Selected Works. George Herbert
Читать онлайн книгу.
the king sees thee still; for his King does.
Simpring is but a lay-hypocrisie:
Give it a corner, and the clue undoes.
Who fears to do ill, sets himself to task:
Who fears to do well, sure should wear a mask.
Look to thy mouth: diseases enter there.
Thou hast two sconses, if thy stomach call;
Carve, or discourse; do not a famine fear.
Who carves, is kind to two; who talks, to all.
Look on meat, think it dirt, then eat a bit;
And say withall, Earth to earth I commit.
Slight those who say amidst their sickly healths,
Thou liv’st by rule. What doth not so, but man?
Houses are built by rule, and common-wealths.
Entice the trusty sunne, if that you can,
From his Ecliptick line; becken the skie.
Who lives by rule then, keeps good companie.
Who keeps no guard upon himself, is slack,
And rots to nothing at the next great thaw.
Man is a shop of rules, a well-truss’d pack,
Whose every parcell under-writes a law.
Lose not thyself, nor give thy humours way:
God gave them to thee under lock and key.
By all means use sometimes to be alone.
Salute thy self: see what thy soul doth wear.
Dare to look in thy chest; for ’tis thine own:
And tumble up and down what thou find’st there.
Who cannot rest till he good fellows finde,
He breaks up house, turns out of doores his minde.
Be thriftie, but not covetous: therefore give
Thy need, thine honour, and thy friend his due.
Never was scraper brave man. Get to live;
Then live, and use it: else, it is not true
That thou hast gotten. Surely use alone
Makes money not a contemptible stone.
Never exceed thy income. Youth may make
Ev’n with the yeare: but age, if it will hit,
Shoots a bow short, and lessens still his stake,
As the day lessens, and his life with it.
Thy children, kindred, friends upon thee call;
Before thy journey fairly part with all.
Yet in thy thriving still misdoubt some evil;
Lest gaining gain on thee, and make thee dimme
To all things els. Wealth is the conjurer’s devil;
Whom when he thinks he hath, the devil hath him.
Gold thou mayst safely touch; but if it stick
Unto thy hands, it woundeth to the quick.
What skills it, if a bag of stones or gold
About thy neck do drown thee? raise thy head;
Take starres for money; starres not to be told
By any art, yet to be purchased.
None is so wastefull as the scraping dame:
She loseth three for one; her soul, rest, fame.
By no means runne in debt; take thine own measure:
Who cannot live on twentie pound a yeare,
Cannot on fourtie: he’s a man of pleasure,
A kinde of thing that’s for itself too deere.
The curious unthrift makes his cloth too wide,
And spares himself, but would his taylor chide.
Spend not on hopes. They that by pleading clothes
Do fortunes seek, when worth and service fail,
Would have their tale beleeved fox their oathes,
And are like empty vessels under sail.
Old courtiers know this; therefore set out so,
As all the day thou mayst hold out to go.
In clothes, cheap handsomnesse doth bear the bell.
Wisdome’s a trimmer thing, than shop e’re gave.
Say not then, This with that lace will do well;
But, This with my discretion will be brave.
Much curiousnesse is a perpetual wooing,
Nothing with labour, folly long a doing.
Play not for gain, but sport. Who playes for more,
Than he can lose with pleasure, stakes his heart:
Perhaps his wives too, and whom she hath bore:
Servants and churches also play their part.
Onely a herauld, who that way doth passe,
Findes his crackt name at length in the church-glasse.
If yet thou love game at so deere a rate,
Learn this, that hath old gamesters deerely cost:
Dost lose? rise up: dost winne? rise in that state.
Who strive to sit out losing hands, are lost.
Game is a civil gunpowder, in peace
Blowing up houses with their whole increase.
In conversation boldnesse now bears sway.
But know, that nothing can so foolish be,
As empty boldnesse: therefore first assay
To stuffe thy minde with solid braverie;
Then march on gallant: get substantiall worth:
Boldnesse guilds finely, and will set it forth.
Be sweet to all. Is thy complexion sowre?
Then keep such companie; make them thy allay:
Get a sharp wife, a servant that will lowre.
A stumbler stumbles least in rugged way.
Command thyself in chief. He life’s warre knows,
Whom all his passions follow, as he goes.
Catch not at quarrels. He that dares not speak
Plainly and home, is coward of the two.
Think not thy fame at ev’ry twitch will break:
By great deeds shew, that thou canst little do;
And do them not: that shall thy wisdome be;
And change thy temperance into braverie.
If that thy fame with ev’ry toy be pos’d,
’Tis a thinne web, which poysonous fancies make;
But the great souldiers honour was compos’d
Of