Q. Why is Fortune painted with a double forehead, the one side bald and the other hairy? A. The baldness signifies adversity, and hairiness prosperity, which we enjoy when it pleaseth her.
Q. Why have some commended flattery? A. Because flattery setteth forth before our eyes what we ought to be, though not what we are.
Q. Wherefore should virtue be painted girded? A. To show that virtuous men should not be slothful, but diligent and always in action.
Q. Why did the ancients say it was better to fall into the hands of a raven than a flatterer? A. Because ravens do not eat us till we be dead, but flatterers devour us alive.
Q. Why have choleric men beards before others? A. Because they are hot, and their pores large.
Q. How comes it that such as have the hiccups do ease themselves by holding their breath? A. The breath retained doth heat the interior parts of the body, and the hiccups proceeds from cold.
Q. How comes it that old men remember
well what they have seen and done in their youth, and forget such things as they see and do in their old age? A. Things learned in youth take deep root and habitude in a person, but those learned in age are forgotten because the senses are then weakened.
Q. What kind of covetousness is best? A. That of time when employed as it ought to be.
Q. Why is our life compared to a play? A. Because the dishonest do occupy the place of the honest, and the worst sort the room of the good.