my breath XXXIX To Regina Collier on her Cruelty to Philaster TRiumphant Queen of scorn how ill doth sit In all that Sweetness such injurious Wit Unjust and Cruel what can be your prize To make one heart a double Sacrifice Where such ingenuous Rigour you do shew To break his Heart you break his Image too And by a Tyranny that 's strange and new You Murther him because he Worships you No Pride can raise you or can make him start Since Love and Honour do enrich his heart Be Wise and Good lest when Fate will be just She should o'rethrow those glories in the dust Rifle your Beauties and you thus forlorn Make a cheap Victim to another's scorn And in those Fetters which you do upbraid Your self a wretched Captive may be made Redeem the poyson'd Age let it be seen There 's no such freedom as to serve a Queen But you I see are lately Round-head grown And whom you vanquish you insult upon XL. To Philaster on his Metancholy for Regina GIve over now thy tears thou vain And double Murtherer For every minute of thy pain Wounds both thy self-and her Then leave this dulness for 't is our belief Thy Queen must cure or not deserve thy Grief XLI Philoclea's parting Feb. 25. 1650. KInder then a condemned Man's Reprieve Was your dear Company that bad me live When by Rosannia's silence I had been The wretchedst Martyr any Age hath seen But as when Traytors faint upon the Rack Tormentors strive to call their Spirits back Not out of kindness to preserve their breath But to increase the Torments of their Death So was I raised to this glorious height To make my fall the more unfortunate But this I know none ever dy'd before Upon a sadder or a nobler score XLII To Rosannia now Mrs. Mountague being with her Septemb. 25. 1652. 1. AS men that are with Visions grac'd Must have all other thoughts displac'd And buy those short descents of Light With loss of Sense or Spirit 's flight 2. So since thou wert my happiness I could not hope the rate was less And thus the Vision which I gain Is short t' enjoy and hard t' attain 3. Ah then what a poor trifle's all That thing which here we Pleasure call Since what our very Souls hath cost Is hardly got and quickly lost 4. Yet is there Justice in the fate For should we dwell in blest estate Our Joyes thereby would so inflame We should forget from whence we came 5. If this so sad a doom can quit Me for the follies I commit Let no estrangement on thy part Adde a new ruine to my heart 6. When on my self I do reflect I can no smile from thee expect But if thy Kindness hath no plea Some freedom grant for Charity 7. Else the just World must needs deny Our Friendship an Eternity This Love will ne're that title hold For thine 's too hot and mine 's too cold 8. Divided Rivers lose their name And so our too-unequal flame Parted will Passion be in me And an Indifference in thee 9. Thy Absence I could easier find Provided thou wert well and kind Then such a Presence as is this Made up of snatches of my bliss 10. So when the Earth long gasps for rain If she at last some few drops gain She is more parched then at first That small recruit increas'd the thirst XLIII To my Lucasia LEt dull Philosophers inquire no more In Nature's womb or Causes strivet ' explore By what strange harmony and course of things Each body to the whole a tribute brings What secret unions secret Neighbourings make And of each other how they do partake These are but low Experiments but he That Nature's harmony intire would see Must search agreeing Souls sit down and view How sweet the mixture is how full how true By what soft touches Spirits greet and kiss And in each other can complete their bliss A wonder so sublime it will admit No rude Spectator to contemplate it The Object will refine and he that can Friendship revere must be a Noble man How much above the common rate of things Must they then be from whom this Union springs But what 's all this to me who live to be Disprover of my own Morality And he that knew my unimproved Soul Would say I meant all Friendship to controul But Bodies move in time and so must Minds And though th' attempt no easie progress finds Yet quit me not lest I should desp'rate grow And to such Friendship adde some Patience now O may good Heav'n but so much Vertue lend To make me fit to be Lucasia's Friend But I 'le forsake my self and seek a new Self in her breast that 's far more rich and true Thus the poor Bee unmark'd doth humme and fly And droan'd with age would unregarded dy Unless some curious Artist thither come Will bless the Insect with an Amber-tomb Then glorious in its funeral the Bee Gets Eminence and gets Eternity XLIV On Controversies in Religion REligion which true Policy befriends Design'd by God to serve Man's noblest ends Is by that old Deceiver's subtile play Made the chief party in its own decay And meets that Eagle's destiny whose breast Felt the same shaft which his own