That the least grain of it,

If fully fpread and beat,

Would many leaves and mighty volumes hold.

IV.

Before thy name was publish'd, and whilst yet
Thou only to thyself wert great,

Whilft yet the happy bud

Was not quite feen or understood,

It then fure signs of future greatness shew'd :

Then thy domestic worth

Did tell the world what it would be,
When it fhould fit occafion fee,

When a full spring should call it forth :

As bodies in the dark and night

Have the fame colours, the fame red and white,

As in the open day and light;

The fun doth only fhew

That they are bright, not make them fo.

So whilft but private walls did know

What we to fuch a mighty mind fhould owe,
Then the fame virtues did appear,

Though in a lefs and more contracted sphere,
As full, though not as large as fince they were:
And, like great rivers' fountains, though
At first fo deep thou didst not go :

Though then thine was not fo enlarg’d a flood;
Yet when 'twas little, 'twas as clear, as good.

V.

'Tis true thou was not born unto a crown,

Thy fceptre's not thy father's, but thy own:

Thy

Thy purple was not made at once in haste,
But after many other colours past,

It took the deepest princely dye at last.
Thou didst begin with leffer cares,

And private thoughts took up thy private years:
Those hands which were ordain'd by fates
To change the world and alter states,
Practis'd at firft that vaft defign

On meaner things with equal mien.

That foul which fhould fo many fceptres fway,

To whom so many kingdoms should obey,
Learn'd firft to rule in a domestic
So government itself began

From family, and single man,
Was by the small relation first

way:

Of husband and of father nurs'd,

And from thofe lefs beginnings past,
To fpread itself o'er all the world at last.

VI.

But when thy country (then almost enthrall'd)
Thy virtue and thy courage call'd;

When England did thy arms intreat,
And 't had been fin in thee not to be great :
When every ftream, and every flood,

Was a true vein of earth, and run with blood:
When unus'd arms, and unknown war,

Fill'd every place, and every ear;

When the great storms and difmal night

Did all the land affright;

'Twas time for thee to bring forth all our light.

Thou

Thou left'ft thy more delightful peace,
Thy private life and better ease;
Then down thy steel and armour took,
Wishing that it still hung upon the hook :
When death had got a large commiffion out,
Throwing the arrows and her fting about;
Then thou (as once the healing serpent rose)
Waft lifted up, not for thyself but us.

VII.

Thy country wounded was, and fick, before
Thy wars and arms did her reftore :
Thou knew'ft where the disease did lie,
And like the cure of fympathy,
The ftrong and certain remedy
Unto the weapon didft apply;

Thou didst not draw the fword, and fo
Away the fcabbard throw,

As if thy country shou'd

Be the inheritance of Mars and blood:
But that, when the great work was fpun,
War in itself fhould be undone :

That peace might land again upon the shore,
Richer and better than before :

The husbandmen no steel shall know,
None but the useful iron of the plow;
That bays might creep on every fpear:
And though our sky was overspread

With a destructive red,

'Twas but till thou our fun didst in full light appear.

VIII.

When Ajax dy'd, the purple blood,

That from his gaping wound had flow'd,
Turn'd into letter, every leaf

Had on it wrote his epitaph:
So from that crimson flood,

Which thou by fate of times wert led

Unwillingly to fhed,

Letters and learning rofe, and arts renew'd:
Thou fought'ft, not out of envy, hope, or hate,
But to refine the church and state;

And like the Romans, whate'er thou
In the field of Mars didft mow,
Was, that a holy island hence might grow.
Thy wars, as rivers raised by a shower,
Which welcome clouds do pour,

Though they at first may feem

To carry all away with an enraged stream;
Yet did not happen that they might destroy,

Or the better parts annoy :

But all the filth and mud to scour,

And leave behind another slime,

To give a birth to a more happy power.

IX.

In fields unconquer'd, and fo well

Thou didst in battles and in arms excel; That fteely arms themselves might be Worn out in war as foon as thee; Success fo close upon thy troops did wait, As if thou first hadft conquer'd fate;

As

larly by reafon of that obligation and zeal with which I am bound to dedicate myself to your fervice: for having been a long time the object of your care and indulgence towards the advantage of my studies and fortune, having been moulded as it were by your own hands, and formed under your government, not to entitle you to any thing which my meanness produces, would not only be injustice, but facrilege: fo that if there be any thing here tolerably said, which deferves pardon, it is yours, Sir, as well as he, who is,

Your most devoted,

and obliged fervant,

THO. SPRAT.