Page:The Hind and the Panther - Dryden (1687).djvu/135

$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$For little Souls on little shifts rely,
And coward Arts of mean Expedients try:
The noble Mind will dare do any thing but lye.
False Friends, (his deadliest foes,) could find no way
But shows of honest bluntness to betray;
That unsuspected plainness he believ'd,
He look'd into Himself, and was deceiv'd.
Some lucky Planet sure attends his Birth,
Or Heav'n wou'd make a Miracle on Earth;
For prosp'rous Honesty is seldom seen:
To bear so dead a weight, and yet to win.
It looks as Fate with Nature's Law would strive,
To shew Plain dealing once an age may thrive:
And, when so tough a frame she could not bend,
Exceeded her Commission to befriend.

This gratefull man, as Heav'n encreas'd his Store,
Gave God again, and daily fed his Poor;
His House with all convenience was purvey'd;
The rest he found, but rais'd the Fabrick where he pray'd;