The Character of a Happy Life
How happy is he born or taught
That serveth not another’s will;
Whose armor is his honest thought
And simple truth his utmost skill!
Whose passions not his masters are,
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; hath ever understood
How deepest wounds are given by praise;
Nor rules of state, but rules of good:
Who hath his life from rumors freed,
Whose conscience is his strong retreat;
Whose state can neither flatterers feed,
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;
This man is freed from servile bonds
Of hope to rise, or fear to fall;
Lord of himself, though not of lands;
And having nothing, yet hath all.
by Henry Wotton (1614)
Henry Wotton was born on 30 March 1568 in Boughton Malherbe, Maidstone Borough, Kent, England. He became a writer, a poet, a diplomat, and a politician. Henry Wotton passed on at 71 years of age in December 1639 in Eton, Windsor and Maidenhead Royal Borough, Berkshire, England.
How happy is he born or taught
That serveth not another’s will;
Whose armor is his honest thought
And simple truth his utmost skill!
Whose passions not his masters are,
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; hath ever understood
How deepest wounds are given by praise;
Nor rules of state, but rules of good:
Who hath his life from rumors freed,
Whose conscience is his strong retreat;
Whose state can neither flatterers feed,
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;
This man is freed from servile bonds
Of hope to rise, or fear to fall;
Lord of himself, though not of lands;
And having nothing, yet hath all.
by Henry Wotton (1614)
Henry Wotton was born on 30 March 1568 in Boughton Malherbe, Maidstone Borough, Kent, England. He became a writer, a poet, a diplomat, and a politician. Henry Wotton passed on at 71 years of age in December 1639 in Eton, Windsor and Maidenhead Royal Borough, Berkshire, England.
