Page:The works of Anne Bradstreet in prose and verse.djvu/141

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Meditations.
55

XXXII.

AMBITIOUS men are like hops that neuer rest climbing soe long as they haue any thing to stay vpon; but take away their props and they are, of all, the most deiected.

XXXIII.

MUCH Labour wearys the body, and many thoughts oppresse the minde: man aimes at profit by the one, and content in the other; but often misses of both, and findes nothing but vanity and vexation of spirit.

XXXIV.

DIMNE eyes are the concomitants of old age; and short sightednes, in those that are eyes of a Republique, foretels a declineing State.

XXXV.

WE read in Scripture of three sorts of Arrows, — the arrow of an enemy, the arrow of pestilence, and the arrow of a slanderous tongue; the two first kill the body, the last the good name; the two former leaue a man when he is once dead, but the last mangles him in his graue.