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Chapter XIII.
[verse 1] THe branch must needs be weake, if roote be so,
The roote must needs be weake, it branches fall,
Nature is vaine, man cannot be her foe,
Because from nature, and at natures call:
Nature is vaine, and wee proceede from nature,
Vaine therefore is our birth, and vaine our feature.
One body may haue two diseases sore,
Not being two, it may be ioynde to two,
Nature is one it selfe, yet two and more,
Vaine, ignorant of God, of good, of show,
Which not regards the things which god hath don,
And what things are to doe, what new begun.
[verse 2] Why doe I blame the tree? when tis the leaues,
Why blame I nature? for her mortall men,
Why blame I men? tis she, tis she that weaues,
That weaues, that wafts vnto destructions pen:
Then being blamefull both, because both vaine,
I leaue to both, their vanities due paine.
To prize the shadow at the substance rate,
Is a vaine substance of a shadowes hue,
To thinke the sonne to be the fathers mate,
Earth to rule earth, because of earthly view:
To thinke fire winde, ayre stars, water, and heau'n,
To be as Gods, from whom their selues are giu'n.