X. ON HIS BLINDNESS. WHEN I consider how my light is spent Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide, Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent To serve therewith my Maker, and present That murmur, soon replies; God doth not need XCIV. 5 10 Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best: his state Is kingly; thousands at his bidding speed And post o'er land and ocean without rest: J. Milton. XI. XCV. CHARACTER OF A HAPPY LIFE. How happy is he born and taught Whose passions not his masters are, 5 XII. Who envies none that chance doth raise Who hath his life from rumours freed, 10 15 Who God doth late and early pray More of His grace than gifts to lend; 20 20 -This man is freed from servile bands Sir H. Wotton. XCVI. THE NOBLE NATURE. It is not growing like a tree In bulk, doth make Man better be; Or standing long an oak, three hundred year, To fall a log at last, dry, bald, and sere: A lily of a day Is fairer far in May, Although it fall and die that night— 5 10 B. Jonson. XIII. XCVII. 5 THE GIFTS OF GOD. WHEN God at first made Man, Having a glass of blessings standing by; So strength first made a way; Then beauty flow'd, then wisdom, honour, pleasure : Perceiving that alone, of all his treasure, For if I should (said he) 10 Bestow this jewel also on my creature, He would adore my gifts instead of me, And rest in Nature, not the God of Nature 15 Yet let him keep the rest, But keep them with repining restlessness: XIV. G. Herbert. THE RETREAT. HAPPY those early days, when I Before I understood this place Some shadows of eternity; Before I taught my tongue to wound My conscience with a sinful sound, A several sin to every sense, But felt through all this fleshly dress O how I long to travel back, And tread again that ancient track! That I might once more reach that plain, But I by backward steps would move; H. Vaughan. XV. XCIX. TO MR. LAWRENCE. LAWRENCE, of virtuous father virtuous son, From the hard season gaining? Time will run What neat repast shall feast us, light and choice, Warble immortal notes and Tuscan air? 5 10 J. Milton. XVI.. TO CYRIACK SKINNER. C. CYRIACK, whose grandsire, on the royal bench To-day deep thoughts resolve with me to drench 5 Let Euclid rest, and Archimedes pause, And what the Swede intend, and what the French. |