That ruddy juice exprest from favour'd vintages, infus'd With cosmic laughter, when upon some sécular epact Blandly the sun's old heart is stirr'd to a septennial smile, Causing strangefortun'd comfort to melancholy mortals: 240 Friend to the flésh, if mind be fatigued; rallying to the sound mind, When succour is needed 'gainst fainting weariness of flesh; Shall Wine not be belov'd? Or now let Aristotle answer What goods are,--Time leaves the scholar's inventory unchang'd;-- All Virtues & Pow'rs, Honour & Pleasure, all that in our life Makes us self-sufficient, Friends, Riches, Comeliness, and Strength; They that[v]have these things in plenty desire to retain them, And win more; while they that lack are pleas'd to desire them. Nay and since possession will leave the desire unappeasèd, Save in mere appetites that vary with our physical state, 250 Surely delight in goods is an ecstasy rather attendant On their mental image, than on experienc'd operation. So the shepherd envies the monarch, the monarch the shepherd's lot,-- 'O what a life were this, How sweet, how lovely!' the king cries. Whence, I say, as a man feels brave who reads of ACHILLES; One looking on riches may learn some kindred elation, And whatever notions of fortune, luxury, comfort, Genius or virtue, are shown to him, only as aspects Of possible bēing, 'tis so much gain to desire them; Learning Magnificence in mean obscurity, tasting 260 Something of all those goods which Fate outwardly denies him. But say none shall again be king or prosperous or great,-- Arguing 'all eminence is unequal, unequal is unjust',-- Should that once come about, then alas for this merry England, Sunk in a grey monotone of drudgery, dreamily poring O'er her illumin'd page of history, faln to regretful Worship of ancestors, with nought now left to delight her, Nought to attain, save one nurst hope, one ambition only Red Revolution, a wild Reawakening, & a Renaissance. Impatiently enough yoū hear me, longing to refute me, 270 While I[v]in privileg'd pulpit my period expand. Who could allow such a list of strange miscellaneous items, So-call'd goods, Strength, Ríches, Honour, Gold, Genius, and Wine? Is not Wisdom above Rubies? more than Coral or Pearl? Yours is a scheme deep-laid on true distinctive asortment, Parting use or good from useless or evil asunder; Dismissing accessories, while half my heathenish invoice Are Vanity's vanities. Well; truly, as old SOLOMON said, So they _be_: What is excepted? What scapes his araignment? Is't Pleasure or Wisdom? Nay ask THEOLOGIA: Good-works, 280 Saith-she, offend her nostril. If I distinguish, asserting, Say, that if I[v]enjoyed my neighbour's excessive income