Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Francis T. Palgrave, ed. (1824–1897). The Golden Treasury. 1875.

Sir Henry Wotton

LXXII. Character of a Happy Life

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;

Whose soul is still prepared for death,

Not tied unto the world with care

Of public fame, or private breath;

Who envies none that chance doth raise,

Or vice; who never understood

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,

Nor ruin make accusers great;

Who God doth late and early pray

More of His grace than gifts to lend;

And entertains the harmless day

With a well-chosen book or friend;

—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.