Poems of Henry Vaughan, Silurist Part 33

4. [INCERTI.]

Base man! and couldst thou think Cato alone Wants courage to be dry? and but him, none?

Look'd I so soft? breath'd I such base desires, Not proof against this Lybic sun's weak fires?

That shame and plague on thee more justly lie!

To drink alone, when all our troops are dry.

For with brave rage he flung it on the sand, And the spilt draught suffic'd each thirsty band

5. [INCERTI.]

[Death keeps off]

And will not bear the cry Of distress'd man, nor shut his weeping eye

6. [MAXIMUS.]

It lives when kill'd, and brancheth when 'tis lopp'd.

7. [MAXIMUS.]

Like some fair oak, that when her boughs Are cut by rude hands, thicker grows; And from those wounds the iron made Resumes a rich and fresher shade.

8. [GREGORY n.a.z.iANZEN.]

Patience digesteth misery.

9. [MARIUS VICTOR.]

----They fain would--if they might-- Descend to hide themselves in h.e.l.l. So light Of foot is Vengeance; and so near to sin, That soon as done, the actors do begin To fear and suffer by themselves: Death moves Before their eyes; sad dens and dusky groves They haunt, and hope--vain hope which Fear doth guide!-- That those dark shades their inward guilt can hide.

10. [INCERTI.]

But night and day doth his own life molest, And bears his judge and witness in his breast.

11. [THEODOTUS.]

Virtue's fair cares some people measure For poisonous works that hinder pleasure.

12. [INCERTI.]

Man should with virtue arm'd and hearten'd be, And innocently watch his enemy: For fearless freedom, which none can control, Is gotten by a pure and upright soul.

13. [INCERTI.]

Whose guilty soul, with terrors fraught, doth frame New torments still, and still doth blow that flame Which still burns him, nor sees what end can be Of his dire plagues, and fruitful penalty; But fears them living, and fears more to die; Which makes his life a constant tragedy.

14. [INCERTI.]

And for life's sake to lose the crown of life.

15. [INCERTI.]

Nature even for herself doth lay a snare, And handsome faces their own traitors are.

16. [MENANDER.]

True life in this is shown, To live for all men's good, not for our own.