1 1 grieve, this nobler work most happily be gun, So quickly and so wonderfully carry'd on, May fall at last to intereft, folly and abuse. There is a noon-tide in our lives, Which still the sooner it arrives, night. No conquest ever yet begun, past, Nor e'er call back again) The body, though gigantic, lies all cold and dead. XII. And thus undoubtedly 'twill fare, With what unhappy men fhall dare On learning's high-establish'd throne. Cenfure, and pedantry, and pride, Numberless nations, stretching far and wide, Shall 1 Shall (I foresee it) soon with Gothic swarms come forth From ignorance's universal north, And with blind rage break all this peaceful go vernment : Like a just map, to tell the vast extent And to all future mankind Thew How strange a paradox is true, That men who liv'd and dy'd without a name, Are the chief heroes in the sacred lift of fame. * O D E To the Hon. Sir. WILLIAM TEMPLE. Written at Moor-park, June 1689. IRTUE, the greatest of all monarchies, Depos'd froin off his feat By many a petty lord possessid, 'Tis who must this land subdue, Where none ever led the way, Like the philosopher's stone, With rules to search it, yet obtain’d by none. * When the author's post- in Ireland, this and the forehumous pieces were reprinted going ode were omitted. II. We have too long been led astray, With rules from mufty morals brought, With antique reliques of the dead, roguery of alchymy; And we the bubbled fools Spend all our present life in hopes of golden rules. III. But what does our proud ign'rance learning call ? We odly Plato's paradox make good, Our knowledge is but mere remembrance all ; Remembrance is our treasure and our food; Stale memorandums of the schools: In that deep grave a book, Confine Y 3 Confine her walks to colleges and schools, Her priests, her train and followers show Affect ill-manner'd pedantry, And fick with dregs of knowledge grown, Which greedily they swallow down, Still cast it up and nauseate company. IV. Curst be the wretch, nay doubly curft, (If it may lawful be (Which since has seiz'd on all the rest) That knowledge forfeits all humanity; Taught us, like Spaniards, to be proud and poor, And fling our scraps before our door. Thrice happy you have 'fcapt this gen’ral pest; Those mighty epithets, learn’d, good, and great, Which we ne'er join'd before, but in romances meet, |