IN PRAISE OF LESSIUS Goe now; and with some daring drugg Bait thy disease. And whilst they tugge, Thou to maintain their pretious strife Spend the dear treasures of thy life. Goe, take physick: Doat upon Some big-nam'd composition. Th'Oraculous DOCTOR'S mystick bills; Certain hard WORDS made into pills, And what at last shalt' gain by these? Only a costlyer disease. That which makes us have no need Of physick, that's PHYSICK indeed. Hark hither, Reader! wilt thou see Nature her own physitian be? Wilt' see a man, all his own wealth, His own musick, his own health; A man whose sober soul can tell How to wear her garments well. Her garments, that upon her sitt As garments should doe, close and fitt; A well-cloth'd soul; that's not opprest Nor choak't with what she should be drest. A soul sheath'd in a christall shrine; Through which all her bright features shine; As when a peice of wanton lawn A thinne, aeriall veil, is drawn Or'e beauty's face; seeming to hide More sweetly showes the blushing bride. A soul, whose intellectuall beames No mists doe mask, no lazy steames. A happy soul, that all the way To HEAVN rides in a summer's day. Wouldst' see a man, whose well-warm'd blood Bathes him in a genuine flood! A man, whose tuned humors be A set of rarest harmony? Wouldst' see blith lookes, fresh cheekes beguil Age? wouldst see december smile? Wouldst' see nests of new roses grow In a bed of reverend snow? Warm thoughts, free spirits flattering Winter's selfe into a SPRING? In summe, wouldst see a man that can Live to be old, and still a man? Whose latest and most leaden houres Fall with soft wings, stuck with soft flowres; And when life's sweet fable ends, Soul and body part like friends; No quarrells, murmurs, no delay; A KISSE, a SIGH, and so away. This rare one, reader, wouldst thou see? Hark hither; and thy self be HE. |