[ 671] Not to admire our own Learning or parts.
VVHen Orpheus went to fetch his Wife Euridice out of Hell, he had her granted unto him upon condition,* 1.1 that he should not turn back his eyes to look upon her, till he brought her into Heaven; yet having brought her for∣ward a great way, at length his love was so excessive, that he could not contain any longer; whereupon he lost both her sight and her self, she suddenly vanishing out of his sight.* 1.2 This is a Poetical fiction, yet the Moral is good: If we have any vertue, any parts of learning or outward endowments whatsoever, be they never so eminent, or admired by others, yet we must not be so blind in affection as to dote too much upon them, or to fall in admiration of our selves for them, or to be alwayes gazing and wondring at them, lest by too much looking on them, or too much liking of them, or too much remembring them, we lose them, because in∣deed it may so fall out, that he that remembers his vertue, may have no vertue to remember.