Well then; I now do plainly see This busie World and I shall ne're agree, &c.
And I never then proposed to my self any other advantage from His Majesties Happy Restoration, but the getting into some moderately convenient Retreat in the Country, which I thought in that case I might easily have compassed, as well as some others, who[2] with no greater probabilities or pretences have arrived to extraordinary fortunes: But I had before written a shrewd Prophesie against my self, and I think _Apollo_ inspired me in the Truth, though not in the Elegance of it.
Thou, neither great at Court nor in the War, Nor at th' Exchange shal't be, nor at the wrangling Barr; Content thy self with the small barren praise Which neglected Verse does raise, &c.
However by the failing of the Forces which I had expected, I did not quit the Design which I had resolved on, I cast my self into it _A Corps perdu_, without making capitulations, or taking counsel of Fortune. But God laughs at a Man, who sayes to his Soul, _Take thy ease_: I met presently not onely with many little encumbrances and impediments, but with so much sickness (a new misfortune to me) as would have spoiled the happiness of an Emperour as well as Mine: Yet I do neither repent nor alter my course. _Non ego perfidum Dixi Sacramentum_; Nothing shall separate me from a Mistress, which I have loved so long, and have now at last married; though she neither has brought me a rich Portion, nor lived yet so quietly with me as I hoped from Her.
--_Nec vos, dulcissima mundi Nomina, vos Musæ, Libertas, Otia, Libri, Hortique Syluæq; anima remanente relinquam._
Nor by me ere shall you, You of all Names the sweetest, and the best, You Muses, Books, and Liberty and Rest; You Gardens, Fields, and Woods forsaken be, As long as Life it self forsakes not Me.
[Footnote 1: 'irremediably' text 1668, 'immediately' errata 1668.]
[Footnote 2: 'who' omitted 1668, inserted 1669.]
I think it fit to direct my Speech concerning him, by the same rule by which he was wont to judge of others. In his esteem of other men, he constantly prefer'd the good temper of their minds, and honesty of their Actions, above all the excellencies of their Eloquence or Knowledge. The same course I will take in his praise, which chiefly ought to be fixed on his life. For that he deserves more applause from the most virtuous men, than for his other abilities he ever obtained from the Learned.