But, Truth to speake, the chiefest cause which drew My minde, to make them PRESENTS, for your view, Was, but to take =Occasion= to professe, That, I am =Servant=, to your WORTHINESSE. In which, if YOV are pleased; All is got, At which I aym’d: And, though you like it not, It shall but teach Mee (for the time to come) To take more heed, where I am troublesome._ And, I shall be, neverthelesse, your Honours to be commanded, as becommeth your Servant, GEO: WITHER. _Whil’st I, the =Sunne’s= bright Face may view, I will no meaner =Light= pursue._ [Illustration: NON INFERIORA SECUTUS. ILLVSTR. I. _Book. 4_] When, with a serious musing, I behold The gratefull, and obsequious _Marigold_, How duely, ev’ry morning, she displayes Her open brest, when _Titan_ spreads his Rayes; How she observes him in his daily walke, Still bending towards him, her tender stalke; How, when he downe declines, she droopes and mournes, Bedew’d (as 'twere) with teares, till he returnes; And, how she vailes her _Flow’rs_, when he is gone, As if she scorned to be looked on By an inferiour _Eye_; or, did contemne To wayt upon a meaner _Light_, then _Him_. When this I meditate, me-thinkes, the _Flowers_ Have _spirits_, farre more generous, then ours; And, give us faire Examples, to despise The servile Fawnings, and Idolatries, Wherewith, we court these earthly things below, Which merit not the service we bestow. But, oh my God! though groveling I appeare Vpon the Ground, (and have a rooting here, Which hales me downward) yet in my desire, To that, which is above mee, I aspire: And, all my best _Affections_ I professe To _Him_, that is the _Sunne of Righteousnesse_. Oh! keepe the _Morning_ of his _Incarnation_, The burning _Noone-tide_ of his bitter _Passion_, The _Night_ of his _Descending_, and the _Height_ Of his _Ascension_, ever in my sight: That imitating him, in what I may, I never follow an inferiour _Way_. _The =Earth= is God’s, and in his Hands Are all the =Corners= of the Lands._ [Illustration: IN MANU DOMINI OMNES SUNT FINES TERRÆ. ILLVSTR. II. _Book. 4_]