XI.

THE CHARACTER OF A HAPPY LIFE.

This little moral poem was writ by Sir _Henry Wotton_, who died Provost of Eton in 1639. Æt. 72. It is printed from a little collection of his pieces, intitled. _Reliquiæ Wottonianæ_, 1651, 12mo.; compared with one or two other copies. [Ben Jonson is said to have greatly admired these verses, and to have known them by heart.]

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How happy is he born or taught, That serveth not anothers will; Whose armour is his honest thought, And simple truth his highest skill:

Whose passions not his masters are; 5 Whose soul is still prepar'd for death; Not ty'd unto the world with care Of princes ear, or vulgar breath:

Who hath his life from rumours freed; Whose conscience is his strong retreat: 10 Whose state can neither flatterers feed, Nor ruine make oppressors great:

Who envies none, whom chance doth raise, Or vice: Who never understood How deepest wounds are given with praise; 15 Nor rules of state, but rules of good:

Who God doth late and early pray More of his grace than gifts to lend; And entertaines the harmless day With a well-chosen book or friend. 20

This man is freed from servile bands Of hope to rise, or feare to fall; Lord of himselfe, though not of lands; And having nothing, yet hath all.