Svppose you _Sirs_, those mimicke _Apes_ you meet In strange fantasticke habits? or the Rabble, That in gay clothes embroyder out the street, Are truely of _Worshipfull_ or _Honorable_? Or can you thinke, that, To be borne the Sonne Of some rich _Alderman_, or ancient _Peere_, Or that the _Fame_ our Predecessors wonne May claime those _Wreathes_ which true _Deserving_ weare? Is _Honour_ due to those, who spend their dayes In courting one another? or consuming Their Fortunes and themselves, on Drabbs and Playes? In sleeping, drinking, and Tobacco-fuming? Not so. For, (though such _Fooles_, like children, place Gay _Titles_ on each other) _Wise-men_ know What slaves they be; how miserably-base; And, where such _Attributes_ would better show. An idle _Body_ clothes a vitious _Minde_; And, what (at best) is purchac’d by the same, Is nothing else, but stinking _Smoke_ and _Winde_; Or frothie _Bubbles_ of an empty _Fame_. True _Glory_, none did ever purchase, yet, Till, to be _Vertuous_ they could first attaine; Nor shall those men faire _Vertues_ favour get, Who _labour_ not, such _Dignities_ to gaine. And, this _Impresa_ doth inferre no lesse: For, by the _Spade_, is _Labour_ here implide; The _Snake_, a vertuous _Prudence_, doth expresse; And, _Glorie_, by the _Wreath_ is Typifide. For, where a vertuous _Industry_ is found, She, shall with Wreaths of _Glory_, thus be crown’d. _Though =Fortune= prove true =Vertues= Foe, It cannot worke her Overthrowe._ [Illustration: NON OBEST VIRTVTI SORS. ILLVSTR. VI. _Book. 1._]