Unbeseem

Law Rationall therefore, which men commonly vſe to call the Law of Nature, meaning thereby the Law which humane Nature knoweth it ſelfe in reaſon vniuerſally bound vnto, which alſo for that cauſe may be termed moſt fitly the law of Reaſon: this Law, I ſay, comprehendeth al thoſe things which men by the light of their naturall vnderſtanding euidently know, or at leaſtwiſe may know, to be beſeeming or vnbeſeeming, vertuous or vicious, good or euill for them to doe.

[I]n all other things they are wiſe, ſtaid, diſcreet, and doe nothing unbeſeeming their dignity, perſon, or place, this fooliſh, ridiculous, and childiſh feare excepted; […]

Gregory Nazianzen a Father of the Church, thought it not unbeſeeming the ſanctity of his perſson to write a Tragedy, which he entitl'd, Chriſt ſuffering.

Ah! may'st thou ever be what now thou art, / Nor unbeseem the promise of thy spring, / As fair in form, as warm yet pure in heart, / Love's image upon earth without his wing, / And guileless beyond hope's imagining!

A proud heart, evidencing itself in a saucy, malapert, aweless, and careless carriage, is most unbeseeming the condition of servants, and highly displeasing to God in them, as being opposite to that property of fear and trembling which ought to accompany their obedience: "Be obedient with fear and trembling."

We have already described him as a tall handsome boy, nor had his manhood "unbeseemed the promise of his spring."

This pernicious license of distributing, at our fancy, praise where none is due, has formerly, in different places, been confined to particular classes; and, peradventure, it is this circumstance that erewhile brought poetry under the disfavour of the sages. But, at all events, it is not to be denied that it is a vice which greatly smacks of lying, and lying is a vice which ever unbeseems a well-descended mind, whatever pretext it assumes.