Ellis Walker

If any strive to injure, or defame
Your honour, filching from you your good name;
Consider, he believes this blame your due,
...

I.
Great Epictetus, pardon if we praise!
'Tis not thy character to raise:
The top of all fame's pyramid is thine,
...

If then thou dost desire such things as these,
If thou wouldst tread these flow'ry ways of peace,
Remember that with fervency and care,
...

In ev'ry thing thou undertak'st, 'tis fit
Thou in true judgement's scales examine it;
Weigh ev'ry circumstance, each consequence,
...

When you have ought to do, or are to treat
With persons whose authority is great,
Let Socrates and Zeno shew you how,
...

These things before-hand to yourself propose,
When you're about to visit one of those,
Who are call'd great; perhaps he's not within,
...

Boast not in company of what you've done,
What battles you have fought, what hazards run;
How first at such a siege of such a town,
...

'Tis but a sorry sort of praise to be
A droll, the jester of each company,
A raiser of loud laughter, a buffoon,
...

You make yourself contemptible and mean,
A member of the rabble, if obscene
In conversation; wherefore when you find
...

As walking you tread warily, for fear
You strain your leg, or lest some nail should tear
Your feet, let the like caution be your guide,
...

When some idea, that excites desire,
Courts you in all its best and gay attire;
As when your fancy lays you on a bed
...

When you resolve to do what's right and fit,
Why should you shun being seen in doing it?
Why should you sneak, or why avoid the light,
...

As we speak sense, and cannot but be right,
When we affirm 'tis either day or night,
But rave, and talk rank nonsense, when we say,
...

As the shoe's made to serve and fit the foot,
As the leg gives the measure to the boot;
So our possessions should be measur'd by
...

When women once their dear Fourteen attain,
They first our love and admiration gain;
They mistresses are call'd, and now they find,
...

Respecting man, things are divided thus:
Some do not, and some do belong to us.
Some within compass of our pow'r do fall,
...

Those actions which are purely ours are free
By nature such, as cannot hinder'd be,
Above the stroke of chance or destiny.
...

If then thou shouldst suppose those thing are free,
Whose nature is condemn'd to slavery;
Shouldst thou suppose, what is not thine, thy own,
...

If you a strict enquiry make, you'll find,
That to each thing, two handles are assign'd.
One not to be endur'd, that will admit
...

If you have learn'd to live on homely food,
To feed on roots, and lupines, be not proud,
Since ev'ry beggar may be prais'd for that,
...