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 | Miscellaneous works of George Wither |  |
In that, and such like Cases, not in vain,
I thus distill out from the heart and brain,
The spirits of those many mus'd-on matters
Which there I find, to make some cordial waters.
For, though they, who confide in men and horse,
Deride them, as meer whimsies of no force;
They make me merry, when my heart was sad,
They keep me sober, when men think me mad;
And, by my musings also, now and then,
The like effects are wrought on other men:
For, they assist us to consider so,
Those things, which men may; those, which GOD will do;
What, we our selves must act; what, leave undone;
What, may in reason, follow thereupon;
What madness 'twere to overcharge with sorrow
The present day, with dreading more to morrow;
Or, mar our sleep, by being discontented
At what may not be, or not be prevented,
That, I take up what likely hopes I may
My present fears or doubtings to allay;
And fix my confidence on him, by whom,
I am assured help at last will come:
And he still sends in, (when I know not where
To find supply for things that needful are)
So much, as may support me to persever
In what I am obliged to endeavour.
I thus distill out from the heart and brain,
The spirits of those many mus'd-on matters
Which there I find, to make some cordial waters.
For, though they, who confide in men and horse,
Deride them, as meer whimsies of no force;
They make me merry, when my heart was sad,
They keep me sober, when men think me mad;
And, by my musings also, now and then,
The like effects are wrought on other men:
For, they assist us to consider so,
Those things, which men may; those, which GOD will do;
What, we our selves must act; what, leave undone;
What, may in reason, follow thereupon;
What madness 'twere to overcharge with sorrow
The present day, with dreading more to morrow;
Or, mar our sleep, by being discontented
At what may not be, or not be prevented,
30
My present fears or doubtings to allay;
And fix my confidence on him, by whom,
I am assured help at last will come:
And he still sends in, (when I know not where
To find supply for things that needful are)
So much, as may support me to persever
In what I am obliged to endeavour.
| Miscellaneous works of George Wither | |