Honour and shame from no condition rise; Act well your part, there all the honour lies. Fortune in men has some small diff'rence made, 195 One flaunts in rags, one flutters in brocade;[1490] The cobbler aproned,[1491] and the parson gowned, The friar hooded, and the monarch crowned. "What differ more," you cry, "than crown and cowl?" I'll tell you, friend; a wise man and a fool.[1492] 200 You'll find, if once the monarch acts the monk,[1493] Or, cobbler-like, the parson will be drunk, Worth makes the man, and want of it the fellow; The rest is all but leather or prunella.[1494] [Sidenote: 3. Titles.] Stuck o'er with titles, and hung round with strings,[1495] 205 That thou may'st be by kings, or whores of kings.[1496] [Sidenote: 4. Birth.] Boast the pure blood of an illustrious race,[1497] In quiet flow from Lucrece to Lucrece:[1498] But by your fathers' worth if yours you rate, Count me those only who were good and great. 210 Go! if your ancient, but ignoble blood Has crept through scoundrels ever since the flood,[1499] Go! and pretend your family is young; Nor own your fathers have been fools so long. What can ennoble sots, or slaves, or cowards? 215 Alas! not all the blood of all the Howards.[1500] [Sidenote: 5. Greatness.] Look next on greatness; say where greatness lies. "Where but among the heroes and the wise!" Heroes are much the same, the point's agreed, From Macedonia's madman[1501] to the Swede; 220 The whole strange purpose of their lives to find, Or make, an enemy of all mankind![1502] Not one looks backward, onward still he goes,[1503] Yet ne'er looks forward further than his nose.[1504] No less alike[1505] the politic and wise; 225 All sly slow things,[1506] with circumspective eyes: Men in their loose unguarded hours they take, Not that themselves are wise, but others weak. But grant that those can conquer, these can cheat, 'Tis phrase absurd[1507] to call a villain great:[1508] 230 Who wickedly is wise, or madly brave, Is but the more a fool, the more a knave. Who noble ends by noble means obtains, Or, failing, smiles in exile or in chains, Like good Aurelius let him reign,[1509] or bleed 235 Like Socrates,[1510] that man is great indeed. [Sidenote: 6. Fame.]