Then subtle doctors scriptures made their prize;
Casuists, like cocks, struck out each others' eyes:
Then dark distinctions reason's light disguised,
And into atoms truth anatomized:
Then Mahomet's Crescent, by our feuds increased,
Blasted the learned remainders of the East.
The project, when from Greece to Rome it came,
Made mother Ignorance Devotion's dame ;
Then he, whom Lucifer's own pride did swell,
His faithful emissary rose from hell
To possess Peter's chair, that Hildebrand
Whose foot on mitres, then on crowns, did stand;
And before that exalted idol all
(Whom we call gods on earth) did prostrate fall. Then darkness Europe's face did overspread, From lazy cells, where superstition bred,
Which, link'd with blind obedience, so increased,
That the whole world some ages they oppress'd:
Till through those clouds the Sun of Knowledge
And Europe from her lethargy did wake; [brake,
Then first our monarchs were acknowledged here,
That they their churches' nursing fathers were.
When Lucifer no longer could advance
His works on the false ground of ignorance,
New arts he tries, and new designs he lays,
Then his well-studied masterpiece he plays;
Loyola, Luther, Calvin, he inspires,
And kindles with infernal flames their fires;
Sends their forerunner (conscious of the' event)
Printing, his most pernicious instrument!
Wild controversy then, which long had slept,
Into the press from ruin'd cloisters leap'd.
No longer by implicit faith we err,
Whilst every man's his own interpreter ;
No more conducted now by Aaron's rod,
Lay-elders from their ends create their god.
But seven wise men the ancient world did know,
We scarce know seven who think themselves not so.
When man learn'd undefiled religion,
We were commanded to be all as one;
Fiery disputes that union have calcined;
Almost as many minds as men we find;
And when that flame finds combustible earth,
Thence fatuus fires and meteors take their birth;
Legions of sects and insects come in throngs;
To name them all would tire a hundred tongues.
Such were the Centaurs, of Ixion's race,
Who a bright cloud for Juno did embrace;
And such the monsters of Chimæra's kind,
Lions before, and dragons were behind.
Then from the clashes between popes and kings
Debate, like sparks from flints' collision, springs.
As Jove's loud thunderbolts were forged by heat,
The like our Cyclops on their anvils beat:
All the rich mines of Learning ransack'd are
To furnish ammunition for this war;
Uncharitable zeal our reason whets,
And double edges on our passions sets.
'Tis the most certain sign the world's accurs'd,
That the best things corrupted are the worst.
'Twas the corrupted light of knowledge hurl'd
Sin, death, and ignorance, o'er all the world.
That sun like this (from which our sight we have)
Gazed on too long, resumes the light he gave;
And when thick mists of doubts obscure his beams,
Our guide is error, and our visions dreams.
"Twas no false heraldry when Madness drew
Her pedigree from those who too much knew.
Who in deep mines for hidden knowledge toils,
Like guns o'ercharged, breaks, misses, or recoils.
When subtle wits have spun their thread too fine,
"Tis weak and fragile, like Arachne's line.
True piety without cessation toss'd
By theories, the practic part is lost;
And like a ball bandied 'twixt pride and wit,
Rather than yield, both sides the prize will quit;
Then whilst his foe each gladiator foils,
The atheist looking on enjoys the spoils.
Through seas of knowledge we our course advance,
Discovering still new worlds of ignorance;
And these discoveries make us all confess,
That sublunary science is but guess.
Matters of fact to man are only known,
And what seems more is mere opinion:
The standers-by see clearly this event;
All parties say they're sure, yet all dissent.
With their new light our bold inspectors press,
Like Cham, to show their fathers' nakedness.
By whose example after ages may
Discover we more naked are than they.
All human wisdom to divine is folly:
This truth the wisest man made melancholy.
Hope, or belief, or guess, gives some relief,
But to be sure we are deceived, brings grief.
Who thinks his wife is virtuous, though not so,
Is pleased and patient till the truth he know.
Our God, when Heaven and earth he did create,
Form'd man, who should of both participate.
If our lives' motions theirs must imitate,
Our knowledge, like our blood, must circulate.
When, like a bridegroom, from the east the sun
Sets forth, he thither, whence he came, doth run.
Into earth's spungy veins the ocean sinks,
Those rivers to replenish which he drinks :
So Learning, which from reason's fountain springs,
Back to the source some secret channel brings.
"Tis happy when our streams of knowledge flow
To fill their banks, but not to overthrow.
Ut metit Autumnus fruges quas parturit æstas,
Sic ortum Natura, dedit Deus his quoque finen.'
GREAT Strafford! worthy of that name, though all
Of thee could be forgotten, but thy fall,
Crush'd by imaginary treason's weight,
Which too much merit did accumulate.
As chemists gold from brass by fire would draw,
Pretexts are into treason forged by law.
His wisdom such, at once it did
Three kingdoms' wonder, and three kingdoms' fear,
Whilst single he stood forth, and seem'd, although
Each had an army, as an equal foe.
Such was his force of eloquence, to make
The hearers more concern'd than he that spake :
Each seem'd to act that part he came to see,
And none was more a looker on than he.
So did he move our passions, some were known
To wish, for the defence, the crime their own.
Now private pity strove with public hate,
Reason with rage, and eloquence with fate.
Now they could him if he could them forgive; He's not too guilty, but too wise to live:
Less seem those facts which treason's nickname
Than such a fear'd ability for more.
They, after death, their fears of him express,
His innocence and their own guilt confess.
Their legislative frenzy they repent,
Enacting, it should make no precedent.
This fate he could have scaped, but would not lose Honour for life, but rather nobly chose
Death from their fears than safety from his own, That his last action all the rest might crown.
MR. ABRAHAM COWLEY'S DEATH,
AND BURIAL AMONGST THE ANCIENT POETS.
OLD Chaucer, like the morning star,
To us discovers day from far;
His light those mists and clouds dissolved,
Which our dark nation long involved;
But he descending to the shades,
Darkness again the age invades.
Next (like Aurora) Spenser rose,
Whose purple blush the day foreshows;
The other three with his own fires
Phoebus, the poet's god, inspires;
By Shakspeare's, Jonson's, Fletcher's lines
Our stage's lustre Rome's outshines ;
These poets near our princes sleep,
And in one grave their mansion keep.
They lived to see so many days,
Till time had blasted all their bays:
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