Can purchase starres, and buy a tenement

For us in Heaven: though here the pious streames
A vaile us not; who from that clue of sunbeams
Could ever steale one thread? or with a kinde
Perswasive accent charme the wild, lowd winde ?
Fate cuts us all in marble, and the Booke
Forestalls our glasse of minutes; we may looke
But seldom meet a change; thinke you a teare
Can blot the flinty volume? shall our feare,
Or grefe adde to their triumphes? and must wee
Give an advantage to adversitie ?

Deare, idle prodigall! is it not just

We beare our stars? What though I had not dust
Enough to cabinet a worme? nor stand
Enslav'd into a little durt, or sand?
I boast a better purchase, and can show
The glories of a soule that's simply true.

But grant some richer planet at my birth
Had spyed me out, and measur'd so much earth
Or gold unto my share: I should have been

Slave to these lower elements, and seen

My high borne soule flagge with their drosse, and

lye

A pris'ner to base mud, and alchymie;

I should perhaps cate orphans, and sucke up

A dozen distrest widowes in one cup;

Nay further, I should by that lawfull stealth,

-Damn'd usurie! undoe the Common-wealth;
Or patent it in soape,' and coales, and so
Have the smiths curse me, and my laundres too;
Geld wine, or his friend tobacco; and so bring

The incens'd subject rebell to his king;

And after all-as those first sinners fell

Sinke lower than my gold and lye in hell.

the way

Thanks then for this deliv'rance! blessed pow'rs, You that dispense man's fortune and his houres, How am I to you all engag'd! that thus By such strange meanes, almost miraculous, You should preserve me; you have gone To make me rich by taking all away. For I had I been rich-as sure as fate, Would have bin medling with the king, or State, Or something to undoe me; and 'tis fit

-We know that who hath wealth, should have no wit.

1 In John Tustin's

Observations or Conscience Embleme: the Watch of God similized by the wakefull dog (1646) we have this odd note illustrative of the text: "By me JOHN TUSTIN, who hath beene plundered and spoyled by the patentees for white and grey soape, eighteene severall times, to his utter undoing." (See copy in British Muscum single sheets, 669. Apr. 8. 1644 – March 15. 1646).

G.

2 Query - taxed? Anglo-Saxon ‘geld' = a tax. G.

But above all, thanks to that Providence,

That arm'd me with a gallant soule, and sence 'Gainst all misfortunes, that hath breath'd so much Of Heav'n into me, that I scorne the touch

Of those low things; and can with courage dare
What ever fate, or malice can prepare:

I envy no man's
purse or mines: I know,
That loosing them, I've lost their curses too;
And Amoret-although our share in these
Is not contemptible, nor doth much please --
Yet whilst Content and Love we jointly vye
We have a blessing which no gold can buye.

UPON THE PRIORIE GROVE, HIS USUALL RETYREMENT.1

AILE sacred shades! coole leavie house!

Chaste treasurer of all my vowes

And wealth! on whose soft bosome

layd

My loves faire steps I first betrayd:

Henceforth no melancholy flight.

The Priory' Cardigan, was the seat of James Philips, Esq., whose wife Katharine' is known to fame as the

' matchless Orinda'. See Essay in the present Volume for notice of the friendship between her and our Vaughan.

G.

No sad wing, or hoarse bird of Night,
Disturbe this aire, no fatall throate
Of raven, or owle, awake the note
Of our laid eccho, no voice dwell
Within these leaves, but philomel.
The poisonous ivie here no more
His false twists on the oke shall score,
Only the woodbine here may twine,
As th' embleme of her love, and mine;
The amorous sunne shall here convey
His best beames, in thy shade to play;
The active ayre, the gentlest show'rs
Shall from his wings raine on thy flowers;
And the moone from her dewie lockes,
Shall decke thee with her brightest drops:
What ever can a fancie move,

Or feed the eye: be on this grove.

And when at last the winds, and teares
Of Heaven, with the consuming yeares,
Shall these greene curles bring to decay,
And cloathe thee in an aged gray:

-If ought a lover can foresee :
Or if we poets, prophets be-

From hence transplanted, thou shalt stand
A fresh grove in th' Elysian land;
Where-most blest paire !-as here on Earth
Thou first didst eye our growth, and birth;

So there againe, thou'lt see us move

In our first innocence and love;

And in thy shades, as now, so then,

Wee'le kisse, and smile, and walke again.

Finis.