The epigram elaborates on the theme of flaws and perfection, "that which most excels frequently has the most flaws". While the motto derives from a common belief, that sharpening a knife too often will make it chip easily, no imagery of sharpening or knives occurs in the image. Interpreting the cheese becomes possible only in context: cheese comes from a then poorly understood process of coagulation possibly pointing to "monstrous powers" within the matter. It was believed, for instance, that maggots were born spontaneously in cheese, and that (especially older) cheese was a suspicious food item, possibly causing constipation and other physical ailments: it is food and putrefaction simultaneously.  19 shows a pretzel being tugged from both sides by hands coming from clouds, emblematizing how the soul is pulled by God and the devil. The image of the pretzel is found elsewhere in art from the same period, with the attendant possibility of "pictorial homonymy"—but the pretzel in Jan van Bijlert's "Merry company" points not at the transience of man's life but at women's wiles.  42 shows a man seeking shelter from the rain under a tree (a fitting emblem given the "volatile Dutch weather") to "convey the idea that life's inevitable tempests or misfortunes are transient and survivable, if one stands firm or prudently takes shelter", shelter being provided by the Prince, according to the accompanying epigram.