1 How happy are they, born or taught,
who do not serve another’s will;
whose armor is their honest thought,
and simple truth their highest skill;
2 Whose passions not their rulers are;
whose souls are still, and free from fear,
not tied unto the world with care
of public fame of private ear;
3 Who have their lives from rumors freed,
whose conscience is their strong retreat,
whose state no flattery can feed,
nor ruin make oppressors great.
4 All such are freed from servile bands
of hope to rise, or fear to fall;
they rule themselves, but rule not lands,
and, having nothing, yet have all.
Source: Singing the Living Tradition #135
First Line: | How happy is he born or taught |
Title: | How Happy Are They |
Author: | Sir Henry Wotton |
Meter: | 8.8.8.8 |
Language: | English |
Copyright: | Public Domain |
How happy is he born and taught. H. Wotton. [ Secret of Happiness.] From Izaak Walton's edition of Wotton's Poems, &c, published as Reliquae Wottonianae in 1651, p. 522, (p. 926, i.), into a few collections, and sometimes dated 1614.
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, New Supplement (1907)