Yet in this jealous age some such there be, So without cause afraid of novelty, They would not (were it in their pow'r to choose) An old ill practice for a better lose. 90 Men who a rustic plainness so affect, They think God served best by their neglect. Holding the cause would be profan'd by it, Were they at charge of learning or of wit. And therefore bluntly (what comes next) they bring Coarse and unstudied stuffs for offering; Which like th' old Tabernacle's cov'ring are, Made up of badgers' skins, and of goat's hair. But these are paradoxes they must use Their sloth and bolder ignorance t'excuse. 100 Who would not laugh at one will naked go, 'Cause in old hangings truth is pictur'd so? Though plainness be reputed honour's note, They mantles use to beautify the coat; So that a curious (unaffected) dress Adds much unto the body's comeliness: And wheresoe'er the subject's best, the sense Is better'd by the speaker's eloquence. But, Sir, to you I shall no trophy raise From other men's detraction or dispraise: 110 That jewel never had inherent worth, Which ask'd such foils as these to set it forth. If any quarrel your attempt or style, Forgive them; their own folly they revile. Since, 'gainst themselves, their factious envy shall Allow this work of yours canonical. Nor may you fear the Poet's common lot, Read, and commended, and then quite forgot: The brazen mines and marble rocks shall waste, When your foundation will unshaken last. 120 'Tis Fame's best pay, that you your labours see By their immortal subject crowned be. For ne'er was writer in oblivion hid Who firm'd his name on such a Pyramid. [_Mr. George Sandys._] These verses appeared as commendatory to Sandys' well-known _Paraphrase upon the Divine Psalms_, 1648. Sandys was not only a friend of King (as of all his group), but, according to l. 14 of this piece, a relation: the exact connexion, however, was unknown to Hannah and Hooper, and is to me. Indeed, l. 18 might be taken to mean that we were not to look further for 'extraction' than to the fact that they were both sons of bishops. Hannah saw this, but drew the inference somewhat too positively. Mr. Percy Simpson has found the following variants in Sandys' own book:] [Line: 25 might] would.] [Line: 27 straight vow'd] strait-vow'd.] [Lines: 57-62 _absent_.] [Line: 64 With] And skill] Art.] [Line: 89 They would by no means (had they power to choose). [Line: 90 practice] Custom.] [Line: 96 stuffs] stuff.] [Line: 116 Allow] Confess.] [Line: King may have retouched the piece.] [Line: 23 Orig. note: [Sir Edwin Sandys' survey of Religion in the West] More properly entitled _Europae Speculum_ (1559).]