SIR HENRY WOTTON.

LADY ELIZABETH CAREW.

13

But silly we, like foolish children, rest Untied unto the worldly care
Well pleased with colored vellum, leaves Of public fame, or private breath;

of gold, Fair dangling ribbons, leaving what is Who envies none that chance doth raise, best,

Or vice; who never understood On the great writer's sense ne'er taking How deepest wounds are given by praise; hold;

Nor rules of state, but rules of good; Or if by chance we stay our minds on Who hath his life from rumors freed, aught,

Whose conscience is his strong retreat; It is some picture on the margin wrought. Whose state can neither flatterers feed,

Nor ruin make oppressors great ;
Who God doth late and early pray,

More of his grace than gifts to lend;
SIR HENRY WOTTON. And entertains the harmless day

With a religious book or friend : (1568 - 1639.)

This man is freed from servile bands, TO . HIS MISTRESS, THE QUEEN OF Of hope to rise, or fear to fall; BOHEMIA,

Lord of himself, though not of lands;

And having nothing, yet hath all. You meaner beauties of the night,

That poorly satisfy our eyes
More by your number than your light!

You common people of the skies!

What are you, when the sun shall rise ? LADY ELIZABETH CAREW You curious chanters of the wood,

(About 1613.) That warble forth dame Nature's lays, Thinking your voices understood

REVENGE OF INJURIES. By your weak accents ! what's your praise

The fairest action of our human life When Philomel her voice shall raise ? Is scorning to revenge an injury;

For who forgives without a further strie, You violets that first appear,

His adversary's heart to him đoth ue; By your pure purple mantles known, And 't is a firmer conquest truly sail, Like the proud virgins of the year,

To win the heart, thanoverthrow the head. As if the spring were all your own! What are you, when the rose is blown? If we a worthy enemy do find,

To vield to worth it must be nobly done; So, when my mistress shall be seen

But if of baser metal be his mind, In form and beauty of her mind;

In base revenge there is no honor won. By virtue first, then choice, a Queen!

Who would a worthy courage overthrow? Tell me, if she were not designed

And who would wrestle with a worthless The eclipse and glory of her kind?

foe ? We say our hearts are great, and cannot

yield; THE GOOD MAN.

Because they cannot yield, it proves

them poor : How happy is he born and taught, Great hearts are tasked beyond their That serveth not another's will;

power but seld; Whose armor is his honest thought, The weakest lion will the loudest roar. And simple truth his utmost skill ! Truth's school for certain doth this same

allow; Whose passions not his masters are, High-heartedness doth sometimes teach

Whose soul is still prepared for death, to bow.

scorn:

wars

on,

A noble heart doth teach a virtuous | He looks upon the mightiest monarch's

To scorn to owe a duty overlong; But only as on stately robberies; To scorn to be for benefits forborne; Where evermore the fortune that prevails

To scorn to lie; to scorn to do a wrong; Must be the right : the ill-succeeding mars To scorn to bear an injury in mind; The fairest and the best faced enterprise. To scorn a free-born heart slave-like to Great pirate Pompey lesser pirates quails : bind.

Justice, he sees (as if seducéd), still

Conspires with power, whose cause must But if for wrongs we needs revenge must

not be ill. have, Then be our vengeance of the noblest And whilst distraught ambition coinkind.

passes, Do we his body from our fury save,

And is encompassed; whilst as craft deAnd let our hate prevail against his

ceives, mind?

And is deceived: whilst man doth ransack What can 'gainst him a greater vengeance and builds on blood, and rises by distress;

man, be, Than make his foe more worthy far than And the inheritance of desolation leaves he?

To great-expecting hopes : he looks there.
As from the shore of peace, with unwet

eye,

And bears no venture in impiety.
SAMUEL DANIEL.

Thus, inadam, fares that man, that hath (1562 – 1619.)

prepared

A rest for his desires; and sees all things FROM AN EPISTLE TO THE COUNT- Beneath him; and hath learned this book ESS OF CUMBERLAND.

Full of the notes of frailty; and compared He that of such a height hath built his The best of glory with her sufferings : mind,

By whom, I see, you labor all you can And reared the dwelling of his thoughts Toplant your heart; and set your thoughts

so strong, As neither fear nor hope can shake the His glorious mansion, as your powers can frame

bear. Of his resolved powers; nor all the wind Of vanity or malice pierce to wrong Which, madam, are so soundly fashioned His settled peace, or to disturb the same : By that clear judgment, that hath carried What a fair seat hath he, from whence he

you may

Beyond the feeble limits of your kind, The boundless wastes and wilds of man As they can stand against the strongest survey?

head

Passion can make; inured to any hue And with how free an eye doth he look The world can cast: it cannot cast that down

mind Upon these lower regions of turmoil ? Out of her form of goodness, that doth see Where all the storms of passions mainly Both what the best and worst of earth

beat On flesh and blood : where honor, power, renown,

Which makes, that whatsoever here beAre only gay afflictions, golden toil;

falls, Where greatness stands upon as feeble You in the region of yourself remain: feet,

Where no vain breath of the impudent As frailty doth; and only great doth seem

molests To little minds, who do it so esteem. That hath secured within the brazen walls

of man,

as near

can be.

cures

1 1

Of a clear conscience, that (without all I see how plenty surfeits oft,
stain)

And hasty climbers soonest fall;
Rises in peace, in innocency rests; I see that such as sit aloft
Whilst all that Malice from without pro Mishap doth threaten most of all.

These get with toil, and keep with fear; Shows her own ugly heart, but hurts not Such cares my mind could never bear. yours.

No princely pomp nor wealthy store,
And whereas none rejoice more in revenge, No force to win the victory,
Than women use to do; yet you well No wily wit to salve a sore,
know,

No shape to win a lover's eye, That wrong is better checked by being To none of these 1 yield as thrall; contemned,

For why, my mind despiseth all.
Than being pursued ; leaving to him to
avenge,

Some have too much, yet still they crave ;
To whom it appertains. Wherein you show I little have, yet seek no more.
How worthily your clearness hath con. They are but poor, though much they
demned

have;
Base malediction, living in the dark, And I am rich with little store.
That at the rays of goodness still doth They poor, I rich; they beg, I give;
bark.

They lack, I lend; they pine, I live.

Knowing the heart of man is set to be I laugh not at another's loss,
The centre of this world, about the which I grudge not at another's gain;
These revolutions of disturbances No worldly wave my mind can toss;
Still roll; where all the aspects of misery I brook that is another's bane.
Predominate : whose strong effects are I fear no foe, nor fawn on friend;
such,

I loathe not life, nor dread mine end.
As he must bear, being powerless to re-

dress : And that unless above himself he can

i joy not in no earthly bliss; Erect himself, how poor a thing is man.

I weigh not Cresus' wealth a straw;
For care, I care not what it is;

I fear not fortune's fatal law;
My mind is such as may not move
For beauty bright, or force of love.

Content I live; this is my stay,

The court nor cart I like nor loathe; I seek no more than may suffice.

Extremes are counted worst of all; I press to bear no haughty sway; The golden mean betwixt them both

Look, what I lack my mind supplies. Doth surest sit, and fears no fall; Lo! thus I triumph like a king, This is my choice; for why, I find Content with that my mind doth bring. No wealth is like a quiet mind.