And when he doeth battle in a man, he is leagued with traitorous Self-love ; Is cheated from the constancy and fervency of love by friendship's subtle praise. Moreover, he will glorify a parent, even to the censure of his child,— O degenerate scion, of a stock so excellent and noble ! Scant will be in well-earned praise of a son before his father; And rarely commendeth to a mother her daughter's budding beauty : Yet shall he extol the daughter to her father, and be warm about the son before his mother; Knowing that self-love entereth not, to resist applause with jealousies. Wisely is he sparing of hyperbole where vehemence of praise would humble, For many a father liketh ill to be counted second to his son: And shrewdly the flatterer hath reckoned on a self still lurking in the mother, When his tongue was slow to speak of graces in the daughter. But if he descend a generation, to the grandsire his talk is of the grandson, For unconsciously old age perceived-she cannot be my rival. Flattery sticketh like a burr, holding to the soil with anchors, A vital, natural, subtle seed, every where hardy and indigenous. Yea, the flavour of that spice, mingled in the cup of life, Shall linger even to the dregs, and still be tasted with a welcome; Ofttimes to the sluggard and the dull, flattery hath done good service, Shall speed the pulse, and rally life, and cheat astonished death. Until self-confidence and growth of skill have made him spurn their aid, I have seen the objects of a flatterer mirrored clearly on the surface, This is a commodity of merchandise, words put out at interest; If a poetaster quote thy song, be thou tender to his poem: Did the painter praise thy sketch? be kind, commend his picture, In these small things, with these small minds, count thou the sycophant a courtier, And pay back, as blindly as ye may, the too transparent honour. Also, where the flattery is delicate, coming unobtrusive and in season, Though thou be suspicious of its truth, be generous at least to its gentility. The skilful thief of Lacedæmon had praise before his judges, As many caitiff's win applause for genius in their calling. Moreover, his meaning may be kind,—and thou art a debtor to his tongue; Though he be a smiling enemy, let him heed thee as the fearless and the friendly; A searching look, a poignant word, may prove thou art aware: Still, with compassion to the frail, though keen to see his soul, Let him not fear for thy discretion: see thou keep his secret, and thine own. However, where the flattery is gross, a falsehood clear and fulsome, Tell the presumptuous in flattery, that or ever he bespatter thee with praise, Thou hast not solicited his suffrage,—let him not force thee to refuse it ; But carrieth whip for flattery, to lash it like a slave: But the dunce in that great science goeth as a greedy tunny, To gorge both bait and hook, unheeding all but appetite: He smelleth praise and swalloweth,—yea, though it be palpable and plain ; Say unto him, Folly thou art Wisdom, he will bless thee for thy lie. Flatterer, thou shalt rue thy trade, though it hath many present gains; pity, He saw thy self-interested zeal, and was not cozened by vain-glory : A fool shall turn to be thy tyrant, if thou hast dubbed him great : After, when the harmonies are done, shall feel small comfort in their echoes; For either he shall know thee false, conscious of contrary deservings, And, hating thee for falsehood, soon will scorn himself for truth; Or, if in aught to toilsome merit honest praise be due, Though for a season, belike, his weakness hath been raptured at thy witching, Shall he not speedily perceive, to the vexing of his disappointed spirit, That thine exaggerative tongue had robbed him of fair fame ? For the substance of just praise thou hast put him off with shadows of the sycophant. Thou art all things to all men, for ends false and selfish, Therefore shalt be nothing unto any one, when those thine ends are seen. Turn aside, young scholar, turn from the song of Flattery! Her tongue droppeth honey, but it is the honey of Anticyra; Her face is a mask of facination, but there hideth deformity behind; Know thyself, thy evil as thy good, and flattery shall not harm thee: For wherein thou lackest most, there chiefly will the sycophant commend thee, And then most warmly will congratulate, when a man hath least deserved. Therefore is she dangerous,- Thinkest thou now that he is high, he loveth the remembrance of his lowliness, The servile manner, the dependent smile, the conscience self-abased? his teeth, Yea, he will be leader in the laugh,-silly one, to listen to thy loss, We scarce had hoped to lime and take another of the fools of flattery. At the last; have charity, young scholar,—yea, to the sycophant convicted; Be large and liberal in excuses; is not that infirmity thine own? So that, yea, the insincere, may find the pitiful, and love thee. Mildly put aside, without rudeness of repulse, the pampering hand of flattery, For courtesy and kindness have gone beneath its guise, and ill shouldst thou rebuke them. Thou art incapable of theft: but flowers in the garden of a friend Are thine to pluck with confidence, and it were unfriendliness to hesitate; Is thine to yield with honest heart, and false were the charity to doubt it; OF NEGLECT. GENEROUS and righteous is thy grief, slighted child of sensibility; I see thee checked and chilled, sorrowing for censure or forgetfulness. Let the callous sensual deride thee,-disappointed of thy praise, |