16
For sake of these two splendours do the wise
Set store on riches, & for these alone:
For these two glories only do they prize
Power & majesty of kingly throne:
Or this: to succour friendship in distress,
To comfort humble sorrow, nor despise
To cheer the joyless heart of weariness,
To guard & aid whom fortune doth oppress
That he to life’s glad kingdom be restor’d
(& thus their monument of thanks they raise
More high than pomp’s vain pinnacle of praise),
Or this: to forge therefrom a trenchant sword
Whereat shall poltroon evil cower & fly,
& smite Hell’s fiends of foulness that they die.