Muft for our needs, turn fools up, and plough ladies
Sometime, to try what glebe they are; and this
Is no unfruitful piece. She and I now
Are on a project, for the fact, and venting
Of a new kind of fucus, paint for ladies,
'To ferve the kingdom: wherein she herself
Hath travell'd, 'pecially, by way of service
Unto her fex; and hopes to get the whole monopoly,
As the reward of her invention.

1.

I meant to have offer'd it

Johnfon's Devil is an Afs.

Your ladyship on the perfecting the patent. 2. How is it?

1. For ferving the whole ftate with tooth-picks;
Somewhat an intricate business to discourse, but
I fhow how much the fubject is abus'd;

First, in that one commodity: then what diseases
And putrefactions in the gums are bred,

By thofe are made of adulterate and falfe wood;
My plot, for reformation of these fellows,
To have all-tooth-picks brought unto an office,
'There feal'd; and fuch as counterfeit 'em mul&ted:
And last, for venting 'em, to have a book
Printed, to teach their ufe; which ev'ry child
Shall have throughout the kingdom that can read,
And learn to pick his teeth by which beginning
Early to practife, with fome other rules,
Of never fleeping with the mouth open, chawing
Some grains of maltick, will preferve the breath
Pure, and fo free from taint.

These are my old projectors, and they make me
The fuperintendent of their business:

But ftill they shoot two or three bows too short,
For want of money and adventurers.

They have as many demurrs as the chancery;
And hatch more ftrange imaginations
Than any dreaming philofopher; one of them

D 4

Ibid.

Will

Will undertake the making of bay-falt,
For a penny a bufhel, to ferve the state;
Another dreams of building water-works,
Drying of fens and marshes, like the Dutch-men :
Another ftrives, to raise his fortunes, from
Decay'd bridges, and would exact a tribute
From ale-houses, and fign pofts: fome there are,
Would make a thorough-fare for the whole kingdom,
An office, where nature fhould give account
For all fhe took, and fent into the world:
For they were born in an unlucky hour,
For fome unfortunate mifchief or other,

Still comes athwart them! well I must in to them,
And feaft them with new hopes; 'twill be good iport
To hear how they difpute it pro and con.

Marmyon's Holland's Leaguer.

247 249 PROMISE.
Promifing is the very air of the

Time; it opens the eyes of expectation.
Performance is ever the duller for

His act; and, but in the plainer and fimpler
Kind of people, the deed is quite out of

Ufe. To promife, is moft courtly, and fashionable;
Performance is a kind of will or teftament,

Which argues a great sickness in his judgment
That makes it.

Shakespear's Timpt

Our promise must not prejudice our good:
And that it is no reason that the tongue
Tie the whole body to eternal wrong..

Daniel's Arcadia.

1. We think your promifes fpring-tides; but we
Fear you'll ebb in your performance :
2. My deeds, and fpeeches, fir,

Are lines drawn from one center; what I promise
To do, I'll do.

Dekker's Match me in London.

Court

Court promifes! let wife men count them curft;
For, while you live, he that scores beft, pays worst.
Webster's White Devil.

Supply your promises with deeds;
You know that painted meat no hunger feeds.

Lords promifes are mortal, and commonly
Die within half an hour they are spoken.

Ibid.

Middleton's Mad World my Mafters.

Promifes of princes must not be

By after-arts evaded. Who dares punish

The breach of oaths in fubjects; and yet flight

The faith he hath made them?

Habbington's Queen of Arragon.

You cannot lofe your virtue, fir, and then

I'm fure my courtesy will never fail :

To promife more, would make me feem too prodigal Of what you can't in nobleness receive.

1.

Sir W. Davenant's Platonick Lovers.
'Tis apparent,

Thou wilt not fail thy friend in great engagements,
Who art fo punctual in a promis'd trifle.

2. The man that is not in th' enemy's pow'r,
Nor fetter'd by misfortune, and breaks promises,
Degrades himself; he never can pretend

To honour more.

Sir Robert Stapleton's Slighted Maid H PROSPERITY. 250. Profperity's the very bond of love,

Whole fresh complexion, and whole heart together,

Affliction alters.

Daily and hourly proof

Shakespear's Winter's Tale.

Tell us, profperity is at higheft degree,

The fount and handle of calamity:

Like duft before a whirlwind thofe men fly,
That proftrate on the ground of fortune lie;

D 5

And

That mortal whom a deity's favour shields,
No worldly force is able to confound;
He may fecurely walk through dan ger's fields;

Times and occafions are to ferve him bound.

E. of Sterline's Crafus.

O all preparing providence divine!

In thy large book what fecrets are enroll'd?
What fundry helps doth thy great pow'r affign,
To prop the courfe which thou intend 'ft to hold?
What mortal fenfe is able to define

Thy mysterys, thy counfels manyfold?
It is thy wisdom ftrangely that extends
Obfcure proceedings to apparent ends.

Wife princes

Drayton's Barons Wars.

Fight not alone with forces; providence
Directs and tutors ftrength: elfe elephants
And barbed horfes might as well prevail,
As the most fubtil ftratagems of war.

John Ford's Perkin Warbeck.
Wisdom and virtue be

The only deftinies fet for a man to follow.
The heav'nly pow'rs are to be reverenc'd,
Not fearch'd into; their mercies rather be
By humble prayers to be fought, than their
Hidden councils by curiofity.

Who is it, that will doubt

Baron's Mirza.

The care of heaven; or think th' immortal
Pow'rs are flow, caufe they take the priviledge
To chufe their own time, when they will send their
Bleffings down?

Sir W. Davenant's Fair Favourite. 25252.PRUDENCE.

She's a majestick ruler, and commands
Ev'n with the terror of her awful brow.
As in a throng, fedition being rais'd,
Th' ignoble multitude inflam'd with madness,

Firebrands

Firebrands and ftones fly; fury fhews them weapons
"Till spying fome grave man, honour'd for wisdom,
They straight are filent, and erect their ears;
Whilst he with his fage council doth affwage
Their minds diforder, and appease their rage:
So prudence, when rebellious appetites
Have rais'd temptations, with their batteries.
Affaulting reafon, then doth interpose,

And keep it fafe. Th' attempts of fense are weak,
If their vain forces wisdom deign to break.

Nabbs's Microcofmus
Prudence, thou virtue of the mind, by which
We do confult of all that's good or evil,
Conducing to felicity; direct

My thoughts and actions by the rules of reafon:
Teach me contempt of all inferior vanities;
Pride, in a marble portal gilded o'er,
Affyrian carpets, chairs of ivory,

The luxury of a stupendous houfe,
Garments perfum'd, gems valu'd not for use,
But needlefs ornament: a fumptuous table,
And all the baits of fenfe. A vulgar eye
Sees not the dangers which beneath them lie.

A wife man,

When he does found his happiness, forecasts
Mifchiefs, that fate had never practis'd yet;
Which if they happen, if they prove too true,
They meet, not overtake him; and fo find
A fcorn, becaufe a preparation.

Ibid.

Gomerfall's Lodovick Sforza Look forward what's to come, and back what's paft; Thy life will be with praife and prudence grac'd : What lofs or gain may follow, thou may'st guess; Thou then wilt be fecure of the fuccefs.

Denham.

PU