Desire nor reason hath, nor rest, And, blind, doth seldom choose the best : But as the cinders of the fire. As ships in ports desired are drowned; As fruit, once ripe, then falls to ground; So fond Desire, when it attains, 25 The life expires, the woe remains. 30 And yet some poets fain would prove Affection to be perfect love; And that Desire is of that kind, No less a passion of the mind, As if wild beasts and men did seek To like, to love, to choose alike. Sir Walter Raleigh. 35 V NATURAL COMPARISONS WITH PERFECT LOVE. Where rivers smoothest run, deep are the fords; The firmest faith is in the fewest words; The turtles cannot sing, and yet they love. True hearts have eyes, and ears, no tongues to speak; They hear, and see, and sigh; and then they break. 5 10 Anon. VI LIFE. The world's a bubble, and the life of man In his conception wretched; from the womb Curst from his cradle, and brought up to years Who then to frail mortality shall trust, But limns on water, or but writes in dust. Yet whilst with sorrow here we live opprest, What life is best? Courts are but only superficial schools To dandle fools: The rural parts are turned into a den Of savage men : And where's a city from foul vice so free, But may be termed the worst of all the three? Domestic cares afflict the husband's bed, Or pains his head : Those that live single, take it for a curse, Or do things worse: Some would have children; those that have them, moan, Or wish them gone: What is it, then, to have, or have no wife, But single thraldom, or a double strife? Our own affections still at home to please To cross the seas to any foreign soil, Peril and toil : 5 ΙΟ 15 20 25 Wars with their noise affright us; when they cease, What then remains, but that we still should cry Lord Bacon. VII THE SOUL'S ERRAND. Go, Soul, the body's guest, The truth shall be thy warrant. Go, since I needs must die, Say to the Court it glows And shines like rotten wood; What's good, and doth no good. If Church and Court reply, Then give them both the lie. Tell Potentates they live 30 5 IO Acting but others' actions; Not loved unless they give, Not strong but by their factions. If Potentates reply, Give Potentates the lie. Tell men of high condition, That manage the Estate, Their practice only hate. 15 20 And if they will reply, Then give them all the lie. Tell Arts they have no soundness, But vary by esteeming ; Tell Schools they want profoundness, If Arts and Schools reply, And stand too much on seeming. 65 What is the world? tell, worldling, if thou know it. If it be good, why do all ills o'erflow it? If it be friend, why kills it, as a foe, 5 |