To celebrate the return of brother Keston,
generously come back to save us from ourselves, I append the following from
John Earle's Microcosmography.
best
Randolph Healy
A DISCONTENTED MAN
Is one that is fallen out with the world and will be revenged on himself.
Fortune has denied him in something, and he now takes pet and will be
miserable in spite. The root of his disease is a self-humouring pride and
an accustomed tenderness not to be crossed in his fancy; and the occasions
commonly one of these three, a hard father, a peevish wench, or his
ambition thwarted. He considered not the nature of the world till he felt
it, and all blows fall on hlm heavier because they light not first on his
expectation. He has now forgone all but his pride, and is yet vainglorious
in the ostentation of his melancholy. His composure of himself is a studied
carelessness, with his arms across and a neglected hanging of his head and
cloak, and he is as great an enemy to an hatband as fortune. He quarrels at
the time, and upstarts, and sighs at the neglect of men of parts, that is,
such as himself. His life is a perpetual satire, and he is still girding
the age's vanity; when this very anger shews he too much esteems it. Be is
much displeased to see men merry and wonders what they can find to laugh
at. He never draws his own lips higher than a smile and frowns wrinkle him
before forty. Be at the last falls into that deadly melancholy to be a
bitter hater of men, and is the most apt companion for any mischief. He is
the spark that kindles the Commonwealth, and the bellows himself to blow
it:and if he turn any thing, it is commoniy one of these, either Friar,
Traitor, or Madman.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|