Page:Nimble and quick (2).pdf/6

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.

( 6 )

and building of ſhips are chargeable things; yet, after all our coſt and pains, they prove but leaky veſſels. If I had three ſons and one of them a dunce, two fhould practiſe Law and Phyfic, and the third ſhould be a Parſon. There are five great rari-ties hard to be found, and thoſe are,a black Swan, a Phoenix, a Unicorn, the Philoſopher's Stone, and a maid at ſixteen. There is one abominable practice I can't help reminding you of, that is, neighbours going to law about trifles, when their families have ſcarce food to eat. There are five things that are wonderful ſwift, viz. Fame, which, like a ſnow-ball, ga-thers as it goes, a Muſket-ſhot that kills before you hear the report, the Sight that reaches the higheſt hea-vens in an inſtant, Thought that tra-verſes the globe in an inſtant, and Lightning, which kills the child in the womb, and hurts not the mo-ther, and alſo melts gold in a bag without ſinging the bag.

Some ſay, that England is the gar-den of the world, but, as the King of France ſays, "There is many a bitter

‘weed