Imatges de pàgina
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POEMS

BY

Dr. S WIF T.

VOL. VII.

B

O D

D

TO THE HONOURABLE

E,

SIR WILLIAM TEMPLE,

V

Written at Moor-park, June, 1689.

I.

IRTUE, the greatest of all monarchies!
Till, its firft emperor, rebellious man
Depos'd from off his feat,

It fell, and broke with its own weight
Into small states and principalities,

By many a petty lord poffefs'd,

But ne'er fince feated in one fingle breast!
'Tis you who must this land fubdue,
The mighty conqueft 's left for you,
The conqueft and discovery too;
Search out this Utopian ground,
Virtue's Terra Incognita,

Where none ever led the way,

Nor ever fince but in defcriptions found;

Like the philofopher's ftone,

With rules to fearch it, yet obtain'd by none.

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II.

We have too long been led aftray;
Too long have our mifguided fouls been taught
With rules from mufty morals brought,
'Tis you must put us in the way;
Let us (for fhame!) no more be fed
With antique reliques of the dead,
The gleanings of philofophy;
Philofophy, the lumber of the fchools,
The roguery of alchemy;

And we, the bubbled fools,

Spend all our prefent life, in hopes of golden rules,

III.

But what does our proud ignorance Learning call?
We oddly Plato's paradox make good,
Our knowledge is but mere remembrance all

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Remembrance is our treafure and our food; Nature's fair table-book, our tender fouls, We fcrawl all o'er with old and empty rules, Stale memorandums of the fchools: For Learning's mighty treasures look In that deep grave a book;

Think that he there does all her treasures hide, And that her troubled ghoft ftill haunts there fince

the dy'd.

Confine her walks to colleges and schools;

Her pricft, her train, and followers fhow
As if they all were spectres too!
They purchafe knowledge at th' expence
Of common breeding, common fenfe,
And grow at once fcholars and fools;

Affect

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Affect ill-manner'd pedantry,
Rudeness, ill-nature, incivility,

And, fick with dregs of knowledge grown
Which greedily they swallow down,
Still caft it up, and nauseate company.

IV.

Curft be the wretch! nay doubly curst!
(If it may lawful be
To curfe our greatest enemy)
Who learn'd himself that herefy first

(Which fince has feiz'd on all the reft)

That knowledge forfeits all humanity;
Taught us, like Spaniards, to be proud and poor,
And fling our fcraps before our door!

Thrice happy you have 'scap'd this general pest;
Thofe mighty epithets, learn'd, good, and great
Which we ne'er join'd before, but in romances mec.,
We find in you at last united grown.

You cannot be compar'd to one!

I muft, like him that painted Venus' face,
Borrow from every one a grace;
Virgil and Epicurus will not do,

Their courting a retreat like you,

Unless I put in Cæfar's learning too : Your happy frame at once controuls great triumvirate of fouls.

This

V.

Let not old Rome boaft Fabius's fate;

He fav'd his country by delays,

But

you by peace.

You bought it at a cheaper rate;

B 3

Nor

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