I pronounce thee worthy to govern a thousand islands. Thou hast
an excellent natural disposition, without which all science is naught.
Recommend thyself to God, and endeavor to avoid errors in the first
intention. I mean, let thy intention and unshaken purpose be to deal
righteously in all thy transactions, for Heaven always favors the
upright design. And now let us go in to dinner, for I believe their
graces wait for us."

Without discretion there can be no wit.

O poverty, poverty! I know not what should induce the great Cordovan
poet to call thee a holy, unrequited gift. I, though a Moor, am very
sensible, from my correspondence with Christians, that holiness consists
in charity, humility, faith, poverty, and obedience; yet, nevertheless,
I will affirm that he must be holy indeed, who can sit down content with
poverty, unless we mean that kind of poverty to which one of the
greatest saints alludes, when he says, "Possess of all things as not
possessing them;" and this is called spiritual poverty. But thou second
poverty, which is the cause I spoke of, why wouldst thou assault
gentlemen of birth rather than any other class of people? Why dost thou
compel them to cobble their shoes, and wear upon their coats one button
of silk, another of hair, and a third of glass? Why must their ruffs be
generally yellow and ill-starched? (By the by, from this circumstance we
learn the antiquity of ruffs and starch. But thus he proceeds:) O
wretched man of noble pedigree! who is obliged to administer cordials to
his honor, in the midst of hunger and solitude, by playing the hypocrite
with a toothpick, which he affects to use in the street, though he has
eat nothing to require that act of cleanliness. Wretched he, I say,
whose honor is ever apt to be startled, and thinks that everybody at a
league's distance observes the patch upon his shoe, his greasy hat, and
his threadbare cloak, and even the hunger that consumes him.

Better a blush on the face than a stain in the heart.

Look not in last year's nests for this year's birds.

A SERENADE.

And he forthwith imagined that some damsel belonging to the duchess had
become enamored of him. Though somewhat fearful of the beautiful foe, he
resolved to fortify his heart, and on no account to yield; so,
commending himself with fervent devotion to his mistress, Dulcinea del
Toboso, he determined to listen to the music; and to let the damsel know
he was there he gave a feign