Pietas in patriam the life of His Excellency Sir William Phips, Knt. late Captain…

But Sir William Phips who might in a Calm of the Common-Wealth have administered all things, with as General an Acceptance, as any that have gone before him, had the Disadvantage of being set at Helm in a Time as full of Storm as ever that Province had seen; and the People having their Spirits put into a Tumult by the discomposing and distempering Variety of Disasters, which had long been rendering the Time Calamitous, it was natural for them, as 'tis for all Men then, to be complaining; and you may be sure, the Rulers must in such Cases, be always complained of, and the chief Complaints must be heaped upon those that are Commanders in Chief. Nor has a certain Proverb in Asia been improper in America, He deserves no Man's good Word, of whom every Man shall speak well.

But Sir William Phips who might in a Calm of the Common-Wealth have administred all things, with as General an Acceptance, as any that have gone before him, had the Disadvantage of being set at Helm in a Time as full of Storm as ever that Province had seen; and the People having their Spirits put into a Tumult by the discomposing and distempering Variety of Disasters, which had long been rendring the Time Calamitous, it was natural for them, as 'tis for all Men then, to be complaining; and you may be sure, the Rulers must in such Cases, be always complained of, and the chief Complaints must be heaped upon those that are Commanders in Chief. Nor has a certain Proverb in Asia been improper in America, He deserves no Man's good Word, of whom every Man shall speak well.

Sir William was very hardly Handled (or Tongued at least) in the Liberty which People took to make most unbecoming and Injurious Reflections upon his Conduct, and Clamour against him even for those very Actions, which were not only Necessary to be done, but highly Beneficial unto themselves; And though he would ordinarily smile at their Frowardness, calling it, His Country Pay, yet he sometimes resented it with some uneasiness; he seemed unto himself sometimes almost as bad as Rolled about in Regulus's Barrel; and had occasion to think on the Italian Proverb, To wait for one who does not come; to lie a Bed not able to sleep; and to find it impossible to please those whom we serve, are three Griefs enough to kill a Man.