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. |