CAUTION-DISCRETION- PRUDENCE. 1. But now, so wise and wary was the knight, By trial of his former harms and cares, That he decry'd, and shunned still his sight: The fish, that once was caught, new bait will hardly bite. SPENSER'S Fairy Queen. 2. They, that fear the adder's sting, will not Come near his hissing. CHAPMAN. 3. Look forward what's to come, and back what's past; DENHAM. 4. The better part of valour is discretion. SHAKSPEARE. 5. When clouds are seen, wise men put on their cloaks. SHAKSPEARE. 6. Prudence! thou vainly in our youth art sought, And, with age purchas'd, art too dearly bought ;We're past the use of wit, for which we toil, Late fruit, and planted in too cold a soil. 7. None pities him that's in the snare, And, warn'd before, would not beware. 8. Man's caution often into danger turns, 9. He knows the compass, sail and oar, Or never launches from the shore; DRYDEN. HERRICK. YOUNG. GAY's Fables. 108 CELIBACY-CHASTITY. 10. Would you, when thieves are known abroad, Bring forth your treasures in the road? Would not the fool abet the stealth, Who rashly thus expos'd his wealth? 11. The mouse, that always trusts to one poor hole, Can never be a mouse of any soul. GAY'S Fables. POPE. 12. All's to be fear'd where all is to be lost. BYRON'S Werner. CELIBACY - CHASTITY. 1. But earlier happy is the rose distill'd, 2. Than that, which, withering on the virgin thorn, Chaste as the icicle That's curdled by the frost of purest snow, And hangs on Dian's temple. 3. Lady, you are the cruelest she alive, SHAKSPEARE. SHAKSPEARE. If you will lead those graces to the grave, 4. So dear to heaven is saintly chastity, That when a soul is found sincerely so, SHAKSPEARE. MILTON'S Comus. 5. Our Maker bids increase; who bids abstain But our destroyer, foe to God and man? MILTON'S Paradise Lost. 6. There swims no goose so grey, but, soon or late, She finds some honest gander for a mate. POPE. 7. Most women's weak resolves, like reeds, will fly, 8. When lovely woman stoops to folly, And finds too late that men betray, The only way her guilt to cover, 9. If I am fair, 't is for myself alone; GAY'S Dione. I do not wish to have a sweetheart near me, For surely I would plight my faith to none, GOLDSMITH. Though many an amorous cit might jump to hear me : For I have heard that lovers prove deceivers, When once they find that maidens are believers. 10. Her bosom was a soft retreat For love and love alone, From MICHEL ANGELO. And yet her heart had never beat It dwelt within its circle, free From tender thoughts like these, As the blossom waits the breeze, MRS. AMELIA B. WELBY. 110 CEREMONY - CHANCE-FORTUNE. 11. For who would bear the whips and thorns of doubt, That bachelors from womankind must take- J. T. WATSON. CEREMONY. 1. Ceremony was devised at first To set a gloss on faint deeds-hollow welcomes, But where there is true friendship, there needs none. 2. Then Ceremony leads her bigots forth Prepar'd to fight for shadows of no worth; With hollow form, and gesture, and grimace. SHAKSPEARE. CHANCE-FORTUNE. 1. There is a tide in the affairs of men, That, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; Omitted, all the voyage of their life Is bound in shallows and in miseries. COWPER. SHAKSPEARE. 2. Will fortune never come with both hands full, 3. An eagle, towering in his pride of place, Was by a mousing owl hawk'd at, and kill'd. 4. Fortune, the great commandress of the world, SHAKSPEARE. SHAKSPEARE. Some, wit-some, wealth—and some, wit without wealth; Some, wealth without wit-some, nor wit nor wealth. 5. Let not one look of fortune cast you down; CHAPMAN. LORD ORRERY. 6. Be juster, heav'ns! such virtue punish'd thus, 7. Alas! the joys that fortune brings Are trifling, and decay, And those who prize the paltry things, DRYDEN. GOLDSMITH. 8. Fortune in men has some small difference made: One flaunts in rags, one flutters in brocade. POPE'S Essay on Man. |