Author Description

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: That is the man of an undaunted spirit, For her dear sake that offereth him to die; For whom when him the world doth disinherit, Looketh upon it with a pleased eye; What's done for virtue thinking it doth merit, Daring the proudest menaces defy; More worth than life, howe'er the base world rate him, Beloved of heaven, although the world doth hate him.. SIR HENRY WOTTON. This elegant writer was born in Kent, in 1568. He was appointed to several public offices in the reign of Elizabeth; but after a while he fell into disgrace, and then he lived abroad, till the accession of James I., when he was appointed ambassador to Venice. He was the author of a variety of works, chiefly upon political subjects; of some of a religious character, and of a few poetical pieces of great beauty. He died in 1640. FAREWELL TO THE VANITIES OF THE WORLD. Farewell, ye gilded follies, pleasing troubles; Farewell, ye honored rags, ye glorious bubbles; Fame's but a hollow echo; gold, pure clay; Honor, the darling but of one short day; Beauty, the eye's idol, a damasked skin; State, but a golden prison to live in, And torture free-born minds; embroidered trains, Merely but pageants for proud swelling veins; And blood allied to greatness is alone Inherited, not purchased, nor our own: Fame, honor, beauty, state, train, blood, and birth, Are but the fading blossoms of the earth. I would be great, but that the sun doth still Level his rays against the rising hill; I would be high, but see the proudest oak Most subject to the rending thunder-stroke; I would be rich, but see men too unkind Dig in the bowels of the richest mind; I would be wise, but that I often see The fox suspected, while the ass goes free; I wou...