_Ulyss._ Troy, yet upon his basis, had been down,[1116][1120] 75 And the great Hector's sword had lack'd a master, But for these instances.[1121] The specialty of rule hath been neglected: And, look, how many Grecian tents do stand[1122] Hollow upon this plain, so many hollow factions.[1122][1123] 80 When that the general is not like the hive[1124] To whom the foragers shall all repair,[1125] What honey is expected? Degree being vizarded, The unworthiest shows as fairly in the mask.[1126] The heavens themselves, the planets and this centre, 85 Observe degree, priority and place, Insisture, course, proportion, season, form,[1127] Office and custom, in all line of order: And therefore is the glorious planet Sol In noble eminence enthroned and sphered 90 Amidst the other; whose medicinable eye[1128] Corrects the ill aspects of planets evil,[1129] And posts like the commandment of a king, Sans check to good and bad: but when the planets In evil mixture to disorder wander, 95 What plagues and what portents, what mutiny, What raging of the sea, shaking of earth, Commotion in the winds, frights, changes, horrors, Divert and crack, rend and deracinate The unity and married calm of states[1130] 100 Quite from their fixure! O, when degree is shaked,[1131] Which is the ladder to all high designs,[1132] The enterprise is sick! How could communities,[1133] Degrees in schools and brotherhoods in cities, Peaceful commerce from dividable shores, 105 The primogenitive and due of birth,[1134] Prerogative of age, crowns, sceptres, laurels, But by degree, stand in authentic place? Take but degree away, untune that string, And, hark, what discord follows! each thing meets[1135] 110 In mere oppugnancy: the bounded waters Should lift their bosoms higher than the shores,[1136] And make a sop of all this solid globe: Strength should be lord of imbecility,[1137] And the rude son should strike his father dead:[1137] 115 Force should be right; or rather, right and wrong,[1137] Between whose endless jar justice resides,[1138] Should lose their names, and so should justice too.[1136][1137][1139] Then every thing includes itself in power,[1140] Power into will, will into appetite; 120 And appetite, an universal wolf, So doubly seconded with will and power, Must make perforce an universal prey, And last eat up himself. Great Agamemnon,[1141] This chaos, when degree is suffocate, 125 Follows the choking.[1142] And this neglection of degree it is[1143] That by a pace goes backward, with a purpose[1144][1145] It hath to climb. The general's disdain'd[1144]