by sufferance, and resisteth by obeying. He makes
his time an accountant to his memory, and of the humours of men weaves a
net for occasion; the inquisitor must look through his judgment, for to
the eye only he is not visible.

A COURTIER,

To all men's thinking, is a man, and to most men the finest; all things
else are defined by the understanding, but this by the senses; but his
surest mark is, that he is to be found only about princes. He smells,
and putteth away much of his judgment about the situation of his
clothes. He knows no man that is not generally known. His wit, like the
marigold, openeth with the sun, and therefore he riseth not before ten
of the clock. He puts more confidence in his words than meaning, and
more in his pronunciation than his words. Occasion is his Cupid, and he
hath but one receipt of making love. He follows nothing but inconstancy,
admires nothing but beauty, honours nothing but fortune: Loves nothing.
The sustenance of his discourse is news, and his censure, like a shot,
depends upon the charging. He is not, if he be out of court, but
fish-like breathes destruction if out of his element. Neither his motion
or aspect are regular, but he moves by the upper spheres, and is the
reflection of higher substances.

If you find him not here, you shall in Paul's, with a pick-tooth in his
hat, cape-cloak, and a long stocking.

A GOLDEN ASS

Is a young thing, whose father went to the devil; he is followed like a
salt bitch, and limbed by him that gets up first; his disposition is
cut, and knaves rend him like tenter-hooks; he is as blind as his
mother, and swallows flatterers for friends. He is high in his own
imagination, but that imagination is as a stone that is raised by
violence, descends naturally. When he goes, he looks who looks; if he
find not good store of vailers, he comes home stiff and sere, until he
be new oiled and watered by his husbandmen. Wheresoever he eats he hath
an officer to warn men not to talk out of his element, and his own is
exceeding sensible, because it is sensual; but he cannot exchange a
piece of reason, though he can a piece of gold. He is not plucked, for
his feathers are his beauty, and more than his beauty, they are his
discretion, his countenance, his all. He is now at an end, for he hath
had the wolf of vainglory, which he fed until himself became the food.

A FLATTERER

Is the shadow of a fool. He is a good woodman, for he singleth out none