A CONTENTED MIND by Abraham Cowley

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Oct 9, 1879

A CONTENTED MIND.

By Abraham Cowley

THIS only grant me, that my means may lie Too low for envy, for contempt too high. Some honor I would have, Not from great deeds, but good alone; Th' unknown are better than ill-known. Rumor can ope the grave: Acquaintance I would have; but then 't depends Not on the number, but the choice of friends.

Books should, not business, entertain the light, And sleep, as undisturbed as death, the night. My house a cottage, more Than palace, and should fitting be For all my use, no luxury. My garden painted o'er With Nature's hand, not Art's; and pleasures yield, Horace might envy in his Sabine field.

Thus would I double my life's fading space, For he that runs it well, twice runs his race, And in this true delight, These unbought sports, that happy state, I would not fear nor wish my fate, But boldly say each night, To-morrow let my sun his beams display, Or in clouds hide them; I have lived to-day. —Abraham Cowley, 1650.