AN ELEGY Upon the Honourable (the most Ingenious) HENRY GORGE, Son and Heir to the right Honourable the Lord GORGE;
Who dyed of a Consumption, after a former Recovery.
O Emptines of expectations Here,
When kindest to our thoughts, then most severe!
O guilty Hopes, condemn'd as soon as born,
Short beams of comfort from the blushing Morn!
Our ripest Joys, all Natures best recruit
But fair delusive Blossoms without fruit:
Till death (uncertain too) doth all invade,
Wrapt up in one black undistinguisht shade.
In vain our fancys measure Time or Place,
Or any Motions of our mortall Rae;
Imperfect Circles, always wheeling round
Have no fix't Center, no unerring Bound.
In vain our thoughts postpone or antidate:
No fixedness in any thing but Fate.
Hope lately rode triumphant 'ore Despair,
Like the days Charriot through the cloudless Air;
Kind Health anatomiz'd by long decay
Had gain'd a [...] C [...].
Death seems resolv'd (despairing of his End)
To quit the Field, and march away a friend.
Accomplisht now with Latin, Greek, and French,
Religion, Prudence, Wit with Innocence;
Our noble Youth (since reason well refin'd
By Conversation had prepar'd his Mind)
Must to the Western Aca [...]em [...] go
And there his new life on the Arts bestow.
All judg'd Oxford's Philosophy and Air
Might both his Body and his Mind repair.
Ind [...]ed 't was time our new-made Man should trye
His nerves and locomotive Faculty.
1. Theatre.
At first that glorious Fabrick to his viewPresents Time's various Treasures old and new
Great S [...]el [...]s wife munificence, to raise
A Scene of Fame, and Monument of praise.
2. Underground
Below the busie press, which Prudence wellFor spreading mischiefs has condemn'd to Hell.
Next visit was the Muses great
3. Library
Divan,Remote from Rome, but nigh the Vatican,
Where
4. Selden against Tythes.
(Decimals summ'd up) now kindly meetGreat Lawd and Selden, and old Bodley greet.
Though well advanc'd in health he did not need
Shrub, Root, or Hearb, or some more soverain weed;
He must the Physick Garden walk, to see
That Field of Art, and nature's Heraldry.
His curious Soul did asters Wonders pant,
Which made him view That of the Vitall-plant;
Saw it in coyness or in rage retreat,
Impatient of defilement or defeat:
Nature design'd this Vegetive to be
A speciall Emblem of His Ingenie.
The Schooles, the Colledges, the Chappels There,
Gave him kind prospects of the heav'nly Sphear.
Nature Him Logick and the Physicks taught,
By Conversation to pure Ethicks brought:
If any Science could malignant be
'T was (5) That abhors
Metaphysicks,
Materiality.This by abstractive Engines might withdraw
His nobler part, and cancell nature's Law
But O unfortunate Relapse! He dyes
Before our former Joys had clear'd our eyes.
Now his brisk Soul (once circumscrib'd) is free
I' th Colledge of a Boundless[?] Trinity.
Of that Colledge.
Trinity.But Friends with fruitless tears lament his death
Or hope to winnow back his precious breath;
Nor love nor wisdome can this Saint retrive
As to Externals here but half alive:
Whose Body to so fine thread was spun,
His life had end, before his death begun,
O 't was an Orient Jewell, but alass
Lodg'd in too fine a Cabinet of glass;
Where in you might mirac'lously have seen
A Spirit move without corporeal screen.
Doubtless good Angels, when thy visits make
To Saints below, such refind Bodys take.
A Christian Stoick only rich within,
Had mortall weakness, but no mortall sin;
Was Man too soon, for Heav'n too early sit
Both mortall and immortall by his Wit.
A Youth in years, but full of age in merit,
Took Heav'n, and left us Worms the Earth t'inherit,
Heav'n's Heir can lack no Time, nor can there be
Pupils or Nonage in Eternity.
Farwel thou little Man, but Giant Saint,
Now worthy of our triumph not complaint:
We'l weep no more, but save our useless tears
To mourn our selves hung betwixt hopes and fears.
Blest Saint, in kindness pitty Us, That wee
(Heav'n knows how long) must want both Heav'n & Thee.
Printed in the year MDCLXXIV. ⟨79.⟩