THE CENTURY OF LIFE
ON THE SAME
Nay, thou wilt find sweet oil in the sea-sands, Press them but firmly in thy strenuous hands:
The desert-born mirage shall slake thy thirst,
Or wandering through the carth thou shalt be first To find the horns of hares, who think’st to school With reason the prejudgments of the fool.
OBSTINACY IN VICE
Yea, wouldst thou task thy muscles then the dread Strength of the mammoth to constrain with thread, Canst thou the diamond’s adamant heart disclose With the sweet edge and sharpness of a rose, With a poor drop of honey wondrously Wilt thou make sweetness of the wide salt sea, Who dream’st with sugared perfect words to gain The unhonest to the ways of noble men.
FOLLY’S WISDOM
One cloak on ignorance absolutely fits; Justly if worn, some grace is even lent; Silence in sessions of the learned sits On the fool’s brow like a bright ornament.
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