The CHARACTER OF A HAPPY LIFE

The CHARACTER OF A HAPPY LIFE

‘The Character of a Happy Life’ is an all-time relevant poem written by Sir Henry

Wotton (1568-1639). An English diplomat, he was Secretary to the Earl of Essex (1595). His poetical and other writings are known as “Reliquiae Wottonianae”. His poem which is reproduced below is taken from this collection.

                       A happy life is not easy to define. However, a few quotations on happiness will be useful in understanding and enjoying Henry Wotton’s poem. According to the English poet and critic Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) happiness can be built only on virtue, and must of necessity have truth for its foundation. Roman emperor and philosopher Marcus Aurelium Antonius (121-80) thinks no man is happy who does not think himself so.  French Mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal (1822-1891) holds that happiness is neither within us only, or without us; it is the union of ourselves with God. And finally, English clergy Spurgeon Charles Haddon (1834-92) believes that happiness consists in being perfectly satisfied with what we have got and with what we haven’t got. Moreover, it is not how much we have, but how much we enjoy, that makes happiness.

Now have a look at Wotton’s poem:

“HOW happy is he born and taught

That serveth not another’s will;

Whose armour is his honest thought.

And simple truth his utmost skill!

Whose passions not his masters are;

Whose soul is still prepared for death,

Untied unto the world by care

Of public fame or private breath;

Who envies none that chance doth raise;

Nor vice; who never understood

How deepest wounds are given by praise;

Nor rules of state, but rules of good;

Who hath his life from rumours freed;

Whose conscience is his strong retreat;

Whose state can neither flatters feed,

Nor ruin make oppressors great;

Who God doth late and early pray

More of His grace than gifts to lend;

And entertains the harmless day

With a religious book or friend;

------This man is freed from servile bands

Of hope to rise or fear to fall:

Lord of himself, though not of lands,

And having nothing, yet hath all.”

20^th February 2020                            G. R. KANWAL