Who fears to ask doth teach to be deny'd'—
the line he italicises is from Seneca's 'Hippolytus' (ll. 594, 5)—'Qui timide rogat ... docet negare.' So too in 'Loss from the Least'—
'Great men by small means oft are overthrown;
He's lord of thy life who contemns his own'—
the quotation is again from Seneca, 'Ep.' 4—'Quisquis vitam suam contempsit tuae dominus est.'
If we turn now to Herrick's borrowings from Tacitus we may take as a good example his couplet headed, 'Things mortal still mutable':—
'Things are uncertain, and the more we get
The more on icy pavements we are set.'
Which is really a wonderful rendering of a saying of the Emperor Tiberius reported in 'Annals' I. 72—'Cuncta mortalium incerta, quantoque plus adeptus foret, tanto se magis in lubrico.' Another good instance is supplied by 'The Eyes'—
''Tis a known principle in war,