Or rotten wood, o'er which the worm hath crept;

The baneful schedule of her nocent charms,
And binding characters, through which

woun

Her puppets, the Sigilla of her witchcraft.

Ben Jonson.

LIBERTY NATURAL.

Equal nature fashion'd us

All in one mould. The bear serves not the bear, Nor the wolf the wolf; 'twas odds of strength in tyrants,

That pluck'd the first link from the golden chain With which that thing of things bound in the

world.

Why then, since we are taught by their examples To love our liberty, if not command,

Should the strong serve the weak, the fair deform'd ones?

Or such as know the cause of things pay tribute To ignorant fools? All's but the outward

gloss,

And politic form, that does distinguish us.

Massinger.

WHAT IS LOVE?

It is a flame and ardour of the mind,

Dead in the proper corpse, quick in another's:
Transfers the lover into the loved.

That he or she that loves, engraves or stamps
The idea of what they love, first in themselves;
Or, like to glasses, so their minds take in
The forms of their beloved, and them reflect.
It is the likeness of affections.

Is both the parent and the nurse of love.
Love is a spiritual coupling of two souls,

So much more excellent as it least relates
Unto the body; circular, eternal; [cious,
Not feign'd or made, but born. and then so pre-

As naught can value it but itself; so free,
As nothing can command it but itself.
And in itself so round and liberal,

As, where it favours, it bestows itself.

But we must take and understand this love

Along still as a name of dignity,

Not pleasure.

True love hath no unworthy thought, no light,

Loose, unbecoming appetite, or strain ;

But fix'd, constant, pure, immutable.

Ben Jonson.

THE INFATUATION OF Love.

There is no life on earth but being in love!
There are no studies, no delights, no business,
No intercourse or trade of sense or soul,
But what is love! I was the laziest creature,
The most unprofitable sign of nothing,
The veriest drone, and slept away my life
Beyond the dormouse, till I was in love.
And now I can outwake the nightingale,
Outwatch an usurer, and outwalk him too,
Stalk like a ghost that haunted 'bout a treasure;
And all that fancied treasure-it is love!

Ben Jonson.

WOMAN'S NATURE DIFFERENT FROM MAN'S.
There is a vile, dishonest trick in man,
More than in women: all the men I meet
Appear thus to me,-are harsh and rude,
And have a subtilty in everything,

Which love could never know; but we, fond

women,

Harbour the easiest and smoothest thoughts,
And think all shall go so; it is unjust
That men and women should be match'd together.
Beaumont and Fletcher.

SONG OF A SAD HEART.

Come, sleep, and with thy sweet deceiving
Lock me in delight a while;

Let some pleasing dreams beguile
All my fancies; that from thence
I may feel an influence,

All my powers of care bereaving!

Though but a shadow, but a sliding,
Let me know some little joy!
We that suffer long annoy,
Are contented with a thought,
Through an idle fancy wrought:
Oh, let my joys have some abiding!

Beaumont and Fletcher.

FAME OF THE EARTH ONLY.

Vain empty words

Of honour, glory, and immortal fame,
Can these recall the spirit from its place,

Or re-inspire the breathless clay with life?

What though your fame, with all its thousand

trumpets,

Sound o'er the sepulchres, will that awake

The sleeping dead?

Sewell

MUSIC AND SONG.

Care-charming sleep, thou easer of all woes,
Brother to Death, sweetly thyself dispose
On this afflicted prince; fall, like a cloud,
In gentle showers; give nothing that is loud,
Or painful to his slumbers; easy, sweet,
And as a purling stream, thou son of Night,
Pass by his troubled senses; sing his pain,
Like hollow murmuring wind, or silver rain.
Into this prince gently, oh, gently slide,
And kiss him into slumbers like a bride.

Beaumont and Fletcher.

LOVE AND FRIENDSHIP.

For all things, friendship excepted,
Are subject to fortune: love is but an
Eye-worm which only tickleth the head with
Hopes and wishes: friendship's the image of
Eternity, in which there is nothing
Movable-nothing mischievous; as much
Difference as there is between beauty

And virtue, bodies and shadows, colours
And life, so great odds is there between love
And friendship.