Poem by Thomas Urquhart

Epigrams. The Second Booke. ¹ 5. That a vertuous mind in a deformed body maketh one more beautifull, then a handsome body can doe, endowed with a vicious mind

EXternal comelinesse few have obtain'd
Without their hurt; it never made one chast▪
But many'adulterers: and is sustain'd
By qualities, which age, and sicknesse waste▪
But that, whose lustre doth the mind adorne,
Surpasseth farre the beauty of the bodie;
For that, we make our selves: to this, we're borne▪
This, onely comes by chance: but that by study;
Jt is by vertue then, that wee enjoy
Deservedly the stile of beautifull,
Which neither time, nor Fortune can destroy;
And the deformed body, a faire soule
From dust to glory everlasting caries:
While vicious soules in handsome bodies perish.

1. Epigrams. The First Booke. ¹ 41. Concerning those, who marry for beauty, and wealth without regard of vertue
2. Epigrams. The Second Booke. ¹ 20. Riches affoord to vertue more matter to worke upon, then povertie can doe
3. Epigrams. The Second Booke. ¹ 43. That inconveniences ought to be regarded to before hand
4. Epigrams. The Second Booke. ¹ 6. To one, whom poverty was to be wished for, in so farre, as he could hardly otherwise be restrained from excessive ryot, and feasting
5. Epigrams. The First Booke. ¹ 22. Why covetous, and too ambitious men prove not so thankfull, as others for received favours

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