Ixxxii LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON'. [1673, 



Which though it be the poorest, cheapest way, 

 The debt we owe, great merits to defray, 

 Yet it is almost all that most men pay. 



And these are monuments of so short date, 

 That, with their birth, they oft receive their fate ; 

 Dying with those whom they would celebrate. 



And though to verse great reverence is due, 

 Yet what most poets write, proves so untrue, 

 It renders truth in verse suspected too. 



Something more sacred then, or more entire, 



The memories of virtuous men require, 



Than what may with their funeral torch expire : 



This History can give ; to which alone 



The privilege to mate oblivion 



Is granted, when denied to brass and stone. 



//Wherein, my friend, you have a hand so sure, 

 I* Your truths so candid are, your style so pure, 

 f | That what you write may envy's search endure. 



Your pen, disdaining to be brib'd or prest, 



Flows without vanity or interest ; 



A virtue with which few good pens are blest. 



How happy was my father, then, to see 

 Those men he lov'd, by him he lov'd, to be 

 Rescued from frailties and mortality. 



Wotton and Donne, to whom his soul was knit : 

 Those twins of virtue, eloquence, and wit, 

 He saw in fame's eternal annals writ ; 



Where one has fortunately found a place, 

 More faithful to him than his marble was : 3 

 Which eating age, nor fire, shall e'er deface. 



A monument, that, as it has, shall last, 

 And prove a monument to that defac'd ; 

 Itself, but with the world not to be raz'd. 



And even, in their flowery characters, .. 



My father's grave part of your friendship shares ; 



For you have honour'd his in strewing theirs. 



Thus, by an office, though particular, 

 Virtue's whole common weal obliged are ; 

 For in a virtuous act all good men share. 



And by this act the world is taught to know, 

 That the true friendship we to merit owe 

 Is not discharg'd by compliment and show. 



But your's is friendship of so pure a kind, 

 For all mean ends and interest so refined f 

 It ought to be a pattern to mankind : 



For whereas most men's friendships here beneath, 

 Do perish with their friend's expiring breath, , 

 Yours proves a friendship living after death ; 



By which the generous Wotton, reverend Donne, 

 Soft Herbert, and the Church's champion, 

 Hooker, are rescued from oblivion. 



a His monument in St Paul's Church, before the late dreadful fire, 1665. 



