Page:Essays - Abraham Cowley (1886).djvu/146

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144
COWLEY'S ESSAYS.

But that of curious pictures to delight
With the fair stamp thy virtuoso sight.
The only true and genuine use is this,
To buy the things which nature cannot miss
Without discomfort, oil, and vital bread,
And wine by which the life of life is fed,
And all those few things else by which we live
All that remains is given for thee to give.
If cares and troubles, envy, grief, and fear,
The bitter fruits be which fair riches bear,
If a new poverty grow out of store,
The old plain way, ye gods! let me be poor.


A Paraphrase on an Ode in Horace's Third
Book, beginning thus:—

"Inclusam Danaen turris ahenea."


A tower of brass, one would have said,
And locks, and bolts, and iron bars,
And guards as strict as in the heat of wars