Emblemes (1635) and Hieroglyphikes (1638) :: :: University of Virginia Library

Believe her not: Her Glasse diffuses
False Portraitures: Thou canst espie
No true reflection: She abuses
Her mis-inform'd beholders eye;
Her Chrystal's falsely steel'd: It scatters
Deceitfull beames; Believe her not: She flatters.

2

This flaring Mirrour represents
No right Proportion, hiew, nor Feature:
Her very looks are Complements;
They make thee fairer, goodlier, greater;
The skilfull Glosse of her reflection
But paints the Context of thy course Complexion.

3

Were thy dimension but a stride,
Nay, wert thou statur'd but a span,
Such as the long-bill'd Troopes defi'd,
A very Fragment of a Man;
Shee'l make thee Mimas, which ye will
The Jove-slaine Tyrant, or th'Ionick Hill:

4

Had surfeits, or th'ungratious Starre
Conspir'd to make one Common place
Of all deformities, that are
Within the Volume of thy face,
Shee'd lend thee favour, should out-move
The Troy-bane Hellen, or the Queene of Love.

5

Were thy consum'd estate as poore
As Lazars, or afflicted Jobs,
Shee'l change thy wants to seeming store,
And turne thy Raggs to purple Robes:
Shee'l make thy hide-bound flanck appeare
As plump as theirs that feast it all the yeare.

6

Looke off; let not thy Opticks be
Abus'd; thou see'st not what thou shouldst;
Thy selfe's the Object thou should'st see,
But 'tis thy shadow thou behold'st:
And shadowes thrive the more in stature,
The nearer we approach the light of nature.

7

Where heav'ns bright beames look more direct,
The shadow shrinks as they grow stronger;
But when they glaunce their faire aspect,
The bold-fac'd shade growes larger, longer;
And when their lamp begins to fall,
Th'increasing shadowes lengthen most of all.

8

The soule that seeks the noone of Grace,
Shrinks in; but swels, if Grace retreat;
As heav'n lifts up, or veiles his Face,
Our self-esteemes grow lesse, or great;
The least is greatest; And who shall
Appear the greatest, are the least of all.

HUGO lib.3 de anima.

It vaine he lifts the eye of his heart to behold his God, who is not first rightly advised to behold himselfe: First thou must see the visible things of thyself, before thou canst be prepared to know the invisible things of God, for if thou canst not apprehend the things within thee, thou canst not comprehend the things above thee: The best looking glasse wherein to see thy God, is perfectly to see thyselfe.

EPIGRAM 6.

[Be not deceiv'd, great Foole; There is no losse]

Be not deceiv'd, great Foole; There is no losse
In being small. Great bulks but swell with drosse:
Man is heav'ns Master-peece; If it appeare
More great, the valu's lesse; If lesse, more deare.