From A Discourse "Of Temperance And Patience": Translated From Nierembergius

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Title:     From A Discourse "Of Temperance And Patience": Translated From Nierembergius
Author: Henry Vaughan [More Titles by Vaughan]

1654.

1. [INCERTI.]

The naked man too gets the field,
And often makes the armed foe to yield.

 

2. [LUCRETIUS, IV. 1012-1020.]

[Some] struggle and groan as if by panthers torn,
Or lions' teeth, which makes them loudly mourn;
Some others seem unto themselves to die;
Some climb steep solitudes and mountains high,
From whence they seem to fall inanely down,
Panting with fear, till wak'd, and scarce their own
They feel about them if in bed they lie,
Deceiv'd with dreams, and Night's imagery.

In vain with earnest strugglings they contend
To ease themselves: for when they stir and bend
Their greatest force to do it, even then most
Of all they faint, and in their hopes are cross'd.
Nor tongue, nor hand, nor foot will serve their turn,
But without speech and strength within, they mourn.

 

3. [INCERTI.]

Thou the nepenthe easing grief
Art, and the mind's healing relief.

 

4. [INCERTI.]

Base man! and couldst thou think Cato alone
Wants courage to be dry? and but him, none?
Look'd I so soft? breath'd I such base desires,
Not proof against this Lybic sun's weak fires?
That shame and plague on thee more justly lie!
To drink alone, when all our troops are dry.

* * * * *

For with brave rage he flung it on the sand,
And the spilt draught suffic'd each thirsty band

 

5. [INCERTI.]

[Death keeps off]
And will not bear the cry
Of distress'd man, nor shut his weeping eye

 

6. [MAXIMUS.]

It lives when kill'd, and brancheth when 'tis lopp'd.

 

7. [MAXIMUS.]

Like some fair oak, that when her boughs
Are cut by rude hands, thicker grows;
And from those wounds the iron made
Resumes a rich and fresher shade.

 

8. [GREGORY NAZIANZEN.]

Patience digesteth misery.

 

9. [MARIUS VICTOR.]

----They fain would--if they might--
Descend to hide themselves in Hell. So light
Of foot is Vengeance; and so near to sin,
That soon as done, the actors do begin
To fear and suffer by themselves: Death moves
Before their eyes; sad dens and dusky groves
They haunt, and hope--vain hope which Fear doth guide!--
That those dark shades their inward guilt can hide.

 

10. [INCERTI.]

But night and day doth his own life molest,
And bears his judge and witness in his breast.

 

11. [THEODOTUS.]

Virtue's fair cares some people measure
For poisonous works that hinder pleasure.

 

12. [INCERTI.]

Man should with virtue arm'd and hearten'd be,
And innocently watch his enemy:
For fearless freedom, which none can control,
Is gotten by a pure and upright soul.

 

13. [INCERTI.]

Whose guilty soul, with terrors fraught, doth frame
New torments still, and still doth blow that flame
Which still burns him, nor sees what end can be
Of his dire plagues, and fruitful penalty;
But fears them living, and fears more to die;
Which makes his life a constant tragedy.

 

14. [INCERTI.]

And for life's sake to lose the crown of life.

 

15. [INCERTI.]

Nature even for herself doth lay a snare,
And handsome faces their own traitors are.

 

16. [MENANDER.]

True life in this is shown,
To live for all men's good, not for our own.

 

17. [INCERTI.]

As Egypt's drought by Nilus is redress'd,
So thy wise tongue doth comfort the oppress'd.

 

18. [INCERTI.]

[Like] to speedy posts, bear hence the lamp of life.

 

19. [DIONYSIUS LYRINENSIS.]

All worldly things, even while they grow, decay;
As smoke doth, by ascending, waste away.

 

20. [INCERTI.]

To live a stranger unto life.

[The end]
Henry Vaughan's poem: From A Discourse "Of Temperance And Patience": Translated From Nierembergius

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