larly by reason of that obligation and zeal with which I am bound to dedicate myself to your service : 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 faid, which deferves pardon, it is yours, Sir, as well as he, who is,

Your most devoted,

and obliged servant,

THO. SPRAT.

I. 'T'S

'IS true, great name, thou art secure

From the forgetfulness and rage
Of death, or envy, or devouring age ;
Thou canst the force and teeth of time endure :
Thy. fame, like men, the elder it doth grow,

Will of itself turn whiter too,

Without what needless art can do ;
Will live beyond thy breath, beyond thy hearse,
Though it were never heard or fung in verte.

Without our help, thy memory is safe ;
They only want an epitaph,
That do remain alone

Alive in an infcription,
Remember'd only on the brass, or marble-fone,
L 3

'Tis all in vain what we can do :

All our roses and perfumes
Will but officious folly show,
And pious nothings to fuch mighty tombs.
All our incenfe, gums and balm,
Are but unnecessary duties here :

The poets may their fpices fpare,
Their costly numbers, and their tuneful feet :
That need not be embalm’d, which of itself is sweet :

II.

We know to praise thee is a dangerous proof

Of our obedience and our love :
For when the sun and fire meet,

The one's extinguish'd quite ;
And yet

the other never is more bright. So they that write of thee, and join

Their feeble names with thine ;
Their weaker sparks with thy illustrious light,

Will lose themselves in that ambitious thought;
And yet no fame to thee from hence be brought.
We know, bless'd spirit, thy mighty name
Wants no addition of another's beam ;

It's for our pens too high, and full of theme :
The Muses are made great by thee, not thou by them,

Thy fame's eternal lamp will live,

And in thy sacred urn survive,
Without the food of oil, which we can give.
'Tis true; but yet our duty calls our songs ;
Duty commands our tongues :

Though Though thou want not our praises, we

Are not excus'd for what we owe to thee; For so men from religion are not freed,

But from the altars clouds must rise,

Though heaven itself doth nothing need, And though the gods don't want an earthly facrifice.

III.

Great life of wonders, whose each year

Full of new miracles did appear !
Whose every month might be
Alone a chronicle, or history!
Oihers çreat actions are
But thinly scatter'd here and there ;
At best, but all one single star;

But thine the milky-way,
All one continued light, of undistinguish'd day;
They throng'd so close, that nought else could be seen,

Scarce any common sky did come between :

What shall I say, or where begin ?
Thou may'st in double shapes be shown,
Or in thy arms, or in thy gown ;
Like Jove, sometimes with warlike thunder, and
Sometimes with peaceful sceptre in his hand;

Or in the field, or on the throne.
In what thy head, or what thy arm hath done,

All that thou didst was so refin'd,
So full of substance, and so strongly join'd,
So pure, so weighty gold,
L 4

That

a

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 whilft yet

Thou only to thyself wert great,
Whilst yet the happy bud

Was not quite seen or understood,
It then sure signs of future greatness thew'd :

Then thy domestic worth
Did tell the world what it would be,

When it should fit occasion fee,
When a full spring should call it forth :
As bodies in the dark and night
Have the same colours, the fame red and white,

As in the open day and light;

The sun doth only shew
That they are bright, not make them fo.
So whilft but private walls did know
What we to such a mighty mind should owe,

Then the same virtues did appear,
Though in a less and more contracted sphere,
As full, though not as large as since they were :

And, like great rivers' fountains, though

At first so deep thou didît not go :
Though then thine was not so enlarg’d a flood;
Yet when 'twas little, 'twas as clear, as good.

V.
'Tis true thou was not born unto a crown,

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

a

Thy