Imatges de pàgina
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And the almighty wifdom, having given
Each man within himself an apter light
To guide his acts, than any light without him;
Creating nothing, not in all things equal:
It feems a fault in any that depend

On others knowledge, and exile their own.

Chapman and Shirley's Admiral of France.

Oh how the foul, with all her might,
Doth her celestial forces ftrain,
That fo fhe may attain the light

Of natures wonders; which remain
Hid from our eyes! we ftrive in vain
To feek out things that are unfure:
In sciences to feem profound,

We dive fo deep, we find no ground;
And the more knowledge we procure,
The more it doth our minds allure,
Of mysterys the depth to found:
Thus our defires we never bound;
Which by degrees, thus drawn on ftill,
The memory may not endure;

But like the tubs which Danaus' daughters fill,
Doth drink no oftner, than conftrain'd to fpill.

E. of Sterline's Crafus.
The mind of man, is this world's true dimenfion;
And knowledge is the measure of the mind:
And as the mind, in her vaft comprehenfion,
Contains more worlds than all the world can find:
So knowledge doth itself far more extend,

Than all the minds of man can comprehend.

Lord Brooke on Human Learning.

For knowledge kindles calentures in fome,
And is to others icy opium.

As brave, as true, is that profeffion then,

Which you do ufe to make; that you know man.

VOL. II.

H

Dr. Donne.

There's

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There's nothing makes man feel his miferies,
But knowledge only; reafon, that is plac'd
For man's director, is his chief afflictor.

Middleton's Mayor of Quinborough.

Thofe only may be truly faid to know,

Whofe knowledge, pays their country what they owe.
Lady Alimony.
Before by death, you never knowledge gain;
For to encrease your knowledge you muit dye:
Tell me, if all the learning be not vain,

On which we proudly in this life rely?

Is not the learning which we knowledge call,
Our own but by opinion, and in part?
Not made intirely certain, nor to all;
And is not knowledge but difputed art?

And tho' a bad, yet 'tis a forward guide;
Who, vexing at the fhortnefs of the day,

Doth, to o'ertake swift time, still onward ride;
Whilft we still follow, and ftill doubt our way.
A guide, who ev'ry ftep proceeds with doubt ;
Who gueffingly her progrefs doth begin;
And brings us back where first the led us out,
To meet dark midnight at our restless inn.
It is a plummet to so short a line,

As founds no deeper than the founder's eyes ;
The people's meteor, which not long can fhine,
Nor far above the middle region rife.

This fpy from schools gets ill intelligence,
Where art impofing rules, oft gravely errs;
She steals to nature's closet, and from thence
Brings nought but undecypher'd characters.
She doth, like India's laft difcovr'rs, boast

Of adding to old Maps; tho the has been
But failing by fome clear and open coast ;
Where all is woody, wild, and dark within.

Falle

Falfe learning wanders upward more and more;
Knowledge, for fuch there is in fome degree,
Still vainly, like the eagle, loves to foar,
Though it can never to the highest fee.

For error's mift doth bound the fpirit's fight;

As clouds, which make earth's arched roof feem low,
Restrain the body's eyes: and ftill when light
Grows clearer upward, heav'n muft higher fhew.

And as good men, whofe minds tow'rds Godhead rife,
Take heaven's height high'r than they can exprefs
So from that height they lower things defpife,
And oft contract earth's littleness to lefs.

Of this forbidden fruit, fince we but gain
A tafte, by which we only hungry grow;
We merely toil to find our study's vain,

And truft to schools, for what they cannot know,
If knowledge be the coin of fouls, 'tis fet

Above the ftandard of each common reign; And, like a medal of God's cabinet,

Is feldom fhewn, and foon put up again.

For though in one bleft age much sway it bears,
Yet to the next, it oft becomes unknown;
Unless, like long hid medals, it appears

In counterfeits, and for deceit be fhewn.

If heav'n with knowledge did fome one endue
With more than the experience of the dead;
To teach the living more than life e'er knew
In schools, where all fucceffion may be bred:

Then, as in courts, mere ftrangers bashfully
At first their walk tow'rds private doors begin;
But bolder grow, when those they open spy,
And, being enter'd, beckon others in:

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So to each ftudious cell, which would appear,
Like nature's privy lodgings, my address
I first by stealth would make; but ent'ring there,
I should grow bold, and give to all access.

Sir W. Davenant's Philofopher to the Christian.
We, for their knowledge, men inspir'd adore;
Not for those truths they hide, but those they show;
And vulgar reafon finds, that none knows more
Than that which he can make another know.

Sir W. Davenant, Ibid,

If our lives motions theirs must imitate,
Our knowledge, like our blood, must circulate.
When, like a bridegroom, from the East, the fun
Sets forth, he thither, whence he came, doth run:
Into earth's fpungy veins the ocean finks,

Thofe rivers to replenish, which he drinks:
So learning, which from reason's fountain springs,
Back to the fource, fome fecret channel brings.
'Tis happy, when our streams of knowledge flow
To fill their banks, but not to overthrow.

Denham.

Though knowledge does beget both joy and love,
Yet vice and forrow too her iffue prove;
Prefs'd with the last, the greatest numbers show;
And the world's feeming mischief is, to know.

Sir R. Howard's Veftal Virgin.
For in much wisdom lies much grief; and those
That increase knowledge, but increase their woes.
Alex. Brome.

LAW.

LAW.

WThe needful bits and curbs for headstrong fteeds

E have ftrict ftatutes, and most biting laws,

Which for these nineteen years we have let fleep;
Ev'n like an oe'r grown lion in a cave,

That goes not out to prey: Now, as fond fathers,
Having bound up the threat'ning twigs of birch,
Only to ftick it in their children's fight,
For terror, not to ufe; in time the rod's
More mock'd than fear'd: So our decrees,
Dead to infliction, to themselves are dead;
And liberty plucks juftice by the nofe;
The baby beats the nurfe, and quite athwart
Goes all decorum.

Shakespear's Measure for Measure.

We must not make a fcare-crow of the law, up to fear the birds of prey,

Setting it

And let it keep one shape, till custom make it
Their pearch, and not their terror.

-Since I am free,

Shakespear's, Ibid.

Offending no juft law; let no law make

By any wrong it does, my life her flave:

When I am wrong'd, and that law fails to right me,
Let me be king myself, as man was made,
And do a juftice that exceeds the law:
If my wrong pass the pow'r of fingle valour
To right and expiate; then be you my king,
And do a right, exceeding law and nature:
Who to himself is law, no law doth need;
Offends no law, and is a king indeed.

Chapman's Buffy D'ambois.

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