The refusal of the false is not the reception of the true.

A man may deny himself into a spiritual lethargy, without denying one truth, simply by spending his strength for that which is not bread, until he has none left wherewith to search for the truth, which alone can feed him.

Only when subjected to the positive does the negative find its true vocation.
I am jealous of the living force cast into the slough of satire.

No doubt, either indignant or loving rebuke has its end and does its work, but I fear that wit, while rousing the admiration of the spiteful or the like witty, comes in only to destroy its dignity.

At the same time, I am not sure whether there might not be such a judicious combination of the elements as to render my remarks inapplicable.
At all events, poetry favours the positive, and from the _Emblems_ named of Quarles I shall choose one in which it fully predominates.