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Article CHARACTERS WRITTEN IN THE LAST CENTURY. Page 1 of 2 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Characters Written In The Last Century.
CHARACTERS WRITTEN IN THE LAST CENTURY .
BY JOHN EARLE , BISHOP OF WORCESTER ,
s A GOOD OLD MAN i IS the best antiquity , and which we may with least vanity admire .. _ One whom Time hath been thus long working , and , like Winter , fruit , ripened when others are shaken down . He hath taken out as many lessons qf the world as days , and learnt the best thing in it , the , vanity of it . He looks over his former life as a danger well past , and
would not hazard himself to begin again . " His last was long broken before his body , and yet he . is glad this temptation is broke too , and . that he is fortified from it b y his weakness . The next door of death sads him not , but he expects it calmly as his turn of nature , and fears more his recoiling back to childishness than dust . All men look on him as a common fatherand on old agefor his sakeas a reverend
, , , thing . His very presence and face puts vice out of countenance , and makes it an indecorum in a vicious man .. He practises his experience upon youth-without the harshness of reproof ,, and in his ' counsel is . good company . He has some old stories still , of his own seeing , to
confirm what he says , and makes them better' in the telling ; yet he is not troublesome neither with ' the . same tale again , but remembers with them how oft he . has ' told them . His old sayings and morals seem proper to his beard , and the poetry pf Cato does' well out of his mouth , . and he speaks it as'if he were the author . -He js ' nqt apt tp put die . boy oh a younger man , nor the fool on a boy , but can distinguifh gravity from a -sour look , and the Jess testy he is , the more regarded . You must
pardon him if he'like his . own times better , than these , because those things are follies to him now that were wisdom then ; yet he makes us pf that opinion too when we see him , and conjecture those times by so good a relic .. He is a man capable of a dearness with the youngest men , yet he is not youthfuller for them , but they older for him , and no man credits more his acquaintance . He goes , away at last top soon whensoever ,- with all men's sorrow but his awn , and his memory is fresh when it is twice as old .
A WEAK MAN Is one whom Nature huddled up . in haste , and left his best part unfinished : the rest of him is grown to be a man , only his brain llayi behind . He , is a man' that has not improved his first rudiments , nor attained any proficiency by his stay in' the world : but w ; e may speak pf him yet as when he was-in the buda good harmless naturea
well-, ,. ih' : aning mind , if he cquld order- his intentions . It is his misery tha ' t he now ; most waiits a tutor , and is too . eld to have one . " Pie is now two steps above a fool , and a great majiy rrtpre below a wise man ; yet the fool is . oft g iven jnm > and by those whom he esteems most . Some
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Characters Written In The Last Century.
CHARACTERS WRITTEN IN THE LAST CENTURY .
BY JOHN EARLE , BISHOP OF WORCESTER ,
s A GOOD OLD MAN i IS the best antiquity , and which we may with least vanity admire .. _ One whom Time hath been thus long working , and , like Winter , fruit , ripened when others are shaken down . He hath taken out as many lessons qf the world as days , and learnt the best thing in it , the , vanity of it . He looks over his former life as a danger well past , and
would not hazard himself to begin again . " His last was long broken before his body , and yet he . is glad this temptation is broke too , and . that he is fortified from it b y his weakness . The next door of death sads him not , but he expects it calmly as his turn of nature , and fears more his recoiling back to childishness than dust . All men look on him as a common fatherand on old agefor his sakeas a reverend
, , , thing . His very presence and face puts vice out of countenance , and makes it an indecorum in a vicious man .. He practises his experience upon youth-without the harshness of reproof ,, and in his ' counsel is . good company . He has some old stories still , of his own seeing , to
confirm what he says , and makes them better' in the telling ; yet he is not troublesome neither with ' the . same tale again , but remembers with them how oft he . has ' told them . His old sayings and morals seem proper to his beard , and the poetry pf Cato does' well out of his mouth , . and he speaks it as'if he were the author . -He js ' nqt apt tp put die . boy oh a younger man , nor the fool on a boy , but can distinguifh gravity from a -sour look , and the Jess testy he is , the more regarded . You must
pardon him if he'like his . own times better , than these , because those things are follies to him now that were wisdom then ; yet he makes us pf that opinion too when we see him , and conjecture those times by so good a relic .. He is a man capable of a dearness with the youngest men , yet he is not youthfuller for them , but they older for him , and no man credits more his acquaintance . He goes , away at last top soon whensoever ,- with all men's sorrow but his awn , and his memory is fresh when it is twice as old .
A WEAK MAN Is one whom Nature huddled up . in haste , and left his best part unfinished : the rest of him is grown to be a man , only his brain llayi behind . He , is a man' that has not improved his first rudiments , nor attained any proficiency by his stay in' the world : but w ; e may speak pf him yet as when he was-in the buda good harmless naturea
well-, ,. ih' : aning mind , if he cquld order- his intentions . It is his misery tha ' t he now ; most waiits a tutor , and is too . eld to have one . " Pie is now two steps above a fool , and a great majiy rrtpre below a wise man ; yet the fool is . oft g iven jnm > and by those whom he esteems most . Some