Page:Poetical Works of the Right Hon. Geo. Granville.djvu/156

What need of arms, or inſtruments of war,
Or batt’ring engines that deſtroy from far?40
The greateſt king and conqueror is he
Who lord of his own appetites can be;
Bleſs’d with a pow’r that nothing can deſtroy,
And all have equal freedom to enjoy.
Whom worldly luxury and pomps allure,45
They tread on ice, and find no footing ſure.
Place me, ye Pow’rs! in ſome obſcure retreat;
O keep me innocent, make others great!
In quiet ſhades, content with rural ſports,
Give me a life remote from guilty courts,50
Where, free from hopes or fears, in humble eaſe,
Unheard of, I may live and die in peace.
Happy the man who thus, retir’d from ſight,
Studies himſelf, and ſeeks no other light;
But moſt unhappy he who ſits on high,55
Expos’d to ev’ry tongue and ev’ry eye,
Whose follies, blaz’d about, to all are known,
But are a ſecret to himſelf alone:
Worſe is an evil fame, much worſe, than none.59