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The Character of a Happy Life

11.07.2012 21:45 in inspiration

by Sir Henry Wotton. 1568–1639

HOW happy is he born and taught  
That serveth not another's will;  
Whose armour is his honest thought,  
And simple truth his utmost skill!  
 
Whose passions not his masters are;          5
Whose soul is still prepared for death,  
Untied unto the world by care  
Of public fame or private breath;  
 
Who envies none that chance doth raise,  
Nor vice; who never understood   10
How deepest wounds are given by praise;  
Nor rules of state, but rules of good;  
 
Who hath his life from rumours freed;  
Whose conscience is his strong retreat;  
Whose state can neither flatterers feed,   15
Nor ruin make oppressors great;  
 
Who God doth late and early pray  
More of His grace than gifts to lend;  
And entertains the harmless day  
With a religious book or friend;   20
 
—This man is freed from servile bands  
Of hope to rise or fear to fall:  
Lord of himself, though not of lands,  
And having nothing, yet hath all.

 

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