Not rashly therefore to such things assent,
Which, undeceived, thou after may’st repent;
Study and time in these must thee instruct,
And others’ old experience may conduct. 
Wisdom herself her ear doth often lend
To counsel offer’d by a faithful friend. 
In equal scales two doubtful matters lay,
Thou may’st choose safely that which most doth weigh;
’Tis not secure this place or that to guard, 31
If any other entrance stand unbarr’d: 
He that escapes the serpent’s teeth may fail,
If he himself secures not from his tail. 
Who saith, who could such ill events expect? 
With shame on his own counsels doth reflect. 
Most in the world doth self-conceit deceive, 37
Who just and good whate’er they act believe;
To their wills wedded, to their errors slaves,
No man (like them) they think himself behaves. 
This stiff-neck’d pride nor art nor force can bend,
Nor high-flown hopes to Reason’s lure descend. 
Fathers sometimes their children’s faults regard
With pleasure, and their crimes with gifts reward. 
Ill painters, when they draw, and poets write,
Virgil and Titian (self admiring) slight;
Then all they do like gold and pearl appears,
And others’ actions are but dirt to theirs. 
They that so highly think themselves above
All other men, themselves can only love; 50
Reason and virtue, all that man can boast
O’er other creatures, in those brutes are lost. 
Observe (if thee this fatal error touch,
Thou to thyself contributing too much)
Those who are gen’rous, humble, just and wise,
Who not their gold, nor themselves idolise;
To form thyself by their example learn,
(For many eyes can more than one discern),
But yet beware of councils when too full,
Number makes long disputes, and graveness dull; 60
Though their advice be good, their counsel wise,
Yet length still loses opportunities: 
Debate destroys despatch, as fruits we see
Rot when they hang too long upon the tree;
In vain that husbandman his seed doth sow,
If he his crop not in due season mow. 
A gen’ral sets his army in array
In vain, unless he fight and win the day. 
’Tis virtuous action that must praise bring forth,
Without which, slow advice is little worth. 70
Yet they who give good counsel praise deserve,
Though in the active part they cannot serve. 
In action, learned counsellors their age,
Profession, or disease, forbids t’engage. 
Nor to philosophers is praise denied,
Whose wise instructions after ages guide;
Yet vainly most their age in study spend;
No end of writing books, and to no end: 
Beating their brains for strange and hidden things,
Whose knowledge, nor delight, nor profit brings; 80
Themselves with doubts both day and night perplex,