All is vanity that is not honesty;--thus is it graven on the tomb: And there is no wisdom but in piety;--so the dead man preacheth: For, in a simple village church, among those classic shades Which sylvan Evelyn loved to rear, (his praise, and my delight,) These, the words of truth, are writ upon his sepulchre Who learnt much lore, and knew all trees, from the cedar to the hyssop on the wall. A just conjunction, godliness and honesty; ministering to both worlds, Well wed, and ill to be divided, a pair that God hath joined together. I touch not now the vulgar thought, as of tricks and cheateries in trade; I speak of honest purpose, character, speech and action. For an honest man hath special need of charity, and prudence, Of a deep and humbling self-acquaintance, and of blessed commerce with his God, So that the keennesses of truth may be freed from asperities of censure, And the just but vacillating mind be not made the pendulum of arguments: For a false reason, shrewdly put, can often not be answered on the instant, And prudence looketh unto faith, content to wait solutions; Yea, it looketh, yea, it waiteth, still holding honesty in leash, Lest, as a hot young hound, it track not game, but vermin. Many a man of honest heart, but ignorant of self and God, Hath followed the marsh-fires of pestilence, esteeming them the lights of truth; He heard a cause, which he had not skill to solve,--and so received it gladly; And that cause brought its consequence, of harm to an unstable soul. Prudence, for a man's own sake, never should be separate from honesty; And charity, for other's good, and his, must still be joined therewith: For the harshly chiding tongue hath neither pleasuring nor profit, And the cold unsympathizing heart never gained a good. Sin is a sore, and folly is a fever; touch them tenderly for healing; The bad chirurgeon's awkward knife harmeth, spite of honesty. Still, a rough diamond is better than the polished paste,-- That courteous flattering fool, who spake of vice as virtue: And honesty, even by itself, though making many adversaries Whom prudence might have set aside, or charity have softened, Evermore will prosper at the last, and gain a man great honour By giving others many goods, to his own cost and hindrance.