6.

Officious fool! that needs must meddling be
In business, that concerns not thee!
For when to future years thou' extend❜st thy cares,
Thou deal'st in other men's affairs.

Even aged men, as if they truly were
Children again, for age prepare;

Provisions for long travel they design,
In the last point of their short line,

8.

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!

9.

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 sun-shine all the day;

10.

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.

11.

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!

12.

Be prudent, and the shore in prospect keep, In a weak boat trust not the deep. Plac'd beneath envy, above envying rise; Pity great men, great things despise.

13.

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. ·

X.

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 stepmother, 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 is no fooling with life, when it is once turned beyond forty. The

""

:

seeking for a fortune then, is but a desperate aftergame 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 might be made a rich man too; "but I intreat 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 of obliging him, which is, not to add any thing to his estate, but to take something from his desires."

The sum of this is, that, for the uncertain hopes of some conveniences, we ought not to defer the execution of a work that is necessary; especially, when the use of those things, which we would stay for, may otherwise be supplied; but the loss of time, never recovered: nay, farther yet, though we were sure to obtain all that we had a mind to, though we were sure of getting never so much by continuing the game, yet, when the light of life is so near going out, and ought to be so precious, "le jeu ne vaut pas la chandelle," the play is not worth the expense of the candle: after having been long tost in a tem

pest, if our masts be standing, and we have still sail and tackling enough to carry us to our port, it is no matter for the want of streamers and top-gallants;

-utere velis,

Totos pande sinus

A gentleman in our late civil wars, when his quarters were beaten up by the enemy, was taken prisoner, and lost his life afterwards, only by staying to put on a band, and adjust his perriwig; he would escape like a person of quality, or not at all, and died the noble martyr of ceremony and gentility. I think, your counsel of "Festina lente" is as ill to a man who is flying from the world, as it would have been to that unfortunate well-bred gentleman, who was so cautious as not to fly undecently from his enemies ; and therefore I prefer Horace's advice before yours,

Incipe

sapere aude,

Begin; the getting out of doors is the greatest part of the journey. Varro teaches us that Latin proverb, "portam itineri longissimam esse:" but to return to Horace,

Incipe vivendi rectè qui prorogat horam,

Rusticus exspectat, dum labitur amnis: at ille
Labitur, et labetur in omne volubilis ævum."

Begin, be bold, and venture to be wise;