How firm was faith, when humble futes for need,
Not choice were made? then, free from all despair,
As mod'rate birds, who fing for daily feed:
Like birds, our fongs of praise included pray'r.
Sir W. Davenant's Gondibert.
He who this builder's building did create,
Has an apartment here triangular;
Where Aftragon three fanes did dedicate,
To days of praise, of penitence and pray'r.
To thefe, from diff'rent motives, all proceed;
For when discov❜ries they on nature gain,
They praife high heav'n, which makes their works
fucceed;
But when it fails, in penitence complain.
If after praife, new bleffings are not giv'n,
Nor mourning penitence can ills repair;
Like practis'd beggars, they follicit heav'n,
And will prevail by violence of pray'r.
The temple built for pray'r, can neither boast
The builder's curious art, nor does declare,
By choice materials he intended coft;
To fhew, that nought should need to tempt to pray❜r.
No bells are here; unhing'd are all the gates:
Since craving in distress is natural,
All lies fo ope, that none for entrance waits;
And thofe whom faith invites, can need no call.
The great have by diftinction here no name;
For all fo cover'd come, in grave difguife,
To fhew none come for decency or fame,
That all are strangers to each others eyes.
How far is it to heav'n, that yet this lady's
Mournings are not heard? for if they were, my
Suff'rings and my guilt would ceafe; or cannot
Our petitions climb, and get access as
Nimbly as our faults? O this is it, that
So emboldens vex'd humanity; makes
Us complain. Those undifcern'd, immortal
Governors, are often in
Their bounty flow, in juftice too fevere ;
And give not what we beg, but what we fear.
Sir W. Davenant's Platonick Lovers.
Can pray'rs to all alike fo gentle be,
Since all the world's devotions disagree?
None beg the fame; the pray'rs of all the best,
Are little more than curfes for the rest.
Sir Robert Howard's Vestal Virgin.
PREFERMENT.
When a noble nature's rais'd,
It brings friends joy, foes grief, pofterity fame:
In him the times, no less than prince, are prais'd ;
And by his rife, in active men, his name
Doth emulation ftir:
To the dull, a fpur
It is to th' envious meant
A mere upbraiding grief, and tort'ring punishment.
For worth he has not; he is tax'd, not prais'd.
Johnson's Epigrams.
Many fuch ends have fall'n on fuch proud honours;
No more because the men on whom they fell
Grew infolent, and left their virtue's ftate;
Than for their hugeness, that procur'd their hate:
And therefore little pomp in men moft great,
Makes mightily and ftrongly to the guard
Of what they win by chance or juft reward:
Great and immodeft braveries again,
Like ftatues, much too high made for their bafes,
Are overturn'd as foon as giv'n their places.
Chapman's Revenge of Buffy D'ambeis. There is a deep nick in time's restless wheel
For each man's good; when which nick comes, it
As rhetorick, yet works not perfuafion,
But only is a mean to make it work;
So no man rifeth by his real merit,
But when it cries clink to his raiter's fpirit.
Many will fay, that cannot rife at all,
Man's first hour's rife is first step to his fall:
I'll venture that; men that fall low muft die,
As well as men caft headlong from the sky.
Chapman's Buffy D'ambois.
For when that men of merit grow ungrac'd,
And by her fautors, ignorance held in,
And parafites in good mens rooms are plac'd,
Only to footh the highest in their fin;
From those whofe skill and knowledge is debas'd,
There many ftrange enormities begin.
Others that ftemm'd the current of the time,
Whence I had fall'n, ftrove fuddenly to climb.
Like the camelion, whilst time turns the hue,
And with falfe Proteus puts on fundry shapes;
This change fcarce gone, a fecond doth enfue;
One fill'd, another for promotion gapes :
Thus do they fwarm like flies about the brim ;
Some drown'd, and fome do with much danger fwim.
Drayton's Pierce Gavefton.
When knaves come to preferment, they rise as
Gallows are rais'd in the Low Countries, one
Upon another's fhoulders.
For places in the court, are but like beds
In the hofpital; where this man's head lies
At that man's foot, and fo lower and lower.
Webfler's Duchefs of Malfy.
If on the fudden he begins to rife;
No man that lives can count his enemies.
Middleton's Trick to catch the Old One.
'Tis not advancement that I love alone; 'Tis love of shelter, to keep fhame unknown. Middleton's Mayor of Quinborough.
That springs from fin and luft fhoots up quickly;
As gard'ners crops do in the rott'neft grounds:
So is all means rais'd from base prostitution,
Ev'n like a fallad growing upon a dunghill.
Middleton's Women beware Women.
-He who cannot merit
Preferment by employments; let him bare
His throat unto the Turkish cruelty;
Or die or live a flave without redemption.
John Ford's Lady's Trial.
What throngs of great impediments befiege
The virtuous mind? So thick, they joftle
One another as they come. Hath vice a
Charter got, that none must rise, but such, who
Of the devil's faction are? The way to
Honour is not evermore the way to
Hell: A virtuous man may climb
Flatterer fell his lies elsewhere; it is
Unthrifty merchandize to change my gold
For breath.
Sir W. Davenant's Cruel Brother.
PRIDE.
So proud the fhined in her princely state,
Looking to heav'n, for earth fhe did difdain;
And fitting high, for lowly fhe did hate.
Lo! underneath her fcornful feet, was lain
A dreadfull dragon with a hideous train :
And in her hand the held a mirror bright,
Wherein her face fhe often viewed fain,
And in her felf-lov'd femblance took delight;
For fhe was wond'rous fair, as any living wight.
Of grifly Pluto fhe the daughter was,
And fad Proferpina, the queen of hell; Yet did the think her peerless worth to pass
That parentage, with pride fo did the fwell:
And thund'ring Jove that high in heav'n doth dwell,
And wield the world, fhe claimed for her fire;
Or if that any elfe did Jove excell;
For to the higheft fhe did ftill afpire:
Or, if ought higher were than that, did it defire.
And proud Lucifera men did her call..
Spenfer's Fairy Queen. He that is proud eats up himself. Pride is
His own glafs, his own trumpet, his own chronicle; And whatever praises itself but in
The deed, devours the deed in the praise.
Shakespear's Troilus and Crefida.
-Pride hath no other glass
To fhew itself, but pride; for fupple knees
Feed arrogance, and are the proud man's fees.
Let this example move th'infolent man,
Not to grow proud, and carelefs of the gods:
It is an odious wisdom to blafpheme,
Much more to flighten or deny their pow'rs.
For whom the morning faw fo great and high;
Thus low, and little, 'fore the eve doth lie.
How blind is pride! What eagles are we still
In matters that belong to other men,
How poor a thing is pride!
Differ but in their fetters, not their graves.
Pride by prefumption bred, when at a height,
Encount'ring with contempt, both march in ire;
And 'twixt 'em bring bafe cruelty to light;
The loathfome off-fpring of a hated fire.
E. of Sterline's Alexandrean Tragedy.
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