Wondering about Samuel Pepys 350 years or so ago

writing his wonderful diary encrypted
every night for years on end
by candlelight, how his eyes
could cope in the flittering semilight

philanderer corrupt public servant
member of the royal society
who accrued such wealth and documented
the plague and the burning of london

who lent the king then
an immense fortune never reclaimed.
Who underwent the knife for stones
and survived atonished and grateful.