If Thy Desire To Raise Thy Fortunes

The Voice Of Humility Is God's Music, And The Silence Of Humility Is God's Rhetoric.

Be Very Circumspect In The Choice Of Thy Company. In The Society Of Thine Equals Thou Shalt Enjoy More Pleasure; In The Society Of Thy Superiors Thou Shalt Find More Profit. To Be The Best In The Company Is The Way To Grow Worse; The Best Means To Grow Better Is To Be The Worst There.

The Birds Of The Air Die To Sustain Thee; The Beasts Of The Field Die To Nourish Thee; The Fishes Of The Sea Die To Feed Thee. Our Stomachs Are Their Common Sepulchre. Good God! With How Many Deaths Are Our Poor Lives Patched Up! How Full Of Death Is The Life Of Momentary Man!

Yet, Sluggard, Wake, And Gull Thy Soul No More With Earth's False Pleasures, And The World's Delight, Whose Fruit Is Fair And Pleasing To The Sight, But Sour In Taste, False As The Putrid Core: Thy Flaring Glass Is Gems At Her Half Light; She Makes Thee Seeming Rich, But Truly Poor: She Boasts A Kernel, And Bestows A Shell; Performs An Inch Of Her Fair-promis'd Ell: Her Words Protest A Heav'n; Her Works Produce A Hell.

Lust Is A Sharp Spur To Vice, Which Always Putteth The Affections Into A False Gallop.