The general Vanity of Worldly things propounded, ch. 1. v. 2.
UNHAPPY thought! How like a
Bubble's all
This frothy globe of World, this empty ball!
For look how wide's the view of Heaven's eye,
Or compass of its spangled tapestry;
How wide the outmost superfice of Place,
That coops us in Imaginary space:
So large is VANITY's deceitful face.
When Nature in her swadling-cloaths was laid,
And God th' almighty Parent pleas'd survey'd,
The new-born limbs his plastic Spirit had made,
[Page 25]He then pronounc'd all good, 'tis true: but how?
'Twas in the way, that we describe 'em now.
To every thing some end does appertain
(Not Vanity it self was made in vain:)
That's good, which truly does this end attain.
Good then the World may properly be said;
Because it answers th'ends for which 'twas made.
But if th' eternal Cause at first design'd
By vanity of things these ends to find;
Then vanity and goodness may be join'd.
What, tho the World a set of wonders is,
In shape exact, and undefin'd in size,
In which a thousand stamps and marks proclaim
Th' Artificer's uncontroverted name;
Tho 'tis with pleasing Landskip over-spread;
Tho 'tis with stately Lodgings furnished;
Tho't does some, some good Company afford
(For but a little does deserve that word);
Tho't does delicious viands too supply,
And every Sense has something to enjoy?
[Page 26]For God with purpos'd kindness for our good
'Mong all these pleasures Vanity has strow'd;
Such circumstances, as their sweets allay,
Or make their fading colours soon decay:
Lest Cully Man should be provok'd to love
The things below, deserting those above.
The restless Labours, with which Mankind nevertheless pursues them, ch. 1. v. 3.
WHAT latent cause and powerful deceit
Makes him his Maker's caution then defeat,
Crowding his life with troublesome affairs,
More than his wants require, or duty bears?
Whence comes his unaccountable expence
Of spirits [the Ministers of life and sense,]
Of strength, and days consum'd with all the pains
Desire exacts, or patience sustains?
Nay more, why does he break his inward peace,
And give his moving thoughts no truce for ease,
Levying a Ho [...]t of projects what to do,
Which way with speed his profit to pursue;
While several Parties of divided cares
Inflame his head with their intestine wars,
[Page 27] Besiege the calmer
regions of the brain,
And fright the poor Inhabitant within,
Where it on its Cona [...]ion does reign?
Here Mocher bustles in a thronged shop,
That swallows all his hours to feed his hope;
And pants, by business elbow'd every way,
Within the narrow limits of the day.
There sails a Tyrian by some distant star,
Bolder than fits of men in deep despair:
Tho winds disswade aloud, tho gulfs do aim
With their wide gaping mouths to do the same;
Yet on he drives to gain his forreign shore,
Lusting to ravish thence its secret store,
It's very bowels modify'd in Oar.
While Iccar keeps within his native sphere,
Always at home, yet too a Traveller:
For daily traping o're his spacious fields
He views their state, and what each of them yields;
O'relooks his flocks; o'relooks his Men, that Plow,
Or [his own emblem] corn and [...]odder mow;
[Page 28]While sweat, the curse, that
vanquish'd all our Race,
In pearly drops does triumph on his face.
And when the Sun hath left mount Gilead,
And sinking turns on us the Earths broad shade;
He late returns th' arrears of rest to take,
Which with himself he tick'd e're Morning brake.
But oh that here the catalogue might close!
For still worse ends men to themselves propose;
And still worse roads to reach their goals they choose.
Methinks I see the crafty Gilonite,
Broke from the cords of duty and of right,
Within his Study [forge of treasons] sit,
And scratching prompt his head and stir his Wit,
Seeking through policy and State essays
Himself, tho by his Master's fall, to raise.
While Absalom (what pity't should be he!)
The fairest Youth e're blotted Family,
A more compendious Rebel strives to be;
Through David's and his Father's breast would bore
A purple passage to the Soveraign power.
[Page 29]The
Arab there by robbery and stealth,
Drudges to find a nearer cut to wealth;
With danger makes the Traveller to stand,
Rides hard all day, and lodges on the sand.
Here subtler Parush archly does contrive,
By whine and grave hypocrisy to thrive.
