 | Manuductio ad Coelum. A Poem. In Two Parts. I. Of Joy and Sadness. How a good Man ought to rejoice. He that looks before him is not cast down. Several Antidotes against Sorrow. II. Of Patience: The Occasions and Effects of it. The Signs of it. An Exhortation to it; with Instructions how to behave our selves in Adversity. The necessity of Perseverance. Extracted out of the Writings of the Holy Fathers and Ancient Philosophers, by John Bona [i.e. Sir James Chamberlayne] a Cistertian Abbot: and turned into Verse by James Chamberlayne |  |
14
III.
When we do lose our Worldly Goods, 'tis no
Small comfort to us some time to bestow
A serious thought on their uncertain state,
And how, when once encreas'd, they do abate.
Small comfort to us some time to bestow
A serious thought on their uncertain state,
And how, when once encreas'd, they do abate.
What er'e we love, or in this World possess,
A flitting Fugitive by Nature is;
It is with us indeed, but by just right
It is not ours, nor can we stay it's flight.
And we are not to fool ourselves, and run
Into a vain and needless Passion,
For a fantastick thought our idle Brain,
Of their continuance here, doth entertain.
For we to every thing uncertain are,
Whereas we firmly should to it adhere;
And therefore can expect that ought should be
Constant to us, for our Inconstancy.
Virtue the only thing excepted is,
This truly's that which doth immortalize
Mortality it selfe; all else we find
Carry their Death with them, and are but Wind
Betwixt our selves and our Possessions then,
Let's keep a distance wide enough, for when
They come to mingle and incorporate,
He takes our Heart, that taketh our Estate.
A good Man cannot properly be said,
To suffer loss of any thing he had,
For whatsoer'e of Wealth or Honour can
Be from him took, is no part of the Man;
But somewhat added to his Person, that,
Whether it stays or goes, he values not,
Esteeming not himselfe to be at all
Richer, or Poorer, let what will befal.
A flitting Fugitive by Nature is;
It is with us indeed, but by just right
It is not ours, nor can we stay it's flight.
And we are not to fool ourselves, and run
Into a vain and needless Passion,
For a fantastick thought our idle Brain,
Of their continuance here, doth entertain.
For we to every thing uncertain are,
Whereas we firmly should to it adhere;
And therefore can expect that ought should be
Constant to us, for our Inconstancy.
Virtue the only thing excepted is,
This truly's that which doth immortalize
Mortality it selfe; all else we find
Carry their Death with them, and are but Wind
Betwixt our selves and our Possessions then,
Let's keep a distance wide enough, for when
They come to mingle and incorporate,
He takes our Heart, that taketh our Estate.
A good Man cannot properly be said,
To suffer loss of any thing he had,
For whatsoer'e of Wealth or Honour can
Be from him took, is no part of the Man;
But somewhat added to his Person, that,
Whether it stays or goes, he values not,
Esteeming not himselfe to be at all
Richer, or Poorer, let what will befal.
15
O what a deal of pudder do we make,
How loud our Out-cries and our Sorrows speak,
When we our Mony lose, or when from us,
Death takes a Child, or fire consumes our House!
But we can leave our Virgin Modesty,
Part with our Virtue, and our Constancy,
And not so much as in our Faces show
A conscious Blush, when any of them go.
And yet we here, without a troubled thought,
Lose a substantial Good, and more then that,
We likewise part with what's our own, whereas
In th'other Case we let not either pass.
How loud our Out-cries and our Sorrows speak,
When we our Mony lose, or when from us,
Death takes a Child, or fire consumes our House!
But we can leave our Virgin Modesty,
Part with our Virtue, and our Constancy,
And not so much as in our Faces show
A conscious Blush, when any of them go.
And yet we here, without a troubled thought,
Lose a substantial Good, and more then that,
We likewise part with what's our own, whereas
In th'other Case we let not either pass.
He that Laments for such a triffling loss,
Deserves to feel the Worlds severest Cross.
If 'twere not for a strange disorder'd Love,
(Which to our Peace the fatal'st Foe doth prove)
We should not then this falsity believe,
We ought had lost that this vain World can give.
For what are outward things, what profit can
Their poor enjoyments give the inward Man?
Or betwixt Wisdom and our Money, what
True Correspondence can there well be thought?
Deserves to feel the Worlds severest Cross.
If 'twere not for a strange disorder'd Love,
(Which to our Peace the fatal'st Foe doth prove)
We should not then this falsity believe,
We ought had lost that this vain World can give.
For what are outward things, what profit can
Their poor enjoyments give the inward Man?
Or betwixt Wisdom and our Money, what
True Correspondence can there well be thought?
| Manuductio ad Coelum. A Poem. In Two Parts. I. Of Joy and Sadness. How a good Man ought to rejoice. He that looks before him is not cast down. Several Antidotes against Sorrow. II. Of Patience: The Occasions and Effects of it. The Signs of it. An Exhortation to it; with Instructions how to behave our selves in Adversity. The necessity of Perseverance. Extracted out of the Writings of the Holy Fathers and Ancient Philosophers, by John Bona [i.e. Sir James Chamberlayne] a Cistertian Abbot: and turned into Verse by James Chamberlayne | |