(15)
Thou didst begin with lesser Cares
And private Thoughts took up thy private Years:
Those hands which were ordain'd by Fates
To change the World, and alter States,
Practic'd, at first, that vast design
On meaner things, with equal mind.
That Soul, which should so many Scepters sway.
To whom so many Kingdoms should obey,
Learn'd first to rule in a Domestick way:
So Government, it self began
From Family, and single Man,
Was by the small relations first
Of Husband and of Father nurst
And from those less beginnings past,
To spread it self, o're all the World at last.
(6)
But when thy Country (then almost enthrall'd)
Thy Vertues and thy Courage call'd,
When England did thy Arms intreat
And t'had been sin in thee, not to be great;
When every Stream, and every Flood,
Was a true vein of Earth, and ran with blood.
When unus'd Arms, and unknown War,
Fill'd every place, and every Ear;
When the great Storms and dismal Night
Did all the Land afright;
'Twas time for thee, to bring forth all our Light.
Thou left'st thy more delightful Peace
Thy Private life and better ease;
Then down thy Steel and Armor took,
Wishing that it still hung upon the hook;
