Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A38500
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Enchiridion made English in a poetical paraphrase / by Ellis Walker of London-Derry.
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Walker, Ellis.; Epictetus. Manual.
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1692
(1692)
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Wing E3149; ESTC R225857
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30,711
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143
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tolerable reason why You plead your Carkass and good Name are dear The wound goes to your Soul that wounds you there 'T is false 't is but a scratch nor can it find An entrance thither or disturb your mind Without your own consent an injury To something else without 't is none to thee Thus when provok'd your own opinion blame 'T is that provokes and causeth all the pain Wherefore beware lest objects such as these Gain your assent too soon with too much ease Lest fancied harms your mind with grief affect Lest fancied bliss should gain too much respect Thus you 'l gain leisure and a thinking time Your Notions with due measures to confine To add to prune to pollish and refine XXVII Let Death let Banishment and every ill Which Mortals thoughts with apprehension fill Which most they dread and with aversion fly Be always present to your thoughts and eye But chiefly Death thus no mean thought shall find Harbour or entertainment in your mind Thus no base fear shall ever force you from Your noble principles resolv'd upon Not Tyrants frowns nor tortures shall enslave Your fearless Soul but generously brave You all their little malice may defie Arm'd only with the thought you once must dye Nor can Death truly formidable seem To you who with it have familiar been Who every day have the pale Bug-bear seen Yet Death 's the worst that you can undergo The utmost limit the last Scene of Woe The greatest spite your enemy can shew And yet no more than what the Gout or Stone With more malicious leisure might have done Arm'd with the thoughts of Death no fond desire Of Wealth nor the deluding foolish fire Of power shall lead you on with hopes to gain What Death hath sworn you shall not long retain XXVIII Wisdom you say is what you most desire The only charming blessing you admire Therefore be bold and fit your self to bear Many a taunt and patiently to hear The grinning foolish Rabble laugh aloud At you the sport and pastime of the crowd While in like jears they vent their filthy spleen Whence all this gravity this careless mien And whence of late is this pretender come This new proficient this Musheroom This young Philosopher with half a Beard Of him till now we have no mention heard Whence all this Supercilious pride of late This stiff behaviour this affected gate This will perhaps be said but be not you Sullen nor bend a supercilious brow Lest thus you prove their vile reproaches true Which are but words of course the excrement The usual malice which alike they vent Upon the guilty and the innocent But firmly still to what seems best adhere As if by Heavens commands you ordered were To keep that Post not to be driven from thence By force much less a scurrilous offence Which if you still maintain you shall become Even your Revilers admiration Forc'd to confess their faults they 'l court you more Than they reproach'd or laugh'd at you before But if through mockery you tamely yield And quit your noble Station in the Field You 're to be laugh'd at on a double score First for attempting then for giving o're XXIX If to please others studying to be dear â—n their kind thoughts you move beyond your Sphere And look abroad respect and praise to gain And the poor outward trifle call'd a Name You lose the Character you wish to bear You lose your Station of Philosopher Let it suffice that such your self you know No matter whether other men think so Let it be to your self if wise you 'd seem And 't is enough you gain your own esteem XXX Let not these thoughts torment you I alas In low ignoble Poverty shall pass My wretched days and unregarded lye Buried alive in dark obscurity No honour no preferment shall I have But Schoch'onless descend into the Grave This as a wondrous hardship you bemoan A grievous ill when really 't is none The outward want of power preferment place Is no more misery than 't is disgrace And that 't is no disgrace I shall evince Where 's the disgrace you are not made a Prince Or that you 're not invited to a Feast 'T is none by every man of Sense confest For where 's the man in 's Wits that can expect That things not in your pow'r you should effect And why of want of power should you complain Who can no place or honour justly claim Except in things in your own power in these You may be great and powerful as you please But then you plead I thus shall useless grow To those I love nor shall I kindness shew Nor wealth nor power on my best friends bestow Nor by my int'rest cause them to become Free of each gainful Priviledge in Rome Nor when I please an Officer create Nor raise them to be Utensils of State And who e're told you yet that these things lye Within your power or capacity Or where 's the man that can to others grant That Place or Honour he himself doth want But they 're importunate alas and cry Get it that we your friends may gain thereby Answer them thus I 'll do it if I can So I may keep my self a modest man Just to my self still innocent and free A man of Honour and Integrity I 'll use my best endeavours if I may Gain it on these conditions shew the way But if you think I 'll this true Wealth forgo That you may something gain that is not so See how unjust this Self-partiality And to be plain you are no friends for me If you prefer a base penurious end Before an honest and a modest friend Suppose your choice were such then shew me how What you so earnestly desire to do And keep my Principles of freedom too But think not I will part with happiness That you some worthless pleasure may possess But thus your Country nothing by you gains What 's this advantage that your Country claims Is it that Baths you make with cost and charge Or Porches build unimitably large Where late Posterity may read your Name Which there you Consecrate to lasting Fame These gifts from you your Country can expect No more than Physick from an Architect Or that a Shoomaker should Armour make Or of your Foot a Smith the measure take For 't is enough if each perform in 's Trade The Work for which he seems by Nature made If each man mind the way in which he 's plac'd The Smith his Anvil Shoomaker his Last And thus if you the height of Wisdom reach And what so well you know as well can teach If by these noble methods you profess You with another honest man can bless The City where you dwell you give no less Than he who on his Country doth confer Porches or Baths or Amphitheater Well then i' th' City where I useful am What Office shall I have Such as you can Keeping your Honour and your Conscience free With