However, Will has ferreted me out, and I am obliged to him so far.  I told him the other day what the winkle said to the pin:  “Thank you for drawing me out, but you are rather sharp about it.”  Still, Master Will is not far from the mark:  after three hundred thousand people had bought my book it certainly was time to write another.  So, though I am not a hatter, I will again turn capmaker, and those who have heads may try on my wares; those who have none won’t touch them.  So, friends, I am,

    Yours, rough and ready, JOHN PLOUGHMAN.

BURN A CANDLE AT BOTH ENDS, AND IT WILL SOON BE GONE.

Well may he scratch his head who burns his candle at both ends; but do what he may, his light will soon be gone and he will be all in the dark.  Young Jack Careless squandered his property, and now he is without a shoe to his foot.  His was a case of “easy come, easy go; soon gotten, soon spent.”  He that earns an estate will keep it better than he that inherits it.  As the Scotchman says, “He that gets gear before he gets wit is but a short time master of it,” and so it was with Jack.  His money burned holes in his pocket.  He could not get rid of it fast enough himself, and so he got a pretty set to help him, which they did by helping themselves.  His fortune went like a pound of meat in a kennel of hounds.  He was every body’s friend, and now he is every body’s fool.

HUNCHBACK SEES NOT HIS OWN HUMP, BUT HE SEES HIS NEIGHBOR’S.

He points at the man in front of him, but he is a good deal more of a guy himself.  He should not laugh at the crooked until he is straight himself, and not then.  I hate to hear a raven croak at a crow for being black.  A blind man should not blame his brother for squinting, and he who has lost his legs should not sneer at the lame.  Yet so it is, the rottenest bough cracks first, and he who should be the last to speak is the first to rail.  Bespattered hogs bespatter others, and he who is full of fault finds fault.  They are most apt to speak ill of others who do most ill themselves.

We may chide a friend, and so prove our friendship, but it must be done very daintily, or we may lose our friend for our pains.  Before we rebuke another we must consider, and take heed that we are not guilty of the same thing, for he who cleanses a blot with inky fingers makes it worse.  To despise others is a worse fault than any we are likely to see in them, and to make merry over their weaknesses shows our own weakness and our own malice too.  Wit should be a shield for defense, and not a sword for offense.  A mocking word cuts worse than a scythe, and the wound is harder to heal.  A blow is much sooner forgotten than a jeer.  Mocking is shocking.

A LOOKING-GLASS IS OF NO USE TO A BLIND MAN.