Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A08278
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The labyrinth of mans life. Or Vertues delight and enuies opposite. By Io: Norden
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Norden, John, 1548-1625?
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1614
(1614)
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STC 18611; ESTC S110180
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46,781
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96
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comparatiue degree Which makes th' ambitious rash to vndertake Things desperate for gold and glories sake He thirsts for bloâ—d he hungers most for gold He ouerleapes mens heads takes not good hold Then Fortune frownes and giues his pride a check Aspiring wings clipt fals and breakes his neck Ambition is the sparke of Enuies fire Aspires it selfe hates others that aspire Retaines not any drop of Temperance To quench the heat of hatefull Arrogance Where haute Ambition climes th' inferior fall Hard are th-ambitious and illiberall Vnlesse to Agents in their Tragedies Men meerely of infernall qualities Who stops their enterprise by force must downe Bloud must make way to haute Ambitions crowne And when the diademe is wonn and worne With highest dignitie and best adorne The Actors of their miscrean pollicies No longer held their needfull complices But seeking surance for their secrecie Make agents patients of their trecherie Then like the Sunne resplending in the skies In selfe-conceit th' are glorious in mens eyes Then sway they th' earth as if whole orbe were theirs And due to none but to them and their heires As in a dreame puft vp awak't they fall Ambition beates th' ambitious to the wall Successiuely Ambition raignes by force The sword her right and Rigor her remorce Glorie and gold are two extreames of lust They shine in show awhile then turne to rust The vertuous man will not exchange his state With him that seemes in fame more fortunate For though the greatest and the most of might Haue this lifes outward reuerenced hight It is vncertaine nothing permanent But mindes true patience and the hearts content The vertuous is and will be as he is No tossing tide or tempest comes a â—isse The riches of the minde are light and long They bring content and make the owner strong Portage not ponderous the roomer small Where th' owner goes his riches goe withall When th'worlds rich man hath most he thinks in bank Vnfolds his bils and findes Assurance blanke What he possesseth others posses'd before Dead what he had others diuide his store These riches rise and fall they pitch and flye They runne and rest as dust before the eye The greedy Miser is earths moth and eates The fruits of others he yet neuer sweates Nothing more pest to publique weale then he Nothing more shun'd of vertuous men can be Though gold nor glorie in themselues be ill If Will rule them And they rule not the Will Auarice a Beast which hardly men can tame It brings in pelfe puts on 't a noble name But he that least affecteth riches lot Hath that best lot which some rich men haue not For he that is content possesseth most And least distracts his minde what he hath lost Vertue much greeues not at sad misery Nor much insults at earths felicitie But as the powre Diuine appoints his lot He rests content Th' ambitious man can not He thirsts to rise regards not though by wrong His triumph short in vaine desired long Drinkes are held best that soonest quench the thirst Ambition drunke drinkes more then at the first It euer drinkes yet neuer is but dry One cold the mouth Earthes orbe fils not the eye Fancie a Feuer hecttique of the minde It sees sometimes sometimes againe is blind Affection guided by right rule of grace Disgraceth foolish fancie to her face Right Reason glut with Fancies banquettings Disgorgeth Fancie and her flatterings And bendes her appetite to feed on that Is onely good shunnes ill though delicate What happines in seeming happy daies Sith life begun immediatly decayes Delight a dreame his death can no man shun Intreat preuailes not when times glasse is run Though life beginnes alike in generall By diuers meanes fierce death determines all Deaths memory a motiue to liue well She comes on sodaine when disdaines to tel Al creatures irrational shew more content In Bruitish life and seeme more continent Then many whom true reason should possesse As ioy and greefe by two extreames expresse Humane delights are short repentance long Weak the resistance will to vices strong What way soeuer seemeth sweet men take The truely sweet they wilfully forsake Heauens sacred children do the best imbrace The worst the wicked by mistaken grace Both haue their ioyes but by two contraries Heauens truth the one th' other earths vanities The first hath inward th' other owtward light The first diuine that other carnall sight The thinges men see and what they heere possesse Is theirs they think and therein happines Thinges present in conceit do profit most Past or expected deemed things but lost The greatest men that spatious buildings haue At once possesse of all one onely caue At once they can but in one place reside Though Gods on earth in earth not deifi'de Where so the highest or the lowest bee In person are only as eye doth see Thoughts yet are hid hearts are extrauagant Hearts hot desires too too exorbitant The greatest wise containe their greatest mind And hold themselues but as them others finde Though great in state true Honor is most milde Stout yet in heart most constant vndefil'd To whom inferiors ought all dutie lend As members worthy and most reuerend The memories are still solemnized By th'vertuous liuing of the vertuous deed Some thinke their glorie of high mountaine fame When lesse then mole-hill others hold the same Fame arrogate is but a doubtfull dreame A building founded on a broken beame A castle set nere surges on the sand Which fals forthwith vnder the builders hand Desert preceding hearts desire to rise Is onely that that truely dignifies A fickle trust or feare Earths fawne or frowne When Fortune smiles she plots to hurle Men downe And when she frownes she frownes to try the minde If it be constant then is she most kinde True Constancie is alwaies one the same In all euents it holds the force and name It 's not the thing that ioyes or greeues the heart It is conceit of best or worser part For he that is in crosses discontent In best estate was but maleuolent The vertuous in hye or low estate Show not the higher or the lower rate Most men doe most affect but mortall things Blind not conceiuing rightly what it brings What future times may be seeke not to know But that whereby vaine-glorie most may grow Affecting that which seemes in show content Like libertie indeed imprisonment Fetters seeme ornaments freedome but guile Misery sweet mirth home hard and harsh exile Sicknes of body crosses poore estate Nothing so hard as heart infatuate Aspiring mindes that fight for Honors fame Faint not but in conceit atchieue the same The gaine that growes by hearts ambition Is but the breath of basest of condition VVho by the vapors of their lips al-haile Raise fickle blasts that fill vaine-glories sayle But he that best deserues true glories fame Is that deserues and seekes to shun the same Some great about great