Among the thorns and dangers of this world.—King John, iv. 3.

Thorns and snares are in the way of the froward.—Prov. xxii. 5.

When we first put this dangerous stone a rolling,

’Twould fall upon ourselves.—Henry VIII., v. 2.

He that rolleth a stone, it will return upon him.—Prov. xxvi. 27.

The speech of Ulysses, in “Troilus and Cressida,” i. 3, is almost a paraphrase of St. Luke xxi. 25, 26:—

But when the planets

In evil mixture to disorder wander,

What plagues, and what portents! What mutiny!

What raging of the sea! Shaking of earth!