Page:Lives of Poets-Laureate.djvu/154

140 The library, which, in the House of Astragon, he places near the Cabinet of Death, he calls:

Of law:

Of polemics:

Of the instruction that the pages of Gondibert receive from their lord, he thus speaks:

But with the early sun he rose, and taught
 * These youths by growing Virtue to grow great;

Show'd greatness is without it blindly sought,
 * A desperate charge which ends in base retreat.

He taught them Shame, the sudden sense of ill;
 * Shame, nature's hasty conscience, which forbids

Weak inclination ere it grows to will,
 * Or stays rash will before it grows to deeds.

He taught them Honour, virtue's bashfulness,
 * A fort so yieldless that it fears to treat;

Like power, it grows to nothing, growing less;
 * Honour, the moral conscience of the great.

He taught them Kindness, soul's civility,
 * In which nor courts nor cities have a part;

For theirs is fashion, this from falsehood free,
 * Where love and pleasure know no lust nor art.