The talion law was in request,

And chanc'ry courts were kept in ev'ry breast:
Abused statutes had no tenters,

And men could deal secure without indentures:
There was no peeping hole to clear
The wittal's eye from his incarnate fear;
There were no lustful cinders then
To broil the carbonado'd hearts of men:
The rosy cheeks did then proclaim
A shame of guilt, but not a guilt of shame :
There was no whining soul to start
At Cupid's twang, or curse his flaming dart;
The boy had then but callow wings,
And fell Erinnys' scorpions had no stings:
The better-acted world did move

Upon the fix'd poles of truth and love.
Love essenc'd in the hearts of men!
Then reason rul'd, there was no passion then ;
Till lust and rage began to enter,

Love the circumf'rence was, and love the centre;
Until the wanton days of Jove,

The simple world was all compos'd of love;
But Jove grew fleshly, false, unjust;

Inferior beauty fill'd his veins with lust:

And cucquean* Juno's fury hurl'd

Fierce balls of rape into th' incestuous world:

Astræa fled, and love return'd

From earth, earth boil'd with lust, with rage it burn'd, And ever since the world hath been

Kept going with the scourge of lust and spleen.

* Wittal, i.e. a cuckold.

+ Cucquean, i. e, whorish,

S. AM

3

S. AMBROSE.

Lust is a sharp spur to vice, which always puttein the affections into a false gallop.

HUGO.

Lust is an immoderate wantonness of the flesh, a sweet poison, a cruel pestilence; a pernicious poison, which weakeneth the body of man, and effeminateth the strength of an heroic mind.

S. AUGUST.

Envy is the hatred of another's felicity; in respect of superiors, because they are not equal to them; in respect of inferiors, lest he should be equal to them; in respect of. equals, because they are equal to them; through envy proceeded the fall of the world, and death of Christ.

EPIG. 5.

What, Cupid, must the world be lash'd so soon?
But made at morning, and be whipt at noon?
'Tis like the wag that plays with Venus' doves,
The more 'tis lash'd, the more perverse it proves.

VI.

ECCLES. ii. 17.

All is vanity and vexation of spirit.

1.

OW is the anxious soul of man befool'd
In his desire,

How

That thinks an hectic fever may be cool'd
In flames of fire?

Or hopes to rake full heaps of burnish'd gold
From nasty mire?

A whining lover may as well request

A scornful breast

To melt in gentle tears, as woo the world for rest.

Let

2.

Let wit and all her study'd plots effect
The best they can;

Let smiling fortune prosper and perfect
What wit began ;

Let earth advise with both, and so project
A happy man;

Let wit or fawning fortune vie their best ;
He may be blest

With all that earth can give; but earth can give no rest.

3.

Whose gold is double with a careful hand,
His cares are double ;

The pleasure, hcnour, wealth of sea and land.
Bring but a trouble;

The world itself, and all the world's command,
Is but a bubble.

The strong desires of man's insatiate breast
May stand possest

Of all that earth can give; but earth can give no rest.

4.

The world's a seeming par'dise, but her own
And man's tormenter;

Appearing fix'd, yet but a rolling stone
Without a tenter;

It is a vast circumference, where none

Can find a center.

Of more than earth can earth make none possest ;

And he that least

Regards this restless world, shall in this world find rest.

True