HOW happy is he born and taught
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That serveth not another's will;
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Whose armour is his honest thought,
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And simple truth his utmost skill!
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Whose passions not his masters are;
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Whose soul is still prepared for death,
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Untied unto the world by care
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Of public fame or private breath;
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Who envies none that chance doth raise,
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Nor vice; who never understood
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How deepest wounds are given by praise;
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Nor rules of state, but rules of good;
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Who hath his life from rumours freed;
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Whose conscience is his strong retreat;
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Whose state can neither flatterers feed,
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Nor ruin make oppressors great;
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Who God doth late and early pray
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More of His grace than gifts to lend;
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And entertains the harmless day
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With a religious book or friend;
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—This man is freed from servile bands
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Of hope to rise or fear to fall:
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Lord of himself, though not of lands,
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And having nothing, yet hath all
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Sir Henry Wotton. 1568–1639
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