Wisely the ant against poor winter hoards The stock which summer’s wealth affords, In grasshoppers, that must at autumn die, How vain were such an industry. IX. Of power and honour the deceitful light Might half excuse our cheated sight, If it of life the whole small time would stay, And be our sunshine all the day. X. Like lightning that, begot but in a cloud, Though shining bright, and speaking loud, Whilst it begins, concludes its violent race, And where it gilds, it wounds the place. XI. Oh, scene of fortune, which dost fair appear Only to men that stand not near. Proud poverty, that tinsel bravery wears, And like a rainbow, painted tears. XII. Be prudent, and the shore in prospect keep, In a weak boat trust not the deep. Placed beneath envy, above envying rise; Pity great men, great things despise. XIII. The wise example of the heavenly lark. Thy fellow poet, Cowley, mark, Above the clouds let thy proud music sound, Thy humble nest build on the ground. THE DANGER OF PROCRASTINATION. _A letter to Mr_. _S_. _L._ I AM glad that you approve and applaud my design of withdrawing myself from all tumult and business of the world and consecrating the little rest of my time to those studies to which nature had so motherly inclined me, and from which fortune like a step-mother has so long detained me. But nevertheless, you say—which But is ærugo mera, a rust which spoils the good metal it grows upon. But, you say, you would advise me not to precipitate that resolution, but to stay a while longer with patience and complaisance, till I had gotten such an estate as might afford me, according to the saying of that person whom you and I love very much, and would believe as soon as another man, _cum dignitate otium_. This were excellent advice to Joshua, who could bid the sun stay too. But there’s no fooling with life when it is once turned beyond forty. The seeking for a fortune then is but a desperate after game, it is a hundred to one if a man fling two sixes and recover all; especially if his hand be no luckier than mine. There is some help for all the defects of fortune, for if a man cannot attain to the length of his wishes, he may have his remedy by cutting of them shorter. Epicurus writes a letter to Idomeneus, who was then a very powerful, wealthy, and it seems bountiful person, to recommend to him, who had made so many men rich, one Pythocles, a friend of his, whom he desired to be made a rich man too: But I entreat you that you would not do it just the same way as you have done to many less deserving persons, but in the most gentlemanly manner