But, like a thrifty goddess, she determines

Herself the glory of a creditor,

Both thanks and use.

Measure for Measure, Act i. Sc. 1, 1. 30.

That man, how dearly ever parted,

How much in having, or without or in,

Cannot make boast to have that which he hath,

Nor feels not what he owes [owns], but by reflection;
As when his virtues shining upon others

Heat them and they retort that heat again
To the first giver.

No man is the lord of any thing,

Though in and of him there be much consisting,
Till he communicate his parts to others;

Nor doth he of himself know them for aught
Till he behold them form'd in the applause

Where they 're extended; who, like an arch, reverberates
The voice again, or, like a gate of steel

Fronting the sun, receives and renders back

His figure and his heat.

Troilus and Cressida, Act iii. Sc. 3, 1. 96.

Fair sir, I pity her

And wish, for her sake more than for mine own,

My fortunes were more able to relieve her ;

But I am shepherd to another man

And do not shear the fleeces that I graze :

My master is of churlish disposition

THE BENEFICENT USE OF TALENTS AND WEALTH.

And little recks to find the way to heaven
By doing deeds of hospitality:

Besides, his cote, his flocks and bounds of feed
Are now on sale, and at our sheepcote now,
By reason of his absence, there is nothing
That you will feed on; but what is, come see,
And in my voice most welcome shall you be.

85

As You Like It, Act ii. Sc. 4, 1. 75.

King Lear. Prithee, go in thyself; seek thine own ease : This tempest will not give me leave to ponder

On things would hurt me more.

...

I'll pray, and then I'll sleep.

Poor naked wretches, wheresoe'er you are,
That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm,
How shall your houseless heads and unfed sides,
Your loop'd and window'd raggedness, defend you
From seasons such as these? O, I have ta'en
Too little care of this! Take physic, pomp;
Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel,
That thou mayst shake the superflux to them,
And show the heavens more just.

King Lear, Act iii. Sc. 4, 1. 23.

For his bounty,

There was no winter in 't; an autumn 'twas

That grew the more by reaping.2

Antony and Cleopatra, Act v. Sc. 2, 1. 86.

Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.

Matt. vii. 12.

2 There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth. - Prov. xi. 24.

The Wirtue of Order' and Degree.

The unwritten laws of God that know no change,2
They are not of to-day nor yesterday,

But live for ever, nor can man assign

When first they sprang to being.

SOPHOCLES, Antigone, 1. 455.

GOVERNMENT.

GOVERNMENT, though high and low and lower,

Put into parts, doth keep in one concent,

Congreeing in a full and natural close,

Like music.

Therefore doth heaven divide

The state of man in divers functions,3

Setting endeavor in continual motion;

1 She riseth also while it is yet night, and giveth meat to her household, and a portion to her maidens. She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness. — Prov. xxi. 15.

2 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. Rom. i. 18.

8 Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.

For there is no power Rom. xiii. 1.

THE VIRTUE OF ORDER AND DEGREE.

To which is fixed, as an aim or butt,
Obedience: for so work the honey-bees,
Creatures that by a rule in nature teach
The act of order to a peopled kingdom.
They have a king and officers of sorts;
Where some, like magistrates, correct at home,
Others, like merchants, venture trade abroad,
Others, like soldiers, armed in their stings,
Make boot upon the summer's velvet buds,
Which pillage they with merry march bring home
To the tent-royal of their emperor ;
Who, busied in his majesty, surveys

The singing masons building roofs of gold,
The civil citizens kneading up the honey,

The poor mechanic porters crowding in
Their heavy burdens at his narrow gate,
The sad-eyed justice, with his surly hum,
Delivering o'er to executors pale

The lazy yawning drone.

87

King Henry V., Act i. Sc. 2, 1. 180.

THE RESULT OF THE NEGLECT OF ORDER AND Degree.

The specialty of rule hath been neglected:

And, look, how many Grecian tents do stand

Hollow upon this plain, so many hollow factions.

When that the general is not like the hive,
To whom the foragers shall all repair,

What honey is expected? Degree being vizarded,
Th' unworthiest shows as fairly in the mask. . . .
O! when degree is shak'd,

Which is the ladder of all high designs,

The enterprise is sick! How could communities,
Degrees in schools, and brotherhoods in cities,
Peaceful commerce from dividable shores,
The primogenitive and due of birth,
Prerogative of age, crowns, sceptres, laurels,
But by degree, stand in authentic place?
Take but degree away, untune that string,
And, hark, what discord follows! each thing meets
In mere oppugnancy: the bounded waters
Should lift their bosoms higher than the shores
And make a sop of all this solid globe :
Strength should be lord of imbecility,

And the rude son should strike his father dead:
Force should be right; or rather, right and wrong,
Between whose endless jar justice resides,

Should lose their names, and so should justice too.

Then every thing includes itself in power,
Power into will, will into appetite;

And appetite, an universal wolf,

So doubly seconded with will and power,
Must make perforce an universal prey,
And last eat up himself. Great Agamemnon,
This chaos, when degree is suffocate,
Follows the choking.