My son, eat thou honey This is not a command, but a concession, and is here expressed only to illustrate the following verse. Do not slight, much less nauseate, such precepts as these; but, as honey is most acceptable to thy palate, especially that pure part of it which drops of itself immediately from the honey-comb, so let that knowledge be to thy mind, which tends to make thee wise and virtuous. Then there shall be a reward As nothing is more necessary for thee, nothing more delightful; so, if it be seriously studied, and thoroughly digested, it will abundantly reward thy pains, even in the present world, but more especially in the next. It is well known, says Bishop Patrick, in how high esteem honey was among the ancients, for food, for drink, for medicine, for preserving of dead bodies, and particularly for infants. Isaiah 7:15. All this is here fitly applied to wisdom, from which the mind derives the greatest satisfaction, and which therefore ought to be our daily diet, our sweetest refreshment.

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