A lord and master no man wants, but he ODE UPON LIBERTY. FREEDOM with Virtue takes her seat; Is in the golden mean, She lives not with the poor nor with the great. These are by various tyrants captive led. And sometimes Lust, like the misguided light, Draws them through all the labyrinths of night. among the great there be few If any Yet we even those, too, fetter'd see By custom, business, crowds, and formal decency: These are the small uneasy things [go, Like gnats, which too much heat of summer brings; But cares do swarm there, too, and those have As, when the honey does too open lie, A thousand wasps about it fly : Nor will the master even to share admit; [stings: The master stands aloof, and dares not taste of it. "Tis morning: well; I fain would yet sleep on : And a spring-tide of clients is come in. Ah cruel guards, which this poor prisoner keep! Why, mighty madman, what should hinder thee In all the freeborn nations of the air, Of soaring boldly up into the sky, When and wherever he thought good, Nor ever did ambitious rage Make him into a painted cage, Or the false forest of a well-hung room, For honour and preferment, come. Now, blessings on you all, ye heroic race, Who keep your primitive powers and rights so well, Though men and angels fell! Of all material lives the highest place To you is justly given ; And ways and walks the nearest heaven. Who from their birth corrupted were He's no small prince, who every day Thus to himself can say: Now will I sleep, now eat, now sit, now walk, Now meditate alone, now with acquaintance talk; This I will do, here I will stay, Or, if my fancy call me away, My man and I will presently go ride (For we, before, have nothing to provide, Nor, after, are to render an account) As if thy last thou wert to make, Business must be dispatch'd, ere thou canst part, Nor canst thou stir, unless there be A hundred horse and men to wait on thee, What an unwieldy man thou art! A journey, too, might go. Where honour, or where conscience does not bind, No other law shall shackle me; Slave to myself I will not be, Nor shall my future actions be confined Who by resolves and vows engaged does stand Does, like an unthrift, mortgage his estate The bondman of the cloister so, All that he does receive, does always owe; And still as time comes in, it goes away Not to enjoy, but debts to pay. Unhappy slave, and pupil to a bell, Which his hours-work, as well as hours, does tell! Unhappy, till the last, the kind releasing knell. If life should a well-order'd poem be (In which he only hits the white Who joins true profit with the best delight), Mine the Pindaric way I'll make ; The matter shall be grave, the numbers loose and A thousand liberties it shall dispense, Or to the sweetness of the sound or greatness of the Nor its set way o'er stiles and bridges make, And to fresh game flies cheerfully away; [prey. II. OF SOLITUDĘ. "NUNQUAM minus solus, quam cum solus,” is now become a very vulgar saying. Every man, and almost every boy, for these seventeen hundred years, has had it in his mouth. But it was at first spoken by the excellent Scipio, who was without question a most eloquent and witty person, as well as the most wise, most worthy, most happy, and the greatest of all mankind. His meaning, no doubt, was this, that he found more satisfaction to his mind, and more improvement of it, by solitude than by company; and, to show |