Specimens of English literature from the 'Ploughmans crede' to the ...

328 XXVII. JOHN LYLY.our-selues with thoughts, consume our bodies with sighes,with sobs, or with care to pine our carcasses. To absteinefrom bennes^-thSHs^ not to meddle in ciuile affaires or businesseof the common weale, for in the old times the election30 of Magistrates was made by the pullyng of beanes. . . . Notto retire when we are come to the ende of our race :that is,-^when we are at the poynt of death we should not be oppressedwith griefe, but willingly yeeld to Nature.But I will retourne to my former precepts : that is, that3.^ young men shoulde be kept from the company of those thatare wicked, especially from the sight of ihQ flatterer. For Isay now as I haue often times before sayde, that there is nokinde of beast so noysome as the flatterer,nothing that willsooner consume both the sonne and the father and all40 friendes.honestWTien the Father exhorteth the sonne to sobrietie, theflatterer prouoketh him to Wine :when the Father warneth ^them to continencie, the flatterer allureth them to lust :whenthe Father admonisheth them to thrifte, the flatterer haleth45 them to prodigalytie : whenthe Father incourageth them tolabour, the flatterer layeth a cushion vnder his elbowe, tosleepe, bidding him ^ to eate, drinke, and to be merry, forthat the lyfe of man is soone gone, and but as a short shaddowe,and seeing that we haue but a while to lyue, who50 woulde lyue lyke a seruant ? They saye that now theirfathers be olde, and doate through age like Saiurniis.Heeroff it commeth that young men, giuing not only attentiueeare but ready coyne to flatterers, fall into suchmisfortune : heereoff" it proceedeth that they . . . marybefore.-.^ they be wise, and dye before they thriue. These be thebeastes which Hue by the trenchers of young Gentlemen,' Ed. 1579 'weaneth'; ed. 1581 'warneth.'2 Ed. 1579 'them'; ed. 1581 'him.'