Thousands have been my sins, and ten thousand my transgressions; but thy sanctifications have remained with me, and my heart, through thy grace, hath been an unquenched coal upon thy altar.  O Lord, my strength, I have since my youth met with thee in all my ways, by thy fatherly compassions, by thy comfortable chastisements, and by thy most visible providence.  As thy favors have increased upon me, so have thy corrections; so as thou hast been alway near me, O Lord; and ever as my worldly blessings were exalted, so secret darts from thee have pierced me; and when I have ascended before men, I have descended in humiliation before thee.

And now when I thought most of peace and honor, thy hand is heavy upon me, and hath humbled me, according to thy former loving-kindness, keeping me still in thy fatherly school, not as a bastard, but as a child.  Just are thy judgments upon me for my sins, which are more in number than the sands of the sea, but have no proportion to thy mercies; for what are the sands of the sea, to the sea, earth, heavens? and all these are nothing to thy mercies.

Besides my innumerable sins, I confess before thee, that I am debtor to thee for the gracious talent of thy gifts and graces which I have neither put into a napkin, nor put it (as I ought) to exchangers, where it might have made best profit; but mis-spent it in things for which I was least fit; so as I may truly say, my soul hath been a stranger in the course of my pilgrimage.  Be merciful into me (O Lord) for my Saviour’s sake, and receive me unto thy bosom, or guide me in thy ways.

FROM THE ‘APOPHTHEGMS’

My Lo. of Essex, at the succor of Rhoan, made twenty-four knights, which at that time was a great matter.  Divers (7.) of those gentlemen were of weak and small means; which when Queen Elizabeth heard, she said, “My Lo. mought have done well to have built his alms-house before he made his knights.”

21.  Many men, especially such as affect gravity, have a manner after other men’s speech to shake their heads.  Sir Lionel Cranfield would say, “That it was as men shake a bottle, to see if there was any wit in their head or no.”

33.  Bias was sailing, and there fell out a great tempest, and the mariners, that were wicked and dissolute fellows, called upon the gods; but Bias said to them, “Peace, let them not know ye are here.”

42.  There was a Bishop that was somewhat a delicate person, and bathed twice a day.  A friend of his said to him, “My lord, why do you bathe twice a day?” The Bishop answered, “Because I cannot conveniently bathe thrice.”

55.  Queen Elizabeth was wont to say of her instructions to great officers, “That they were like to garments, strait at the first putting on, but did by and by wear loose enough.”

64.  Sir Henry Wotton used to say, “That critics are like brushers of noblemen’s clothes.”