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Front Page  Titles (by Subject) The portrait of a good man by the most sublime of poets, for your imitation. - The Works, vol. 12 (Correspondence and Papers 1816-1826)
The portrait of a good man by the most sublime of poets, for your imitation. - Thomas Jefferson, The Works, vol. 12 (Correspondence and Papers 1816-1826) [1905]Edition used:The Works of Thomas Jefferson, Federal Edition (New York and London, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1904-5). Vol. 12.
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The portrait of a good man by the most sublime of poets, for your imitation.
- Lord, who ’s the happy man that may to thy blest courts repair;
- Not stranger-like to visit them but to inhabit there?
- ’T is he whose every thought and deed by rules of virtue moves;
- Whose generous tongue disdains to speak the thing his heart disproves.
- Who never did a slander forge, his neighbor’s fame to wound;
- Nor hearken to a false report, by malice whispered round.
- Who vice in all its pomp and power, can treat with just neglect;
- And piety, though clothed in rags, religiously respect.
- Who to his plighted vows and trust has ever firmly stood;
- And though he promise to his loss, he makes his promise good.
- Whose soul in usury disdains his treasure to employ;
- Whom no rewards can ever bribe the guiltless to destroy.
- The man, who, by this steady course, has happiness insur’d,
- When earth’s foundations shake, shall stand, by Providence secur’d.
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