THE LIE.

Go, soul, the body's guest, upon a thankless arrant;
Fear not to touch the best;-the truth shall be thy warrant,
Go, since thou needs must die, and give the world the lie.

Say to the Court, it glows and shines like rotten wood;
Say to the Church, it shows what's good, and doth no good;
If Church and Court reply, then give them both the lie.

Tell Potentates, they live acting by others' action;
Not loved, unless they give: not strong, but by a faction;
If Potentates reply, give Potentates the lie.

Tell men of high condition, that manage the Estate,
Their purpose is ambition; their practice only hate;
And if they once reply, then give them all the lie.

Tell them that brave it most, they beg for more by spending,
Who, in their greatest cost, seek nothing but commending;
And if they make reply, then give them all the lie.

Tell Zeal it wants devotion; tell Love it is but lust;
Tell Time it is but motion; tell Flesh it is but dust;
And wish them not reply, for thou must give the lie.

Tell Age it daily wasteth; tell Honour how it alters;
Tell Beauty how she blasteth ; tell Favour how it falters;
And as they shall reply, give every one the lie.

Tell Wit how much it wrangles in tickle points of niceness;
Tell Wisdom she entangles herself in over-wiseness;
And when they do reply, straight give them both the lie.

Tell Physick of her boldness; tell Skill it is pretension;
Tell Charity of coldness; tell Law it is contention;
And as they do reply, so give them still the lie.

THE LIE.

Tell Fortune of her blindness; tell Nature of decay:
Tell Friendship of unkindness; tell Justice of delay:
And if they will reply, then give them all the lie.

Tell Faith it's fled the City; tell how the country erreth; Tell Manhood shakes off pity; tell Virtue least preferreth; And if they do reply, spare not to give the lie.

So, when thou hast, as I commanded thee, done blabbingAlthough to give the lie deserves no less than stabbing,Stab at thee he that will, no stab the soul can kill.

Walter Raleigh

AN ASPIRATION.

RISE, O my Soul, with thy desires to Heaven,
And with divinest contemplations use

Thy time, where time's eternity is given,

And let vain thoughts no more thy thoughts abuse;

But down in darkness let them lie;

So live thy better, let thy worse thoughts die!

And thou, my Soul, inspired with holy flame,
View and review with most regardful eye
That holy Cross, whence thy Salvation came,
On which thy Saviour and thy sin did die!
For in that sacred object is much pleasure,
And in that Saviour is my life, my treasure.

To Thee, O Jesu! I direct my eyes,

To Thee my hands, to Thee my humble knees;

To Thee my heart shall offer sacrifice;

To Thee my thoughts, who my thoughts only sees;

To Thee myself,-myself and all I give;

To Thee I die; to Thee I only live!

Raleigh.

WHEN all is done and said,

In the end thus shall you find, He most of all doth bathe in bliss, That hath a quiet Mind:

A QUIET MIND.

And, clear from worldly cares,

To deem can be content

The sweetest time in all his life
In thinking to be spent.

The body subject is

To fickle Fortune's power,

And to a million of mishaps,

Is casual every hour:

And Death in time doth change

It to a clod of clay;

Whenas the Mind, which is divine,

Runs never to decay.

Companion none is like

Unto the Mind alone;

For many have been harm'd by speech,
Through thinking, few or none.

Fear oftentimes restraineth words,

But makes not thoughts to cease; And he speaks best, that hath the skill When for to hold his peace.

Our wealth leaves us at death;
Our kinsmen at the grave;

But virtues of the Mind unto

The heavens with us we have. Wherefore, for virtue's sake,

I can be well content

The sweetest time in all my life,

To deem in thinking spent.

The Paradise of Dainty Devices.

HEAVENLY LOVE,

BEFORE this World's great frame, in which all things Are now contain'd, found any being place,

Ere flitting Time could wag his eyas wings

About that mighty bound which doth embrace
The rolling spheres, and parts their hours by space,
That high Eternal Power, which now doth move
In all these things, mov'd in itself by love.

It lov'd itself, because itself was fair;
(For fair is love;) and of itself begot
Like to itself His eldest Son and Heir,
Eternal, pure, and void of sinful blot,
The firstling of His joy, in whom no jot
Of love's dislike or pride was to be found,
Whom He therefore with equal honour crown'd.

With Him he reigned before all time prescribed,

In endless glory and immortal might
Together with that third from them derived,

Most wise, most holy, most Almighty Spright!

Whose kingdom's throne no thoughts of earthly wight

Can comprehend, much less my trembling verse

With equal words can hope it to rehearse.

Yet, O most blessed Spirit! pure lamp of light,
Eternal spring of grace and wisdom true,
Vouchsafe to shed into my barren spright
Some little drop of Thy celestial dew,

That may my rhymes with sweet infuse embrew,
And give me words equal unto my thought
To tell the marvels by Thy mercy wrought.