Page:Essays - Abraham Cowley (1886).djvu/44

 Where honour or where conscience does not bind,
 * No other law shall shackle me?
 * Slave to myself I will not be,

Nor shall my future actions be confined
 * By my own present mind.

Who by resolves and vows engaged does stand
 * For days that yet belong to fate,

Does like an unthrift mortgage his estate
 * Before it falls into his hand;
 * The bondman of the cloister so

All that he does receive does always owe. And still as time come in it goes away,
 * Not to enjoy, but debts to pay.

Unhappy slave, and pupil to a bell Which his hour's work, as well as hour's does tell! Unhappy till the last, the kind releasing knell.

If Life should a well-ordered poem be
 * (In which he only hits the white