
Thou art a ferryman Phao, yet
A freeman; poffeffing for riches content, And for honours quiet. Thy thoughts are no Higher than thy fortunes, nor thy defires Greater than thy calling.
Who climbeth, ftands On glafs, and falls on thorn. Thy heart's thirft is Satisfy'd with thy hands thrift; and thy gentle Labours in the day, turn to sweet slumbers, In the night. As much doth it delight thee To rule thine oar in a calm ftream; as it Doth Sapho to fway the scepter in her Brave court. Envy never cafteth her eye Low; ambition pointeth always upwards; And revenge barketh only at ftars. Thou Fareft delicately, if thou haft a
Fare to buy any thing. Thine angle is Ready, when thine oar is idle; and as Sweet is the fish, which thou gettest in the River, as the fowl which others buy in The market. Thou need't not fear poifon in Thy glass; nor treafon in thy guard. The wind Is thy greatest enemy, whofe might is
Withstood with policy. Ofweet life seldom Found under a golden covert, often
Under a thatched cottage!
We muft, in paffing to our wifhed ends,
Through things call'd good and bad, be like the air, That ev'nly interpos'd betwixt the feas,
And the oppofed element of fire ;
As either toucheth, but partakes with neither; Is neither hot nor cold, but with a flight
And harmless temper, mixt of both th' extremes. Chapman's First Part of Byron's Conspiracy.
Thou prizeless jewel, only mean men have But cannot value; like the precious jem, Found in the muck-hill by th' ignorant cock.
Beaumont and Fletcher's Queen of Corinth.
Had I been born a fervant, my low life Had steady stood from all these miseries. The waving reeds stand free from ev'ry guft, When the tall Oaks are rent up by the roots.
How a Man may choose a good Wife from bad. Iam that even course that must be kept To fhun two dang'rous gulphs; the middle tract "Twixt Scylla and Charibdis; the small Ifthmus That fuffers not th' Ægean tide to meet The violent rage of th' Ionian wave. I am a bridge oe'r an impetuous fea; Free, and fafe paffage to the wary ftep: But he, whofe wantonnefs, or folly dares Decline to either fide, falls defperate Into a certain ruin- -Dwell with me, Whose manfion is not plac'd fo near the fun, As to complain of's neighbourhood, and be fcorch'd With his directer beams; nor fo remote From his bright rays, as to be fituate Under the icy pole of the cold bear; But in a temp'rate zone: 'Tis I am fhe, I am the golden mediocrity.
Randolph's Mufe's Looking-glass. ME LANCHOLY
Tell me, fweet lord, what is't that takes from thee Thy ftomach, plea fure, and thy golden fleep? Why doft thou bend thy eyes upon the earth? And ftart fo often when thou fitt'ft alone? Why hast thou loft the fresh blood in thy cheeks, And giv'n my treasures and my rights of thee, To thick-ey'd mufing, and curs'd melancholy?
Shakespear's First Part of K. Henry IV.
Who ever yet could found thy bottom? find
The Ooze, to fhew what coaft thy fluggish carrack' Might eas'lieft harbour in ?
I am as melancholy as a gib cat, Or a lugg'd bear; or an old lion, or A lover's lute; yea, or the drone of a Lincolnshire bagpipe. What fay'ft thou to a Hare, or the melancholy of Moor ditch?
Shakespear's First Part of K. Henry IV.
I have neither the fcholar's melancholy, Which is emulation; nor the musician's, Which is fantaftical; nor the courtier's, Which is pride; nor the foldier's, which is Ambitious; nor the lawyer's, which is politick; Nor the lady's, which is nice; nor the lover's, Which is all these but it is a melancholy Of mine own; compounded of many fimples, Extracted from many objects, and, indeed, The fundry contemplation of my travels; In which my often rumination wraps me In a most hum'rous sadness.
Shakespear's As you like it.
I'll bear me in fome ftrain of melancholy,
And ftring myself with heavy-founding wire,
Like fuch an inftrument, that fpeaks merry things fadly.
Tourneur's Revenger's Tragedy.
Will poifon all his goodness; for I'll tell you,
If too immod'rate fleep be truly faid
To be an inward ruft unto the foul;
It then doth follow, want of action
Breeds all black malecontents; and their clofe rearing, Like moths in cloaths, do hurt for want of wearing.
Webster's Dutchess of Malfy.
Though ending in diftraction, should work
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