260
Tixall Poetry.
A prudence, that imediately surveys,
And chooses out the best of thousand ways;
Yet can no trust in its owne choice repose,
And alwaise feares to err, but never does:
Nor to its end doth need a surer guide
Then its quick sight of all it ought t'avoid:
A temper, that noe stormes can discompose,
Nor with the tyde of fortune ebbs or flows;
But beares all suffrings soe, as it would say,
"Ye can't take hold of me, and will not stay."
And pleasures does at such a distance meete,
As it againe can quit without regret.
(Yet, madam, thinke that this too far extends,
If it except not those true friendship lends.)
A wit, still searching in the richest mines;
A judgment, which what that brings forth refines.
Vertue, that coines it, honor, that, like kings'
Commands, thereto a double value brings;
And is not satisfy'd with all you've done,
Until it makes you nobly trample on
Not only all that's ill, but all that's meane,
As in a thousand various ways 'tis seene.
And chooses out the best of thousand ways;
Yet can no trust in its owne choice repose,
And alwaise feares to err, but never does:
Nor to its end doth need a surer guide
Then its quick sight of all it ought t'avoid:
A temper, that noe stormes can discompose,
Nor with the tyde of fortune ebbs or flows;
But beares all suffrings soe, as it would say,
"Ye can't take hold of me, and will not stay."
And pleasures does at such a distance meete,
As it againe can quit without regret.
(Yet, madam, thinke that this too far extends,
If it except not those true friendship lends.)
A wit, still searching in the richest mines;
A judgment, which what that brings forth refines.
Vertue, that coines it, honor, that, like kings'
Commands, thereto a double value brings;
And is not satisfy'd with all you've done,
Until it makes you nobly trample on
Not only all that's ill, but all that's meane,
As in a thousand various ways 'tis seene.
