Sunday, July 12, 2009

On the wall above the William Holte tomb is this monument by Richard Culliford:

Vir,
Quem nec Divitiac nec Honores
Neq. ulla Fortunae dona
Illuftrarunt
Sed Mens rite exculta
Prifca morum Sanctitas
& Fides metuens Mutari,
Fecere in Secefsu Nobilem.
Rerum Civilium Procellis
Homo non levis,
Huc & illuc Jactari noluit;
Sed ftudjis,Amicus & Deo Semper vacans,
in Otio Literato & Pio
Bene delituit
Motus Caeleftes & Aftrorum vias
& Quicquid Mathefis recludit,
aut Phyfica habet Secretius,
Ufqe inveftigans.
Per devias Naturae femitas
Diligenter explorabat Deum.
Neminem laedere afsentari Nemini,
Amicos & pati & in loco Monere,
Quicquid novit facile impertire,
Sale Attico attemperare Sapientam,
& Verecundam Laetitiam ciere:
Hae erant Artes,
Quibus Vitae Severitatem Lenire
& Hominibus frui didicerat.
Hocce Monumentum
RICHARDUS CULLIFORDIUS Levir,
Betticoe Navis Proefectus,
Extruendum Curavit.

The translation is mainly from Eliot:

A man whom neither wealth nor honours nor any gifts of fortune adorned, but one whom a mind properly cultivated, an old-fashioned holiness of manner, a faith which feared change, made noble in obscurity. In the storms of State he was not easily moved, and refused to be tossed about from one side to another. But always finding time for congenial studies and for God he sought a happy retirement in literary and pious ease. The movements of celestial bodies and the spheres of stars, and whatever mathematical science discloses or whatever secrets physical science possesses he constantly investigated. Through the obscure paths of nature he diligently sought for God. To hurt no one, to subscribe to no one, to bear with friends and at proper times to admonish them, to impart with ease whatever he knew, to temper his wisdom with attic wit, and to excite modest joy--- those were the arts by which he had learned to sooth the severity of life and to enjoy men.

The translation is incomplete at the moment.



(12Jul2009)