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L.

LI.

lore proficiscitur, communicare se aliis potest, quanquam non sine subjecti cui inest diminutione continuâ; ista verò neque se absumit, neque alios quicquam adjuvat. Malo nunquam, quàm non semper lucere: nullum habere lumen malo, quàm non aliis quod habeo impertire.

Conspecto quodam oculum unum
claudente.

UBI collimare aliquò velimus, aut cernere accuratiùs, oculum unum claudimus.

Ita et animi oculis facere solemus. Ubi fidei oculo exquisitissimè intueri volumus, rationis oculum interea claudimus: aliter fieri non potest, quin ut visuales radii, qui utrique harum apprehensioni inservire debeant, transversi sibi incidant, visionisque actum impediant. Imò, dextrum hunc rationis oculum eruam ego potiùs, quàm, ut intercipiendo beatificam Dei mei visionem, offendiculo mihi sit.

Conspecto fonte. QUANTUM verò fumum edit fons iste; ubi ampliores quique canales gelu constricti obrigescunt! viva est hæc aqua; aliis interim emortuis. Illud nos experientia omnes docet, fontanas aquas, quæ à scaturiginibus profundioribus oriuntur, hyeme calidiores semper quàm æstate profluere: intrinsecum nempe calorem repercutit duplicatque frigus ex

ternum.

Talis est verus quisque Christianus, in die malo: illa, quâ imbuitur gratiæ vita, oppugnando vigorem acquirit: neque ita sanctus fuisset iste, si in meliora tempora incidisset. Nolo dicere,

mies; but I must say, he may thank God for his enemies.

O God, what can put out that heat, which is increased with cold? How happy shall I be, if I may grow so much more in grace, as the world in malice!

On gnats in the

sun.

WHAT a cloud of gnats is here! Mark their motion: they do nothing, but play up and down in the warm sun, and sing; and, when they have done, sit down, and sting the next hand or face, they can seize upon.

eum hoc nomine gratias debere inimicis; certè dico, eum pro inimicis gratias debere Deo.

O Deus, quid tandem restinguere potest ignem illum, qui frigore intenditur? Quàm ego fœlix ero, si quantum mundus livore ac malitiâ, tantum ego gratià accrevero.

LII. Visis culicibus in radiis solaribus ludentibus.

See here a perfect emblem of idleness and detraction. How many do thus miserably misspend their good hours! who, after they have wasted the succeeding days in vain and merely unprofitable pastime, sit down, and backbite their neighbours!

The bee sings too sometimes; but she works also; and her work is not more admirable than useful*: but these foolish flies do nothing but play and sing to no purpose. Even the busiest and most active spirits must recreate; but to make a trade of sport, is for none but lazy wantons.

The bee stings too; but it is when she is provoked: these draw blood, uno:lended; and sting, for their own pleasure, I would be glad of some recreation; but to enable and sweeten my work. I would not but sting sometimes, where is just cause

QUANTA culicum nubes istìc est! Vide verò mihi horuin motus omnes: ludunt illi nempe per solis radios, sùsque déque volitando, cantiliantque; et, ubi desierint, sedent, et manum proximam faciemve, in quam incidere contigerit, mordent illico.

Ecce perfectum emblema otii ac detractionis. Quot sunt, qui ita pessimè horas bonas consumiunt! qui, ubi succedentes sibi dies vanis inutilibusque ludorum generibus prodegerint, resident tandem æquè mertes, detrahuntque proximis.

Etiani cantat aliquando apis; sed et laborat quoque assidue : istæ verò fatuæ musciculæ ludunt semper canuntque perperam. Vel negotiosissima quaque et agillima ingenia necesse habent tantò magis recreari; totos verò se dedere ludis ac voluptatibus, otiosissimorum hominum èque Epicuri grege porcorum est.

Mordet stimulatque etiam apis; sed non nisi injurià quâpiam lacessita: isti sanguinem, parùm provocati, eliciunt; et tantùm animi causâ lædunt. Non recusârim ego exercitationis genus aliquod; quo me recreem fiamque labori meo et aptior et ala

*The sentence "And her work is not more admirable than useful," seems to have been overlooked by the Translator, EDITOR.

of offence. But God bless me from those men, which will ever be either doing nothing, or ill.

