APHORISM XLVIII.

A contracted sphere, or what is called retiring from the business of the world, no security from the spirit of the world.

Leighton.

The heart may be engaged in a little business as much, if thou watch it not, as in many and great affairs. A man may drown in a little brook or pool, as well as in a great river, if he be down and plunge himself into it, and put his head under water. Some care thou must have, that thou mayest not care. Those things that are thorns indeed, thou must make a hedge of them, to keep 94 out those temptations that accompany sloth, and extreme want that waits, on it; but let them be the hedge: suffer them not to grow within the garden.