4941. Prov. xxiv, 16. Septies enim cadet justus, _et resurget_; impii autem corruent in malum. 4963. _To falle and to stonde._ I by no means agree with Price's interpretation of this phrase, or in his preference of the reading _to falle if he stonde_. (Note on Warton ii, 67.) The motion of the boat causes the firm man alternately to fall and stand; be he ever so stable, he stumbles now and then, but his strength is shown in his being able to recover himself. Such are the moral slips which even the just man cannot avoid. But if the man in the boat be too weak to arise again and place himself at the helm, his boat and himself will be lost for want of strength and guidance. So it is with the wicked man. The completion of the phrase quoted from Proverbs, as given in the preceding note, shows the justice of this explanation. 5014. _if I may lyve and loke._ Price (in Warton) first pointed out the identity between this expression and the one so common in Homer: it is "one of those primitive figures which are common to the poetry of every country." [Greek: Outis, emeu zôntos kai epi chthoni derkomenoio,] [Greek: Soi koilêis para nêusi bareias cheiras epoisei.] Il. i, 88. Whitaker's interpretation is nonsense, "If I have space to live and look in the book." Other instances of this phrase occur in ll. 12132, 13268, and 13303 of Piers Ploughman. 5082. 2 Corinth. xi, 19. 5157. _of four kynnes thynges._ The medieval notion of the manner in which the elements were mixed together in the formation of the human body, here alluded to, appears to partake more of Western legend than of Eastern tradition. In the English verses on Popular Science (given in my "Popular Treatises of Science written during the Middle Ages," p. 138), we have the following curious account of the four things forming the body, and the influence of each:-- Man hath of urthe al his bodi, of water he haveth wete, Of eyr he haveth wynd, of fur he haveth hete. Ech quic thing of alle this foure, of some hath more other lasse; Ho so haveth of urthe most, he is slou as an asse; Of vad colour, of hard hide, boustes forme, and ded strong, Of moche thoght, of lute speche, of stille grounynge, and wraththe long, A slough wrecche and ferblet, fast and loth to geve his god, Sone old, and noght wilful, stable and stedefast of mode. And so on with the other elements. This doctrine of the composition of man from the four elements became a very popular one in the sixteenth century, when the poets frequently allude to it, as may be seen in the examples given by Nares (_v._ ELEMENTS). In the _Mirror for Magistrates_ (_King Forrex_, page 76), it is said:-- If we behold the substance of a man, How he is made of _elements_ by kind, Of earth, of water, aire, and fire, than We would full often call unto our mind, That all our earthly joys we leave behind. Massinger (_Renegado_ iii, 2) says:--