[Page 189]

TO THE Discontented and Unquiet.

Vertue alone makes the Mind Easie.

Imitated partly from Casimire: Book 4. Ode 15.
Nil est, Munati, nil iterum canam
Mortale nil est immedicabilis
Immune taedî, &c.
1 MADAM, There's nothing here that's free
2 From wearisome Anxiety:
3 And the whole Round of Mortal Joys
4 With short possession tires and cloys:
5 'Tis a dull Circle that we tread
6 Just from the Window to the Bed,
[Page 190]
7 We rise to see and to be seen,
8 Gaze on the World a while, and then
9 We Yawn and Stretch to Sleep again.
10 But FANCY, that uneasie Guest
11 Still holds a Lodging in our Breast;
12 She finds or frames Vexations still,
13 Her self the greatest Plague we feel.
14 We take strange Pleasure in our Pain,
15 And make a Mountain of a Grain,
16 Assume the Load, and pant and sweat
17 Beneath th' Imaginary Weight.
18 With our dear selves we live at strife,
19 While the most constant Scenes of Life
20 From Peevish Humours are not free;
21 Still we affect Variety:
22 Rather than pass an Easie Day,
23 We Fret and Chide the Hours away,
24 Grow weary of this Rolling Sun,
25 And vex that he should ever run
26 The same old Track; and still, and still
27 Rise red behind yon Eastern Hill,
[Page 191]
28 And chide the Moon that darts her Light
29 Thro' the same Casement every Night.
30 We shift our Chambers and our Homes
31 To dwell where Trouble never comes:
32 Sylvia has left the City Croud,
33 Against the Court exclaims aloud,
34 Flies to the Woods; a Hermit-Saint!
35 She loaths her Patches, Pins, and Paint,
36 Dear Diamonds from her Neck are torn:
37 But HUMOUR, that Eternal Thorn
38 Sticks in her Heart: She's hurry'd still
39 'Twixt her Wild Passions and her Will:
40 Haunted and hagg'd where're she roves
41 By purling Streams, and silent Groves,
42 Or with her Furies, or her Loves.
43 Then our own Native Land we hate,
44 Too Cold, too Windy, or too Wet;
45 Change the thick Climate, and repair
46 To France or Italy for Air;
[Page 192]
47 In vain we change, in vain we fly;
48 Go Sylvia, mount the Whirling Sky,
49 Or ride upon the Feather'd Wind;
50 In vain; If this Diseased Mind
51 Clings fast and still sits close behind.
52 Faithful Disease, that never fails
53 Attendance at her Ladies side
54 Over the Desart or the Tide
55 On rolling Wheels or flying Sails.
56 Happy the Soul that Vertue shows
57 To fix the place of her Repose,
58 Needless to move; for she can dwell
59 In her Old Grandsire's Hall as well.
60 VERTUE that never loves to roam,
61 But sweetly hides her self at Home,
62 And easy on a Native Throne
63 Of humble Turf sits gently down.
64 Yet should Tumultuous Storms arise
65 And mingle Earth and Seas, and Skies,
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66 Should the Waves swell, and make her roll
67 Across the Line or near the Pole,
68 Still She's at Peace; for well She knows
69 To lanch the Stream that Duty shows,
70 And makes her Home wher'ere She goes.
71 Bear her, ye Seas, upon your Breast,
72 Or waft her, Winds, from East to West
73 On the soft Air; She cannot find
74 A Couch so easie as her Mind,
75 Nor breathe a Climate half so kind.

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Title (in Source Edition): TO THE Discontented and Unquiet.
Author: Isaac Watts
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Genres: address

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Watts, Isaac, 1674-1748. Horæ lyricæ: Poems, chiefly of the lyric kind. In two books. ... By I. Watts. London: Printed by S. and D. Bridge, for John Lawrence at the Sign of the Angel in the Poultrey. MDCCVI., 1706, pp. 189-193. [20],267,[1]p.; 8⁰. (ESTC T82397; OTA K067329.000) (Page images digitized from a copy in the Princeton Theological Seminary Library.)

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The text has been typographically modernized, but without any silent modernization of spelling, capitalization, or punctuation. The source of the text is given and all editorial interventions have been recorded in textual notes. Based on the electronic text originally produced by the TCP project, this ECPA text has been edited to conform to the recommendations found in Level 5 of the Best Practices for TEI in Libraries version 4.0.0.

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