Henry Charles Beeching, ed. (1859–1919). Lyra Sacra: A Book of Religious Verse. 1903.

By Joseph Beaumont (1616–1699)

The House of the Mind


AS 1 earth’s pageant passes by,
Let reflection turn thine eye
Inward, and observe thy breast;
There alone dwells solid rest.

That’s a close immurèd tower	5
Which can mock all hostile power:
To thyself a tenant be,
And inhabit safe and free.

Say not that this house is small,
Girt up in a narrow wall;	10
In a cleanly sober mind
Heaven itself full room doth find.

Th’ infinite Creator can
Dwell in it, and may not man?
Here content make thy abode	15
With thyself and with thy God.

Note 1. Dr Joseph Beaumont, Master of Jesus College, Cambridge, and afterwards of Peterhouse, was the author of a religious poem called “Psyche,” in the Spenserian stanza, of some 30,000 lines, as well as of minor poems. These have been collected and edited by Dr Grosart. [back]

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