LIII.

On the sight of grapes. MARK the difference of these grapes. There you see a cluster, whose grapes touch one another, well ripened: here you see some stragglers, which grow almost solitarily, green and hard.

It is thus with us. Christian society helpeth our progress: and Woe to him that is alone. He is well, that is the better for others; but he is happy, by whom others are better.

crior. Neque non stimulare velim aliquando, ubi sontica me injuria irritaverit. Libera verò me, ô Deus, ab illis hominibus, qui aut nihil, aut malè semper agere mavolunt.

Conspectis ucarum racemis. VIDE quantum inter uvas hasce discrimen est. Ibi botrum cernis uvarum, quæ se mutuò contingunt, bene maturum: solitariæ, quas alibi vides, virides planè duræque manent.

Sic et nobiscum se habet. Sancta societas progressum nostrum haud parùm promovet: Ve autum soli. Benè illi est, qui aliorum operâ fit melior; sed fœlix est is, cujus operâ fiunt alii meliores.

On a corn field over-grown with
weeds.

HERE were a goodly field of corn, if it were not over-laid with weeds. I do not like these reds, and blues, and yellows, amongst these plain stalks and ears. This beauty would do well elsewhere. I would rather to see a plot less fair, and more yielding.

In this field, I see a true picture of the world: wherein, there is more glory, than true substance; wherein, the greater part carries it from the better; wherein, the native sons of the earth out-strip the adventitious brood of grace; wherein, parasites and unprofitable hang-byes do both rob and over-top their masters. Both field and world grow alike, look alike, and shall end alike; both are for the fire: while the

LIV. Viso agro herbis noxiis malè infestato.

Quàm lætâ gauderet segete agellus iste, nisi quòd herbis hisce noxiis ita nimiùm abundet. Non amo colores hosce cæruleos, rubeos, flavos, simplicibus aristis interspersos. Venustas hæc alibi mihi placeret magis. Malo istic videre arvum minus pulchrum, ferax magis.

In agro hoc, vivam mundi effigiem video: in quo, plus gloriæ, quàm solidæ virtutis inesse comperitur; ubi, major pars exuperat meliorem; ubi, nativa terræ proles adventitiam gratiæ sobolem longè vincit; ubi, parasiti et inutiles scurræ dominos suos et spoliant et aliquando etiam supereminent. Et ager et mundus, uti similes apparent, ita similiter crescunt, desinuntque similiter; igni meritò adjudicatur uterque:

homely and solid ears of despised virtue shall be for the garners of immortality.

dum simplices solidæque contemptæ virtutis aristæ in horreis immortalitatis reponuntur.

On the sight of tulips, and marigolds, LV. Conspectá tulipá, calendulá, heliotroSc. in his garden.

THESE flowers are true clients of the sun: how observant they are of his motion and influence! At even, they shut up; as mourning for his departure, without whom they neither can nor would flourish: in the morning, they welcome his rising, with a cheerful openness and at noon, are fully displayed, in a free acknowledgment of his bounty.

Thus doth the good heart unto God. When thou turnedst away thy face, I was troubled; saith the man after God's own heart. In thy presence is life; yea, the fulness of joy. Thus doth the carnal heart to the world: when that withdraws his favour, he is dejected; and revives, with a smile. All is in our choice. Whatsoever is our sun will thus carry us.

O God, be thou to me, such as thou art in thyself: thou shalt be merciful, in drawing me; I shall be happy, in following thee.

On the sound of a cracked bell. WHAT a harsh sound doth this bell make, in every ear! The metal is good enough: it is the rift, that makes it so unpleasingly jarring.

How too like is this bell, to a scandalous and ill-lived teacher! His calling is honourable: his noise is heard far enough: but the flaw, which is noted in his life, mars his doctrine; and of

pio in horto suo.

