LOOK at these Girls! -When they first came to me
They were so sluttish and untidy both,
I never had a saucepan fit to see,
And scarely ever a clean kitchen cloth.
But now it is a pleasure to behold;
They are become so wondrous clean and neat;
Nor ever now an order to repeat.
They're scouring, scrubbing things continually,
'Tis rare indeed such girls as them to meet;
Their kitchen's quite a palace, as you see,
And look, their dresser1 isn't it a treat?
They never now require to be told
A single thing: and, what is even more,
I'm often now almost obliged to scold,
They've got so over nice, 'tis quite a bore!
They're now what I call cleanly to excess,
And make themselves more work than need be made.
So much, that oft I'd rather see a mess,
That I might have some reason to upbraid.
There, look! 'tis quite ridiculous to see!
Those pans and kettles which they're scrubbing so;
Although I've said it don't require to be,
They clean the very bottoms of them too!
'Tis just the way with foolish people all,
When once their old bad habits they forsake,
In th'opposite extreme too oft they fall,
And of a virtue then a folly make.
The Spendthrift, when he takes to save, a Miser oft becomes,
And, where he squander'd thousands once, will make his meal of crums.
The niggardly, when he the part of liberal would play,
Is generous beyond his means, to give, to lend, or pay.
But both are in excess, and act in opposition quite
To Sense and Reason's rules for doin e'en the thing that's right.
So be advised by me, my friends, and keep withing the mean;
The path of Light, the line of Right, lies all extremes between.
POR Medio y no caereys.
Allez par le Milieu, et vous ne tomberez.
-MEDIO intissimus ibis.
IL n'y a banquet que de chiches.
Zu weinig und zu viel
Verderbet alle Spiel.
Zu viel ist ungesund.
Al zu scharff macht schärtig.
IL molio e'l poco.
Rompe le givoco.
NI tan hermosa que mate,
Ni tan sea que espante.
Ni tant belle, qu'elle tue:
Ni tant laide, qu'elle espouvente.
Noch y! noch sy.
OGNO bel givoco vuol durar poco.
Tien la Strada di mezzo.
PERGE viâ mediâ: medium tenuêre beati.
Qui commence à être libéral, devient prodigue.
BAULLU curium etion vetra mensaran carnadu. -Turkish Adage.
OMNIS intemperantia est a tota mente ac a recta ratione defectio. -CICERO.
INCIDIT in Scyllam cupiens vitare Charybdim.-HORACE.
ID arbitror adprime in vita esse utile ''ne quid nimis''.-TERENCE.
Avoid Extremes.
'Tis all in vain to keep a constant pother
About one Vice, and fall into another;
Betwixt excess and famine lies a mean;
Plain, but nog sordid; though not splendid, clean-POPE.
Never exaggerate.
THE Wise never speak in the superlative, for that mode of speecht always offends
either Truth of Prudence. Exaggerations are so many prostitutions of reputation,
inasmuch as they expose the shallowness of the understanding and the bad taste of
the speaker. Exaggeration is a species of lying; he who exaggerates shews himself to
be a man of bad taste, and, what is worse, a man of mean intellect. -GRACIAN.
MY Light into a snuffe is almost turn'd,
And now the candle to smoaking ashes burn'd,
Behold another Light stands ready by,
Which to enjoy my place will make me dye.
Yet not unpunish'd it puts out my breath,
My very ashes doe revenge my death.
So doth the sonne his Father make away,
If not with sword, with griefe, before his day,
That he his Fathers goods and meanes may joy,
Which Nemesis revenging doth convoy.
For oft the spendthrifts good so evil gotten
Are spent before his Fathers bones are rotten.
FARLIE'S Emblems.
WHEN SLOVENLY SERVANTS GET TIDY, THEY POLISH THE BOTTOMS OF THE SAUCEPANS
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