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Of harmless conversation may commend

A life free from such stains as follies are,

20 Ill recompensed only in his end.

Nor can the tongue of him who lov'd him least

(If there can be minority of love

To one superlative above the rest

Of many men in steady faith) reprove

25 His constant temper, in the equal weight

Of thankfulness and kindness: Truth doth leave

Sufficient proof, he was in every right

As kind to give, as thankful to receive.

The curious eye of a quick-brain'd survey

30 Could scantly find a mote amidst the sun

Of his too-short'ned days, or make a prey

Of any faulty errors he had done-

Not that he was above the spleenful sense

And spite of malice, but for that he had

35 Warrant enough in his own innocence

Against the sting of some in nature bad.

Yet who is he so absolutely blest

That lives encompass'd in a mortal frame,

Sometime in reputation not oppress'd

40 By some in nothing famous but defame?

Such in the By-path and the Ridgeway lurk

That leads to ruin, in a smooth pretense

Of what they do to be a special work

Of singleness, not tending to offense;

45 Whose very virtues are, not to detract

Whiles hope remains of gain (base fee of slaves),

Despising chiefly men in fortunes wrack'd-

But death to such gives unrememb'red graves.

Now therein liv'd he happy, if to be

50 Free from detraction happiness it be.

His younger years gave comfortable hope

To hope for comfort in his riper youth,

Which, harvest-like, did yield again the crop

Of Education, better'd in his truth.

55 Those noble twins of heaven-infused races,

Learning and Wit, refined in their kind

Did jointly both, in their peculiar graces,

Enrich the curious temple of his mind;

Indeed a temple, in whose precious white

60 Sat Reason by Religion oversway'd,

Teaching his other senses, with delight,

How Piety and Zeal should be obey'd-

Not fruitlessly in prodigal expense

Wasting his best of time, but so content

65 With Reason's golden Mean to make defense

Against the assault of youth's encouragement;

As not the tide of this surrounding age

(When now his father's death had freed his will)

Could make him subject to the drunken rage

70 Of such whose only glory is their ill.

He from the happy knowledge of the wise

Draws virtue to reprove secured fools

And shuns the glad sleights of ensnaring vice

To spend his spring of days in sacred schools.

75 Here gave he diet to the sick desires

That day by day assault the weaker man,

And with fit moderation still retires

From what doth batter virtue now and then.

But that I not intend in full discourse

80 To progress out his life, I could display

A good man in each part exact and force

The common voice to warrant what I say.

For if his fate and heaven had decreed

That full of days he might have liv'd to see

85 The grave in peace, the times that should succeed

Had been best-speaking witnesses with me;

Whose conversation so untouch'd did move

Respect most in itself, as who would scan

His honesty and worth, by them might prove

90 He was a kind, true, perfect gentleman-

Not in the outside of disgraceful folly,

Courting opinion with unfit disguise,

Affecting fashions, nor addicted wholly

To unbeseeming blushless vanities,

95 But suiting so his habit and desire

As that his Virtue was his best Attire.

Not in the waste of many idle words

Car'd he to be heard talk, nor in the float

Of fond conceit, such as this age affords,

100 By vain discourse upon himself to dote;

For his becoming silence gave such grace

To his judicious parts, as what he spake

Seem'd rather answers which the wise embrace

Than busy questions such as talkers make.

105 And though his qualities might well deserve

Just commendation, yet his furnish'd mind

Such harmony of goodness did preserve

As nature never built in better kind;

Knowing the best, and therefore not presuming

110 In knowing, but for that it was the best,

Ever within himself free choice resuming

Of true perfection, in a perfect breast;

So that his mind and body made an inn,

The one to lodge the other,