They lately threatened the marking of my wayes: & I therefore give them hearty thankes: for, I never since behold one of their Fraternity, but it is an Alarum to me, & drives me immediately to consider, what I last did, what I am then doing, & what I purpose to goe about. Nay, I have apossibility of brave Advantages, if their enmity encrease, as it hath done hitherto. There is not an oversight which I was guilty of since my cradle, nor a Folly which was ever suspected of, nor any forgetfulnesse which I may be prone to fall into; but I hope they will enquire it out & lay it to my charge. That the great Accuser may have the lesse to object, at the last Judgment.
George Wither 1624, regurgitated by bellona timesalso George Wither:
Each clown may rise
And climb the skies,
When he hath found a stair.
But joy to him
That dares to climb
And hath no help but air
and in The Oxford Book of English Verse
and an emblem:
by George Wither and Gabriel Rollenhagen at studiolum
and Ouroboros
