A storm
would not agree with my stomach, if it did with my courage. Though
I was in a crowd of as good company as could be found anywhere,
though I was in business of great and honourable trust, though I ate
at the best table, and enjoyed the best conveniences for present
subsistence that ought to be desired by a man of my condition in
banishment and public distresses, yet I could not abstain from
renewing my old schoolboy's wish in a copy of verses to the same
effect.
Well then; I now do plainly see,
This busy world and I shall ne'er agree, etc.
And I never then proposed to myself another advantage from His
Majesty's happy restoration, but the getting into some moderately
convenient retreat in the country, which I thought in that case I
might easily have compassed, as well as some others, with no greater
probabilities or pretences have arrived to extraordinary fortunes.
But I had before written a shrewd prophecy against myself, and I
think Apollo inspired me in the truth, though not in the elegance of
it
"Thou, neither great at court nor in the war,
Nor at th' exchange shalt be, nor at the wrangling bar;
Content thyself with the small barren praise,
Which neglected verse does raise, etc.
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