The talion law was in request, And chanc'ry courts were kept in ev'ry breast: And men could deal secure without indentures: Upon the fix'd poles of truth and love. Love the circumf'rence was, and love the centre; The simple world was all compos'd of love; 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 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? VI. ECCLES. ii. 17. All is vanity and vexation of spirit. 1. OW is the anxious soul of man befool'd How That thinks an hectic fever may be cool'd Or hopes to rake full heaps of burnish'd gold 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 Let smiling fortune prosper and perfect Let earth advise with both, and so project Let wit or fawning fortune vie their best ; With all that earth can give; but earth can give no rest. 3. Whose gold is double with a careful hand, The pleasure, hcnour, wealth of sea and land. The world itself, and all the world's command, The strong desires of man's insatiate breast Of all that earth can give; but earth can give no rest. 4. The world's a seeming par'dise, but her own Appearing fix'd, yet but a rolling stone 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 |