feathers drest For that great Enemy of Souls perceiv'd The notion of a Deity was weav'd So closely in Man's Soul to ruine that He must at once the World depopulate But as those Tyrants who their Wills pursue If they expound old Laws need make no new So he advantage takes of Nature's light And raises that to a bare useless height Or while we seek for Truth he in the Quest Mixes a Passion or an Interest To make us lose it that I know not how 'T is not our Practice but our Quarrel now And as in th' Moon 's Eclipse some Pagans thought Their barbarous Clamours her deliverance wrought So we suppose that Truth oppressed lies And needs a Rescue from our Enmities But 't is Injustice and the Mind's Disease To think of gaining Truth by losing Peace Knowledge and Love if true do still unite God's Love and Knowledge are both Infinite And though indeed Truth does delight to lie At some Remoteness from a Common Eye Yet 't is not in a Thunder or a Noise But in soft Whispers and the stiller Voice Why should we then Knowledge so rudely treat Making our weapon what was meant our meat 'T is Ignorance that makes us quarrel so The Soul that 's dark will be contracted too Chimaera's make a noise swelling and vain And soon resolve to their own smoak again But a true Light the spirit doth dilate And robs it of its proud and sullen state Makes Love admir'd because 't is understood And makes us Wise because it makes us Good 'T is to a right Prospect of things that we Owe our Uprightness and our Charity For who resists a beam when shining bright Is not a Sinner of a common height That state 's a forfeiture
3. Now we have gain'd we must not stop and sleep Out all the rest of our mysterious reign It is as hard and glorious to keep A victory as it is to obtain 4. Nay to what end did we once barter Minds Onely to know and to neglect the claim Or like some Wantons our Pride pleasure finds To throw away the thing at which we aim 5. If this be all our Friendship does design We covet not enjoyment then but power To our Opinion we our Bliss confine And love to have but not to smell the flower 6. Ah! then let Misers bury thus their Gold Who though they starve no farthing wil produce But we lov'd to enjoy and to behold And sure we cannot spend our stock by use 7. Think not 't is needless to repeat desires The fervent Turtles alwayes court and bill And yet their spotless passion never tires But does increase by repetition still 8. Although we know we love yet while our Soul Is thus imprisoned by the Flesh we wear There 's no way left that bondage to controul But to convey transactions through the Ear. 9. Nay though we reade our passions in the Eye It will oblige and please to tell them too Such joys as these by motion multiply Were 't but to find that our Souls told us true 10. Believe not then that being now secure Of either's heart we have no more to doe The Spheres themselves by motion do endure And they move on by Circulation too 11. And as a River when it once hath paid The tribute which it to the Ocean owes Stops not but turns and having curl'd and play'd On its own waves the shore it overflows 12. So the Soul's motion does not end in bliss But on her self she scatters and dilates And on the Object doubles still by this She finds new joys which that reflux creates 13. But then because it cannot all contain It seeks a vent by telling the glad news First to the Heart which did its joys obtain Then to the Heart which did those joys produce 14. When my Soul then doth such excursions make Unless thy Soul delight to meet it too What satisfaction can it give or take Thou being absent at the interview 15. 'T is not Distrust for were that plea allow'd Letters and Visits all would useless grow Love whose expression then would be its cloud And it would be refin'd to nothing so 16. If I distrust 't is my own worth for thee 'T is my own fitness for a love like thine And therefore still new evidence would see T' assure my wonder that thou canst be mine 17. But as the Morning-Sun to drooping Flowers As weary Travellers a Shade do find As to the parched Violet Evening-showers Such is from thee to me a Look that 's kind 18. But when that Look is drest in Words 't is like The mystick pow'r of Musick 's union Which when the Finger doth one Viol strike The other 's string heaves to reflection 19. Be kind to me and just then to your love To which we owe our free and dear Converse And let not tract of Time wear or remove It from the privilege of that Commerce 20. Tyrants do banish what they can't requite But let us never know such mean desires But to be grateful to that Love delight Which all our joys and noble thoughts inspires LX. La Grandeur d'esprit A Chosen Privacy a cheap Content And all the Peace a Friendship ever lent A Rock which civil Nature made a Seat A Willow that repels the mid-day heat The beauteous quiet of a Summer's day A Brook