Maitland Club > Works of Sir Thomas Urquhart

22 THE SECOND BOOKE
THE COURAGIOUS RESOLUTION OF A VALIANT MAN.
Seeing Nature entred me on this condition
Into the world, that I mud leav't, I vow,
A noble death fhall be my chiefe ambition ;
To dye being th'end of all I ought to doe,
And rather gaine, by a prime vertue, death,
Then to protract with common ones my breath.
HOW ABJECT A THING IT IS FOR A MAN TO HAVE BIN LONG IN
THE WORLD WITHOUT GIVING ANY PROOFE, EITHER BY VER-
TUE OR LEARNING, THAT HE HATH BEENE AT ALL.
That aged man, we fhould, without all doubt,
Of all men elfe the moil difgracefull hold,
Who can produce no teftimonie, but
The number of his yeares, that he is old ;
For of fueli men what can bee teftifyed,
But that being borne, they lived long, then dyed.
THAT A VERTUOUS MIND IN A DEFORMED BODY MAKETH ONE
MORE BEAUTIFULL, THEN A HANDSOME BODY CAN DOE,
ENDOWED WITH A VICIOUS MIND.
External comelinefle few have obtain'd
Without their hurt ; it never made one chaft,
But many adulterers ; and is fuftain'd
By qualities, which age, and licknefle wane :
But that, whofe luftre doth the mind adorne,
Surpafleth farre the beauty of the bodie ;
For that, we make our lelves, to this, we're borne ;
This onely comes by chance, but that by ftudy ;
It is by vertue then, that wee enjoy
Defervedly the ftile of beautifull,
Which neither time, nor Fortune can deftroy ;
And the deformed body, a faire foule
From duft to glory everlafting caries,
While vicious foules in handlbme bodies perilh.