[5 prey, _Ed:_ prey; _1633-69_] [8 breed.] breed; _1633_] [10 minde! _Ed:_ minde? _1633-69_] [17 a headlong] a _om. 1669:_ an headlong _1635-54_] [24 taste; _Ed:_ taste. _1633-69_] [28 we know _1633 and MSS.:_ men know _1635-69_, _O'F_] [35 show; _1669:_ show, _1633-54_, _Chambers_] [36 due, _1633-69:_ due; _Chambers_. _See note_] [38 All; All _1669:_ All: All _1635-54:_ All, All _1633_ chaw. _1633:_ chaw, _1635-69_, _Grolier_] [39 fill, _1633-54:_ fill _1669:_ fill; _Grolier_] [44 icy] jcy _1633_] [47-8 credible; ... bookes, _Ed:_ credible, ... bookes; _1633-69:_ credible ... bookes _Grolier_] _To the Countesse of Bedford._ T'have written then, when you writ, seem'd to mee Worst of spirituall vices, Simony, And not t'have written then, seemes little lesse Then worst of civill vices, thanklessenesse. In this, my debt I seem'd loath to confesse, 5 In that, I seem'd to shunne beholdingnesse. But 'tis not soe; _nothings_, as I am, may Pay all they have, and yet have all to pay. Such borrow in their payments, and owe more By having leave to write so, then before. 10 Yet since rich mines in barren grounds are showne, May not I yeeld (not gold) but coale or stone? Temples were not demolish'd, though prophane: Here _Peter Ioves_, there _Paul_ hath _Dian's_ Fane. So whether my hymnes you admit or chuse, 15 In me you'have hallowed a Pagan Muse, And denizend a stranger, who mistaught By blamers of the times they mard, hath sought Vertues in corners, which now bravely doe Shine in the worlds best part, or all It; You. 20 I have beene told, that vertue in Courtiers hearts Suffers an Ostracisme, and departs. Profit, ease, fitnesse, plenty, bid it goe, But whither, only knowing you, I know; Your (or you) vertue two vast uses serves, 25 It ransomes one sex, and one Court preserves. There's nothing but your worth, which being true, Is knowne to any other, not to you: And you can never know it; To admit No knowledge of your worth, is some of it. 30 But since to you, your praises discords bee, Stoop, others ills to meditate with mee. Oh! to confesse wee know not what we should, Is halfe excuse; wee know not what we would: Lightnesse depresseth us, emptinesse fills, 35 We sweat and faint, yet still goe downe the hills. As new Philosophy arrests the Sunne, And bids the passive earth about it runne, So wee have dull'd our minde, it hath no ends; Onely the bodie's busie, and pretends; 40 As dead low earth ecclipses and controules The quick high Moone: so doth the body, Soules. In none but us, are such mixt engines found, As hands of double office: For, the ground