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THE DRAMATIST'S VIEW OF LIFE

AND DUTY.

THE USE OF TALENTS.

THYSELF and thy belongings Are not thy own so proper as to waste Thyself upon thy virtues, they on thee. Heaven doth with us as we with torches do,

Not light them for themselves; for if our virtues

Did not go forth of us, 't were all alike

As if we had them not. Spirits are not finely touched

But to fine issues, nor nature never lends
The smallest scruple of her excellence
But, like a thrifty goddess, she determines
Herself the glory of a creditor,
Both thanks and use.

Measure for Measure, i. 1, 30.

That man, how dearly ever parted, How much in having, or without or in,

Cannot make boast to have that which he hath,

Nor feels not what he owes [owns], but by reflection;

As when his virtues shining upon others

Heat them and they retort that heat again

To the first giver. . . .

No man is the lord of anything, hough in and of him there be much consisting, Till he communicate his parts to others;

Nor doth he of himself know them for aught
Till he behold them formed in the applause

Where they're extended; who, like an arch, reverberates
The voice again, or, like a gate of steel

Fronting the sun, receives and renders back
His figure and his heat.

Troilus and Cressida, iii. 3, 96.

King Lear. Prithee, go in thyself; seek thine own ease:
This tempest will not give me leave to ponder

On things would hurt me more.. (The fool goes in.)
I'll pray, and then I'll sleep.
Poor naked wretches, wheresoe'er you are,
That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm,
How shall your houseless heads and unfed sides,
Your looped and windowed raggedness, defend you
From seasons such as these? O, I have ta'en
Too little care of this! Take physic, pomp ;
Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel,
That thou mayst shake the superflux to them,
And show the heavens more just.

...

King Lear, iii. 4, 23.

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