Various Authors

THERE is a mystery in the soul of state,

Which hath an operation more divine

Than breath or pen can give expression to.

THERE is a history in all men’s lives,

Figuring the nature of the times deceased;

The which observed a man may prophesy,

With a near aim of the main chance of things

As yet not come to life, which in their seeds,

And weak beginnings, lie intreasured.

THERE is a tide in the affairs of men,

Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;

Omitted, all the voyage of their life

Is bound in shallows, and in miseries.

Shakespeare: Julius Cæsar.

KNOWING the Heart of Man is set to be

The centre of this world, about the which

These revolutions of disturbances

Still roll; where all the aspects of misery

Predominate; whose strong effects are such

As he must bear, being helpless to redress:

And that, unless above himself he can

Erect himself, how poor a thing is man!

Daniel.

THE RECLUSE Hermit ofttimes more doth know

Of the world’s inmost wheels, than worldlings can;

As man is of the world, the Heart of man

Is an epitome of God’s great book

Of creatures, and men need no farther look.

O HOW feeble is man’s power,

That, if good fortune fall,

Cannot add another hour,

Nor a lost hour recall;

But, come bad chance,

And we join to it our strength,

And we teach it art and length,

Itself o’er us to advance.

IF men be worlds, there is in every one

Something to answer in proportion

All the world’s riches: and in good men this

Virtue our form’s form, and our soul’s soul is.