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LETTERS.

!

Poor I! whom every petty cross doth trouble,
Who apprehend each hurt that 's done me double,
Am of this (tho' it should sink me) careless;
It would but force me t' a stricter goodness.
They have great gain of me who gain do win
(If such gain be not loss) from every sin.
The standing of great men's lives would afford
A pretty sum, if God would sell his Word.
He cannot; they can theirs, and break them too.
How unlike they are that they 're likened to ?
Yet I conclude they are amidst my evils;
If good like gods; the naught are so like devils.

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Amicisssimo et meritissimo

BENJ. JOHNSON.

IN VOLPOΝΕΜ.

Quod arte ausus es hic tuâ, Poeta,
Si auderent hominum Deique juris
Consulti véteres sequi æmularierque,
O omnes saperemus ad salutem.
Hic sed sunt veteres araneosi;
Tan nemo veterum est sequutor, ut tu,
Illos quòd sequeris, novator audis.
r'ac tamen quod agis; tuique primâ
Libri caniție induantur hora:
Nam chartis pueritia est neganda;

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Nascanturque, senes, opportet, illi
Libri, queis dare vis perennitatem.

Priscis ingenium facit laborque

Te parem; hos superes, ut et futuros:
Ex nostrà vitiositate sumas,

Qua priscos superamus et futuros.

TO SIR THO. ROWE, 1603.

DEAR TOM,

Tert her, if she to hired servants show
Dislike, before they take their leave they go;
When nobler spirits start at no disgrace,
For who hath but one mind hath but one face.
If then why I take not my leave she ask,
Ask her again why she did not unmask?
Vas she or proud or cruel? or knew she
would make my loss more felt, and pity'd me?
did she fear one kiss might stay for moe?
else was she unwilling I should go?

Think the best, and love so faithfully, annot chuse but think that she loves me.

his prove not my faith, then let her try ow in her service I would fructify.

)

dies have boldly fov'd; bid her renew

at decay'd worth, and prove the times past true;Zonne.1

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:

Then he whose wit and verse grows now so lame,
With songs to her will the wild Irish tame.

Howe'er, I'll wear the black and white ribband; White for her fortunes, black for mine, shall stand.

I do esteem her favour, not the stuff;

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If what I have was given, I've enough,
And all 's well; for had she lov'd, I had not had
All my friends' hate; for now departing sad

I feel not that: yet as the rack the gout

Cures, so hath this worse grief that quite put out:
My first disease nought but that worse cureth,
Which (I dare foresay) nothing cures but death.
Tell her all this before I am forgot,
That not too late she grieve she lov'd me not.
Burdened with this, I was to depart less
Willing than those which die and not confess.

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De Libro cum mutaretur, Impresso, Domi a pueris frustratim lacerato, et post reddito Manuscripto.

Doctissimo Amicissimoque Viro D. D. ANDREWS.

PARTURIUNT madido quæ nixu præla, recepta;
Sed quæ scripta manu sunt, veneranda magis.
Transiit in Sequanam Menus: victoris in ædes,
Et Francofurtum, te revehente, meat.
Qui liber in pluteos blattis cinerique relictos,
Si modo sit præli sauguine tinctus, abit,

"

Accedat calamo scriptus, reverenter liabetur,
Involat et veterum scrinia summa patrum.s
Dicat Apollo modum; pueros infundere libro
Nempe vetustatem canitiemque novo.
Nil mirum, medico pueros de semine natos
Hæc nova fata libro posse dedisse novo...
Si veterem faziunt pueri, qui nuperus, Annon
Ipse Pater Juvenem me dabit arte senem?r
Hei miseris senibus! nos vertit dura senectus
Omnes in pueros, neminem at in Juvenemei
Hoc tibi servasti præstandum, Antique Dierum,
Quo viso, et vivit, et juvenescit Adam.
Interea, infirmæ fallamus tædia vitæ,
Libris, et Cœlorum æmula amicitia.
Hos inter, qui à te mihi redditus iste libellus,
Non mihi tam charus, tam ineus antè fuit.

TO MR. TILMAN,

AFTER HE HAD TAKEN ORDERS.

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THOU, whose diviner soul hath caus'd thee now

To put thy hand unto the holy plough,

Making lay-scornings of the ministry

心

Not an impediment, but victory;

What bring'st thou home with thee? how is thy mind

New thoughts and stirrings in thee? and, as steel
Touch'd with a loadstone, dost new motions feel?

Or as a ship, after much pain and care,

For iron and cloth brings home rich Indian ware ? 10
Hast thou thus traffick'd, but with far more gain

Of noble goods, and with less time and pain?
Thou art the same materials as before,
Only the stamp is changed, but no more.
And as new-crowned kings alter the face,
But not the money's substance, so hath grace
Chang'd only God's old image by creation
To Christ's new stamp, at this thy coronation;
Or as we paint angels with wings, because

They bear God's message, and proclaim his laws: 20
Since thou must do the like, and so must move,
Art thou new-feather'd with celestial love?
Dear! tell me where thy purchase lies, and show
What thy advantage is above below:

But if thy gainings do surmount expression,
Why doth the foolish world scorn that profession
Whose joys pass speech? why do they think unfit
That gentry should join families with it?

As if their day were only to be spent

In dressing, mistressing, and compliment.
Alas! poor joys, but poorer men, whose trust
Seems richly placed in sublimed dust!

(For such are cloaths and beauty, which, tho' gay,
Are at the best but of sublimed clay)
Let then the world thy calling disrespect,
But go thou on, and pity their neglect.

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