But she would spell him backward if fair-faced,

She would swear the gentleman should be her sister;
If black, why, Nature, drawing of an antick
Made a foul blot; if tall, a lance ill-headed;

If low, an agate very vilely cut;

If speaking, why, a vane blown with all winds;
If silent, why, a block moved with none.
So turns she every man the wrong side out
And never gives to truth and virtue that
Which simpleness and merit purchaseth.

Much Ado about Nothing, Act iii. Sc. 1, 1. 51.

Self-Praise.

The tongue is held in honor by such men
As reckon words of more account than deeds.

SOPHOCLES, Fragments, 1. 209.

LAY thy finger on thy lips!

The worthiness of praise distains his worth,1

If that the praised himself bring the praise forth:

But what the repining enemy commends,

That breath fame blows; that praise, sole pure, transcends.2 Troilus and Cressida, Act i. Sc. 3, 1. 240.

We wound our modesty, and make foul the clearness of our deservings, when of ourselves we publish them.

All's Well that Ends Well, Act i. Sc. 3, 1. 5.

He that is proud, eats up himself: pride is his own glass, his own trumpet, his own chronicle; and whatever praises itself but in the deed, devours the deed in the praise.

Troilus and Cressida, Act ii. Sc. 3, l. 164.

1 For men to search their own glory is not glory. — Prov. xxv. 27.

2 Let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth; a stranger and

not thine own lips. —Prov. xxvii. 2.

Falsity in the Garb of Truth.

Ere long by the appointed curse of heaven, a man's intellect ceases to be capable of distinguishing truth, when he permits himself to deal in speaking or acting what is false. THOMAS CARLYLE.

WHAT authority and show of truth

Can cunning sin cover itself withal !

Much Ado about Nothing, Act iv. Sc. 1, 1. 36.

So may the outward shows be least themselves :

The world is still deceived with ornament.

In law, what plea so tainted and corrupt
But, being seasoned with a gracious voice,
Obscures the show of evil? In religion,
What damned error, but some sober brow
Will bless it and approve it with a text,
Hiding the grossness with fair ornament?
There is no vice so simple but assumes
Some mark of virtue on his outward parts:
How many cowards, whose hearts are all as false
As stairs of sand, wear yet upon their chins
The beards of Hercules and frowning Mars,
Who, inward search'd, have livers white as milk;

FALSITY IN THE GARB OF TRUTH.

And these assume but valour's excrement
To render them redoubted! Look on beauty,
And you shall see 'tis purchased by the weight;
Which therein works a miracle in nature,
Making them lightest that wear most of it:
So are those crisped snaky golden locks
Which make such wanton gambols with the wind,
Upon supposed fairness, often known

To be the dowry of a second head,
The skull that bred them in the sepulchre.
Thus ornament is but the guiled shore

To a most dangerous sea; the beauteous scarf
Veiling an Indian beauty; in a word,

The seeming truth which cunning times put on
To entrap the wisest.

129

The Merchant of Venice, Act iii. Sc. 2, 1. 73.

Inconstancy of Worldly Friendships.

O

In many a turning of the wheel of God
My fate revolves and changes all its mood;
E'en as the moon's face never keepeth still
For but two nights in one position fixed,
But from its hiding-place first comes as new,
With brightening face, and thenceforth waxeth full;
And when it gains its noblest phase of all,

Wanes off again and comes to nothingness.

SOPHOCLES, Fragments, 1, 713.

WORLD, thy slippery turns! Friends now fast sworn,

Whose double bosoms seem to wear one heart,

Whose house, whose bed, whose meal, and exercise,

Are still together, who twin, as 'twere, in love
Unseparable, shall within this hour,

On a dissension of a doit, break out

To bitterest enmity: so, fellest foes,

Whose passions and whose plots have broke their sleep

To take the one the other, by some chance,

Some trick not worth an egg, shall grow dear friends

And interjoin their issues. So with me:

My birth-place hate I, and my love 's upon