Emblemes by Francis Quarles.

ECCL•…•…S. 4. 8.

There is no end of all his labour, neither is his eye satisfied with riches.

O How our wid'ned arms can over-stretch Their own dimensions! How our hands can retch Beyond their distance! How our yielding breast Can shrink, to be more full, and full possest Of this inferiour Orb! How earth refin'd Can cling to sordid earth! How kind to kind! We gape, we grasp, we gripe, adde store to store; Enough requires too much: too much craves more. We charge our souls so sore beyond their stint, That we recoyl or burst: The busie Mint Of our laborious thoughts is ever going, And coyning new desires; desires, not knowing Where next to pitch, but like the boundlesse Ocean Gain, and gain ground, and grow more strong by motion. The pale-fac'd Lady of the black-ey'd night First tips her horned browes with easie light, Whose curious train of spangled Nymphs attire Her next nights glory with encreasing •…•…ire; Each ev'ning addes more luster, and adorns The growing beauty of her grasping horns: She sucks and draws her brothers golden store Untill her glutted Orb can suck no more. •…•…v'n so the Vultur of insatiate minds Still wants, and wanting seeks, and seeking finds

New fewel to encrease her rav'nous sire, The grave is sooner cloyd then mens desire: We crosse the seas, and midst her waves we burn, Transporting lifes, perchance that ne'r return; We 〈◊〉〈◊〉, we ransack to the utmost sands Of native kingdomes, and of forrein lands; We travel sea and soyl, we pry, we proul, We progresse, and we prog from pole to pole; We sp•…•…nd our mid-day sweat, our mid-night oyl, We 〈◊〉〈◊〉 the night in thought, the day in toyl: We make Art servil, and the Trade gentile, (•…•…t b•…•…th corrupted with ingenious guile) To compasse earth; and with her empty store To fill our arms, and grasp one handfull more; Thus seeking rest, our labours never •…•…ase, But as our years, our hot desires encrease: Thus we, poore little Worlds! (with bloud and sweat) In vain attempt to comprehend the great; Thus, in our gain, become we gainfull losers, And what's enclos'd, encloses the enclosers. Now Reader, close thy book, and then advise: Be wisely worldly, be not worldly wise; L•…•… not thy nobler thoughts be alwayes raking The worlds base dunghill; vermin's took by taking: Take heed thou trust not the deceitfull lap Of wanton Dalilah; The world's a trap.

HUGO de Anima.

Tell me where be those now that so lately loved and hugg'd the world? Nothing remaineth of them but dust and worms: Observe what those men were; what those men are: They were like thee; they did eat, drink, laugh, and led mer∣ry dayes, and in a moment slipt into hell. Here their flesh is food for worms; there, their souls are fewell for fire, till they shall be rejoyned in an unhappy fellowship, and cast into eter∣nall torments; where they that were once companions in sinne, shall be hereafter partners in punishment.

EPIG. 2.

Gripe, C•…•…pid, and gripe still untill that wind, That's pent before, find secret vent behind: And when th'ast done, hark here, I tell thee what, Before I'll trust thy armfull, I'll trust that.