which sobb'd aloud and ran away Invited my Repose and then conspir'd To entertain my Phancie that retir'd As Lucian's Ferry-man aloft did view The angry World and then laugh'd at it too So all its sullen Follies seem to me But as a too-well acted Tragedy One dangerous Ambition doth befool Another Envies to see that man Rule One makes his Love the Parent of his Rage For private Friendship publickly t' engage And some for Conscience some for Honour die And some are merely kill'd they know not why More different then mens faces are their ends Whom yet one common Ruine can make Friends Death Dust and Darkness they have only won And hastily unto their Periods run Death is a Leveller Beauty and Kings And Conquerours and all those glorious things Are tumbled to their Graves in one rude heap Like common dust as common and as cheap At greater Changes who would wonder then Since Kingdoms have their Fates as well as men They must fall sick and die nothing can be In this World certain but uncertainty Since Pow'r and Greatness are such slippery things who 'd pity Cottages or envy Kings Now least of all when weary of deceit The World no longer flatters with the Great Though such Confusions here below we find As Providence were wanton with Mankind Yet in this Chaos some things do send forth Like Jewels in the dark a Native worth He that derives his high Nobility Not from the mention of a Pedigree Who thinks it not his Praise that others know His Ancestors were gallant long agoe Who scorns to boast the Glories of his bloud And thinks he can't be great that is not good Who knows the World and what we Pleasure call Yet cannot sell one Conscience for them all Who hates to hoard that Gold with an excuse For which he can find out a nobler use Who dares not keep that Life that he can spend To serve his God his Country and his Friend Falshood and Flattery doth so much hate He would not buy ten Lives at such a rate Whose Soul then Diamonds more rich and clear Naked and open as his face doth wear Who dares be good alone in such a time When Vertue 's held and punish'd as a Crime Who thinks dark crooked Plots a mean defence And is both safe and wise in Innocence Who dares both fight and die but dares not fear Whose only doubt is if his cause be clear Whose Courage and his Justice equal worn Can dangers grapple overcome and scorn Yet not insult upon a conquer'd foe But can forgive him and oblige him too Whose Friendship is congenial with his Soul Who where he gives a heart bestows it whole Whos 's other ties and Titles here do end Or buried or completed in the Friend Who ne're resumes the Soul he once did give While his Friend's Company and Honour live And if his Friend's content could cost the price Would count himself a happy Sacrifice Whose happy days no Pride infects nor can His other Titles make him slight the man No dark Ambitious thoughts do cloud his brow Nor restless cares when to be Great and how Who scorns to envy Truth where e're it be But pities such a Golden Slavery With no mean fawnings can the people court Nor wholly slight a popular report Whose house no Orphan groans do shake or blast Nor any riot of help to serve his taste
crown her Age which had adorn'd her Youth Great without Pride a Soul which still could be Humble and high full of calm Majesty She kept true state within and could not buy Her Satisfaction with her Charity Fortune or Birth ne're rais'd her Mind which stood Not on her being rich but doing good Oblig'd the World but yet would scorn to be Paid with Requitals Thanks or Vanity How oft did she what all the World adore Make the Poor happy with her useful store So general was her Bounty that she gave Equality to all before the Grave By several means she different persons ty'd Who by her Goodness onely were ally'd Her Vertue was her Temper not her Fit Fear'd nothing but the Crimes which some commit Scorn'd those dark Arts which pass for Wisdom now Nor to a mean ignoble thing could bow And her vast Prudence had no other end But to forgive a Foe endear a Friend To use but slight the World and fixt above Shine down in beams of Piety and Love Why should we then by poor and just complaint Prove envious Sinners 'cause she is a Saint Close then the Monument let not a Tear That may prophane her Ashes now appear For her best Obsequies are that we be Prudent and Good Noble and Sweet as she LXIV A Friend 1. LOve Nature's Plot this great Creation's Soul The Being and the Harmony of things Doth still preserve and propagate the whole From whence Mans Happiness Safety springs The earliest whitest blessedst Times did draw From her alone their universal Law 2. Friendship 's an Abstract of this noble Flame 'T is Love refin'd and purg'd from all its dross The next to Angels Love if not the same As strong in passion is though not so gross It antedates a glad Eternity And is an Heaven in Epitome 3. Nobler then