VERI clientes solis sunt isti flores: quàm studiosè observant et motum illius et influxum! Sub vesperam, clauduntur statim; quasi lugentes discessum illius, sine quo neque possint neque velint quidem efflorescere: mane verò, reditui ipsius, alacri quâdam foliorum extensione, gratulantur: meridie autem, velut liberrimè ejus bonitatem fassi, quàm maximè dilatantur.

Cor pium sic planè facit Deo. Avertisti faciem tuam, et turbabar; inquit ille qui Deo cordi erat. E contrà; In præsentiá tui vita est; imò, plenitudo gaudii,

Sed et cor carneum sic facit seculo: illo quippe favorem subtrahente, dejicitur; renidente demùm, reviviscit. Plurimùm ergo interest, in quo nostra se figit electio. Sol noster, quicquid id est, nos ad se attrahet.

( Deus, sis tu mihi, quod in te ipso es: scilicet eris tu, me trahendo, misericors; ego, te sequendo, fœlix ero.

LVI.

Audito campane fractæ sono. Quàm ingratum horridumque sonitum edit campana hæc, cuivis auri! Metallum satis purum est: sola fissura est, quæ raucum hoc et discors sonat.

Quàm similis est campanula hæc, infami et improbo doctori! Munus illius reverendum est: satis sonora vox ei: scandalum, quod ab impurâ ejus vitâ oritur, doctrinæ fructum omnem destruit

fends those ears, which, else, would take pleasure in his teaching. It is possible, that such a one, even by that discordous noise, may ring in others into the triumphant Church of heaven: but there is no remedy for himself, but the fire; whether for his reforming, or judgment.

et corrumpit; offenditque aures illas, quæ, absque hoc foret, concionibus ipsius caperentur. Fieri fortè potest, ut hic talis, vel dissono illo stridore, ad triumphantem in cœlis Ecclesiam vocet colligatque alios: nullum verò ipsi remedium manet, præter ignem ; sive reformando homini, sive de, struendo.

LVII.

On the sight of a blind man. How much am I bound to God, that hath given me eyes, to see this man's want of eyes! With what suspicion and fear he walks! How doth his hand and staff examine his way? With what jealousy, doth he receive every morsel, every draught; and yet meets with many a post, and stumbles at many a stone, and swallows many a fly! To him the world is, as if it were not; or, as if it were all rubs, and snares, and downfalls: and if any man will lend him a hand, he must trust to his, however faithless, guide; without all comfort, save this, that he cannot see himself mis

carry.

Many a one is thus spiritually blind; and, because he is so, discerns it not; and, not discerning, complains not of so woeful a condition. The god of this world hath blinded the eyes of the children of disobedience. They walk on, in the ways of death; and yield themselves over to the guidance of him, who seeks for nothing, but their precipitation into hell*. It is an addition to the misery of this inward occæcation, that it

Viso caco quodam. QUANTUM debeo ego Deo meo, qui mihi oculos dederit, quibus hunc hominem et oculis carere videam et carendo miserum! Quàm suspitiose, quàm meticulose incedit ille! Quàm solicitè, et manu et baculo, examinat sibi viam! Quàm anxiè timidèque, morsiunculam omnem haustûsque guttulam recipit; sæpè tamen aut posti alicui eundo obviat, aut ad lapidem impingit, aut muscam bibendo absorbet! Non aliter se huic habet mundus, quàm si omnino non esset; aut, ac si totus esset offendicula, retia, præcipitia: quòd si quis illi manum commodare velit, huic, quantumvis perfido, duci credat necesse est; absque omni quidem miseria allevamento, excepto uno hoc, quòd perire se nequeat videre.

Plærique sic spiritualitèr cæci sunt: et, quia sic se habent, parùm discernunt; non discernentes autem, de tam miserâ conditione nulli conqueruntur. Deus hujus sæculi occæcavit oculos infidelibus et immorigeris. Ambulant illi, in viis æternæ mortis; atque ei se ducendos committunt, qui nihil aliud, præter ipsorum in infernum præcipitationem, quærit.

* The remainder is omitted in the Latin. EDITOR.

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