Since Overmuch, Will Over-Fill, Powre Am Enough; but Doe Not Spill
IT is this Emblems meaning, to advance
The love and practise, of true Temperance.
For, by this Figure (which doth seeme to fill,
Vntill the liquor overflow, and spill)
Wee are, as by example, taught to see
How fruitlesse our Intemperancies bee:
Thus by the Rule of Contrarieties,
Some Vertues, best are showne to vulgar eyes.
To see a nastie Drunkard, reele and spew,
More moves to Sobernesse, than can the view
Of twentie civill men; and, to behold
One Prodigall, (that goodly lands hath sold)
Stand torne and louzie, begging at the dore,
Would make Intemperance abhorred more,
(And, manly Sobernesse, much better, teach)
Than all that sixe Philosophers can preach:
So, by the Vessels overflowing, here,
True Moderation doth more prais’d appeare,
Than by the meane it selfe: And, without sinne,
That’s pictur’d, which to doe, had wicked bin,
For, though to vertuous ends; wee doe deny
The Doing-ill, that Good may come thereby.
From hence, let us be taught, that carefull heed,
Whereby wee should both Minde and Bodie, feed.
Let us, of our owne selves, observe the size;
How much wee want, how little will suffize;
And, our owne longings, rather leave unfill’d,
Than suffer any portion to bee spill’d:
For, what we marre, shall to account be layd,
And, what wee wisely spend, shall be repayd.