PET. BLES.

The world is deceitful: her end is doubtful; her con clusion horrible; her judge is terrible; and her punishment is intolerable.

S. AUGUST. Lib. Confess.

The vain glory of this world is a deceitful sweetness, a fruitless labour, a perpetual fear, a dangerous honour : her beginning is without providence, and her end not without repentance.

EPIG. 5.

World, thou'rt a traitor; thou hast stampt thy base
And chymic metal with great Cæsar's face,

And with thy bastard bullion thou hast barter'd
For wares of price; how justly drawn and quarter'd!

JOB

Look not upon this World; for Things appear In false proportion: All's deceitful here.

VI.

JOB vi. 81.

Let not him that is deceived, trust in vanity; for vanity shall be his recompence.

B

1.

ELIEVE her not, her glass diffuses
False portraitures: thou canst espy

No true reflection: she abuses

Her mis-inform'd beholder's eye;

Her crystal's falsely steel'd; it scatters Deceitful beams; believe her not, she flatters.

2.

This flaring mirror represents

No right proportion, view, or feature: Her very looks are compliments;

They make thee fairer, goodlier, greater:

The skilful gloss of her reflection

But paints the context of thy coarse complexion.

3.

Were thy dimension but a stride,

Nay, wert thou statur'd but a span,

Such as the long-bill'd troops defy'd.

A very fragment of a man!

She'll make thee Mimas, which you will, The Jove slain tyrant, or th' lonic hill.

4.

Had surfeits, or th' ungracious star,
Conspir'd to make one common place

Of all deformities that are

Within the volume of thy face,

She'd lend the favour should outmove

The Troy-bane Helen, or the Queen of Love.

5.

Were thy consum'd estate as poor

As Laz'rus or afflicted Job's:

She'll change thy wants to seeming store,
And turn thy rags to purple robes;

She'll make thy hide-bound flank appear
As plump as theirs that feast it all the year.

6.

Look off, let not thy optics be

Abus'd thou see'st not what thou should'st: Thyself's the object thou should'st see,

But 'tis thy shadow thou behold'st :

And shadows thrive the more in stature, The nearer we approach the light of nature.

7.

Where heav'n's bright beams look more direct,
The shadow shrinks as they grow stronger.
But when they glance their fair aspect,

The bold-fac'd shade grows larger, longer :
And when their lamp begins to fall,
Th' increasing shadows lengthen most of all.

8.

The soul that seeks the noon of grace,
Shrinks in; but swells, if grace retreat.
As heav'n lifts up, or veils his face,
Our self-esteems grow less or great,
The least is greatest; and who shall
Appear the greatest, are the least of all.

HUGO