And last the Vice and Follies of the Age.

And last the Vice and Follies of the Age.

The willing contemplation of vice is vice.

The willing contemplation of vice is vice.

To sanction Vice, and hunt Decorum down.

To sanction Vice, and hunt Decorum down.

Ill habits gather by unseen degrees,As brooks make rivers, rivers run to seas.

Ill habits gather by unseen degrees,As brooks make rivers, rivers run to seas.

The gods are just, and of our pleasant vices
Make instruments to plague us.

The gods are just, and of our pleasant vices
Make instruments to plague us.

We are double-edged blades, and every time we whet our virtue the return stroke straps our vice.

We are double-edged blades, and every time we whet our virtue the return stroke straps our vice.

There is no vice so simple but assumes
Some mark of virtue on his outward parts.

There is no vice so simple but assumes
Some mark of virtue on his outward parts.

Vice itself lost half its evil, by losing all its grossness.

Vice itself lost half its evil, by losing all its grossness.

Those vices [luxury and neglect of decent manners] are vices of
men, not of the times.
[Lat., Hominum read more

Those vices [luxury and neglect of decent manners] are vices of
men, not of the times.
[Lat., Hominum sunt ista [vitia], non temporum.