Kindred or then Marriage-band Because more free Wedlock-felicity It self doth onely by this Union stand And turns to Friendship or to Misery Force or Design Matches to pass may bring But Friendship doth from Love and Honour spring 4. If Souls no Sexes have for Men t' exclude Women from Friendship 's vast capacity Is a Design injurious or rude Onely maintain'd by partial tyranny Love is allow'd to us and Innocence And noblest Friendships do proceed from thence 5. The chiefest thing in Friends is Sympathy There is a Secret that doth Friendship guide Which makes two Souls before they know agree Who by a thousand mixtures are ally'd And chang'd and lost so that it is not known Within which breast doth now reside their own 6. Essential Honour must be in a Friend Not such as every breath fans to and fro But born within is its own judge and end And dares not sin though sure that none should know Where Friendship 's spoke Honesty 's understood For none can be a Friend that is not Good 7. Friendship doth carry more then common trust And Treachery is here the greatest sin Secrets deposed then none ever must Presume to open but who put them in They that in one Chest lay up all their stock Had need be sure that none can pick the Lock 8. A breast too open Friendship does not love For that the others Trust will not conceal Nor one too much reserv'd can it approve It s own Condition this will not reveal We empty Passions for a double end To be refresh'd and guarded by a Friend 9. Wisdom and Knowledge Friendship does require The first for Counsel this for Company And though not mainly yet we may desire For complaisance and Ingenuity Though ev'ry thing may love yet 't is a Rule He cannot be a Friend that is a Fool. 10. Discretion uses Parts and best knows how And Patience will all Qualities commend That serves a need best but this doth allow The Weaknesses and Passions of a Friend We are not yet come to the Quire above Who cannot Pardon here can never Love 11. Thick Waters shew no Images of things Friends are each others Mirrours and should be Clearer then Crystal or the Mountain Springs And free from Clouds Design or Flattery For vulgar Souls no part of Friendship share Poets and Friends are born to what they are 12. Friends should observe chide each others Faults To be severe then is most just and kind Nothing can 'scape their search who know the thoughts This they should give and take with equal Mind For Friendship when this Freedom is deny'd Is like a Painter when his hands are ty'd 13. A Friend should find out each Necessity And then unask'd reliev't at any rate It is not Friendship but Formality To be desir'd for Kindness keeps no state Of Friends he doth the Benefactour prove That gives his Friend a means t' express his Love 14. Absence doth not from Friendship 's right excuse They who preserve each others heart and fame Parting can ne're divide it may diffuse As Liquors which asunder are the same Though Presence help'd them at the first to greet Their Souls know now without those aids to meet 15. Constant and Solid whom no storms can shake Nor death unfix a right Friend ought to be And if condemned to survive doth make No second choice but Grief and Memory But Friendship 's best Fate is when it can spend A Life a Fortune all to serve a Friend LXV L'Accord du Bien 1. ORder by which all things are made And this great World's foundation laid Is nothing else but Harmony Where different parts are brought t' agree 2. As Empires are still best maintain'd Those ways which first their Greatness gain'd So in this universal Frame What made and keeps it is the same 3. Thus all things unto peace do tend Even Discords have it for their end The cause why Elements do fight Is but their Instinct to Unite 4. Musick could never please the Sense But by United excellence The sweetest Note which Numbers know If struck alone would tedious grow 5. Man the whole World's Epitome Is by creation Harmony 'T was Sin first quarrel'd in his breast Then made him angry with the rest 6. But Goodness keeps that Unity And loves its own society So well that seldom it is known One real Worth to dwell alone 7. And hence it is we Friendship call Not by one Vertue 's name but all Nor is it when bad things agree Thought Union but Conspiracy 8. Nature and Grace such enemies That when one fell t'other did rise Are now by Mercy even set As Stars in Constellations met 9. If Nature were it self a sin Her Author God had guilty been But Man by sin contracting stain Shall purg'd from that be clear again 10. To prove that Nature's excellent Even Sin it self's an argument Therefore we Nature's stain deplore Because it self was pure before 11. And Grace destroys not but refines Unveils our Reason then it shines Restores what was deprest by sin The fainting beam of God within 12. The main spring Judgment rectify'd Will all the lesser Motions guide To