um,
Quem mater ilia concepit,
Quae sola virgo parturit.

O Jesus the Crown of Virgins,
Whom she the Mother conceiv'd,
Which was the only Person of a Virgin that brought forth._

There is no Doubt but the Word should be pronounc'd _concipit._ For the
Change of the Tense sets off a Word. And it is ridiculous for us to
find Fault with _concipit_ when _parlurit_ follows.

_Hi._ Truly I have been puzzled at a great many such Things; nor will it
be amiss, if hereafter we bestow a little Time upon this Matter. For
methinks _Ambrose_ has not a little Grace in this Kind of Verse, for he
does commonly end a Verse of four Feet with a Word of three Syllables,
and commonly places a _caesura_ in the End of a Word. It is so common
with him that it cannot seem to have been by Chance. If you would have
an Example, _Deus Creator_. Here is a _Penthemimeris_, it follows,
_omnium; Polique rector_, then follows, _vestiens; diem decoro_, and
then _lumine; noctem soporis_, then follows _gratia_.

_Hi._ But here's a good fat Hen that has laid me Eggs, and hatch'd me
Chickens for ten Years together.

_Cr._ It is Pity that she should have been kill'd.

_Ca._ If it were fit to intermingle any Thing of graver Studies, I have
something to propose.

_Hi._ Yes, if it be not too crabbed.

_Ca._ That it is not. I lately began to read _Seneca's_ Epistles, and
stumbled, as they say, at the very Threshold. The Place is in the first
Epistle; _And if_, says he, _thou wilt but observe it, great Part of our
Life passes away while we are doing what is ill; the greatest Part,
while we are doing nothing, and the whole of it while we are doing that
which is to no Purpose_. In this Sentence, he seems to affect I can't
tell what Sort of Witticism, which I do not well understand.

_Le._ I'll guess, if you will.

_Ca._ Do so.

_Le._ No Man offends continually. But, nevertheless, a great Part of
one's Life is lost in Excess, Lust, Ambition, and other Vices; but a
much greater Part is lost in doing of nothing. Moreover they are said to
do nothing, not who live in Idleness, but they who are busied about
frivolous Things which conduce nothing at all to our Happiness: And
thence comes the Proverb, _It is better to be idle, than to be doing,
but to no Purpose_. But the whole Life is spent in doing another Thing.
He is said, _aliud agere_, who does not mind what he is about. So that
the whole of Life is lost: Because when we are v