Lxxiv. Exhortation To Live Well Poem by Ellis Walker

Awake, awake, how long will you decline
The happiness propos'd, and waste your time?
How long through sloth, will you persist to slight,
What reason hath inform'd you to be right?
You have receiv'd the precepts, such as may
Guide you the safest, and the surest way,
To which you ought to have, and have agreed:
What other teacher seem you now to need?
Do you expect that some descending god
Should leave his blest and heavenly abode,
To finish what your reason hath begun,
To teach you what e'er this you might have done?
Your giddy years of frolick youth are fled,
Manhood, that should be wise, reigns in its stead;
Your vig'rous reason now hath reach'd its prime,
But from its full meridian must decline,
If lazily you sleep away your noon,
The night steals on you, and finds nothing done:
If still irresolute you love delay,
And spend whole years in fixing on a day,
And when 'tis come, now resolutions make,
Which your neglect resolves but to forsake,
You strive to grow more foolish than you are,
And for grey dotage by degrees prepare;
A mere plebeian to the grave you go,
Laden with age, with follies, and with woe:
Wherefore begin, let no delays defer
The peaceful life of a philosopher;
And let what reason tells you to be best,
Be as a law, that may not be transgress'd.
Begin to live, let your behaviour shew
What an advantage 'tis to think and know:
For this alone we life may justly term,
To live with ease of mind, without concern.
A hundred years in grief and anguish spent,
Are not long life, but a long punishment; (breath
For sighs, complaints, and groans, and murm'ring
Are but the gasps of a more ling'ring death.
Therefore whene'er you any object meet,
Whose force is pow'rful, and whose charms are sweet,
When you encounter hardships, danger, pain,
Immortal ignominy, deathless fame,
Remember that th' Olympicks now are come,
That you no longer may the combat shun,
On this one trial doth your doom depend,
You in one moment fail, or gain your end,
You either conquer, or are conquer'd soon,
And lose, or wear the honours of the crown.

Thus Socrates advanc'd his lasting name,
Thus he the wond'rous Socrates became;
Him nothing but right reason e'er could sway,
Which he believ'd 'twas glorious to obey;
He all delay, in what seem'd best, thought base,
Not only real loss, but vile disgrace.
And you (though yet you have not the success
To reach the wisdom of great Socrates)
Should strive to live as if you meant to be
As wise, as happy, and as great as he.