The Character of a Happy Life
Sir Henry Wotton
1568 to 1639
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How happy is he born and taught
That not another's will;
Whose armour is his honest thought,
And simple truth his utmost skill!
Whose not his masters are;
Whose soul is still for death,
Untied unto the world by care
Of public fame or private breath;
Who envies that chance doth raise,
Nor vice; who never
How deepest wounds are given by praise;
rules of state, but rules of good;
Who his life from rumours freed;
Whose conscience is strong retreat;
Whose state can neither flatterers feed,
Nor ruin make oppressors great;
Who God doth and early pray
More of His grace than to lend;
And entertains the harmless day
a religious book or friend;
—This man is from servile bands
Of hope to rise or to fall:
Lord of himself, though not of lands,
And having nothing, yet hath all.