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Experience can prove; That, quoth Experience, I past, Their own confessions make them fast, They may no more remove. For if I right, remember me, This maxim then they made, That well the man of wit should weigh What Philosophs have said; Which sentence, repentance Forbade him dear to buy, They knew then, how true then, And press’d not to reply. XLVIII. Tho’ now were Dread and Danger dumb, Yet Courage would not be o’ercome, Hope hight him such a hire He strait bethought how soon he saw His Enemies were laid so low, It was no time to tire: He hit the iron in the heat, Before it could grow cold; For he esteem’d his foes defeat, When once he found them sold: Tho’ we now, quo’ he now, Have been so free and frank Of right yet, he might yet, For kindness could us thank. XLIX. Come on quoth he, companion Skill, You understand both good and ill, In Physic ye are fine; Be mediciner to the man, And shew such cunning as you can, To put him out of pine? First search the ground of all his grief, What sickness you suspect, Then look what lacks for his relief, Or further he infect. Comfort him, exhort him,