And as the Bulls all o're the Pastures rove
To vent that excrement their lust does move;
So Naar proles about, and wakes all night
To serve the self same bestial appetite:
Till with his life the bliss perhaps he buys,
Or spilt at once in fighting for the prize,
Or slowly melted by a hot disease
(A noble end! The Phoenix thus expires
Near Heliopol, and boldly broods on fires.)
But Rehab-nephesh, in another chase
And loue engag'd, for Honour's false embrace,
Descends to wooe the senseless populace;
Or lists himself to all the feats of War,
Fate's laborious Executioner.
[Page 30]Here he in tedious marches spends the day;
The night in watching hardly wears away;
Or else the grizly images of Death
In dreams disturb that little sleep he hath.
And when the ruffled Colours angry meet,
And hacking steel in clashes speaks a fight;
When Death unmanacled does domineer,
Howe're things go, the greatest Conquerour;
When Souls in scarlet vehicles do fly
Up toward the Mansions of eternity,
And with their numbers almost cloud the sky:
The doughty Heroe shews himself all brave,
And struts upon the margin of the grave.
Through hills of carcasses and lakes of blood,
He seeks his Mistriss and admired Good;
To lengthen whose dear life he welcomes death,
And kind at last bequeaths her his own breath.
These and a thousand thousand more such ways,
We fools our several Vanities do trace,
And heavily life's short allotment pass.
[Page 31]For shadows we our solid good betray;
While time, that ne're looks backward, sherks away.
For tho one might expect, that all these throws
And travel mighty births must needs produce;
Yet from the labouring mountains comes a Mouse.
For either they their wish'd for issue miss,
Or else th'acquest but small, or transient is.
TRANSIENT it is, cause man himself is so,
The Unreasonableness of these Labours proved, I. From the shortness of Man's life, who cannot long enjoy the product of them, ch. 1. v. 4. to 8.
Only a short Probationer below;
And when his tryal's o're, then he must go.
Tho Ophir were by one alone possest,
Or Mammon all engrost into his chest:
Tho he the center of delights might be
Drawn in from all the World's periphery:
Tho he had fitted out, and fl [...]dg'd his name
With all the never-moulting plumes of fame:
Tho all authority and power met
To make him only, eminently great:
Yet when he's press'd that unknown Cape to make
Beyond the grave [a voyage all must take;]
[Page 32]Then all these things, tho with his toil obtain'd,
He must put off upon the living Strand,
And but a naked Ghost the Bark conscend;
As naked as a virgin Soul does lie,
Not drest nor wedded to a Body yet,
(They say) in some close room, which we forget,
And darker chamber of Philosophy.
If bulky Empires bow to rigid fate,
Grow up, decay, and die, and after that
Their Giant limbs and State are lost: much less
May we escape, that are their particles.
Men a successive circling motion have:
These come into the Seats, which others leave,
When they in course or complaisance give way,
Revolving back into their former clay:
Thus Stars through heaven's mighty whirlpool roll,
And follow one another round the Pole.
The Sun i'th' morning brings us day and heat;
And then the bashful sparks they soon retreat:
Again he leaves us, and his death the night
Becomes the resurrection of their light.
[Page 33]Thus Winds perform their circuits through the air,
Which them from point to point does onward bear;
Till having wander'd all the Compass o're,
They just return, where they set out before.
Thus Waters from the great Abyss derive,
Nor of its standard fulness it deprive.
For tho they slily steal away and creep
To springs through Nature's hidden conduit-pipes;
Not long they keep conceal'd, but must appear
To pay their tribute to some Current near [...]
Or tho invited by the courteous Sun
To visit his superiour region,
They rise in breathing vapours, as they go
Seeming to quit th'inferiour kin below;
Not long they stay sublime to revel there,
And take their rambles o're the Atmosphere:
For over-loaded it does quickly bend,
And they thrown down in broken drops descend:
The shower then to brooks or rivers falls,
By soaking pores o'th'Earth or troughs of Vales.
[Page 34]And these uniting streams
draw down again
To muster all their Forces in the Main.
From the unsatisfactoriness of those things, that are the objects of them, ch. 1. v. 8. to 12.
BUT grant a lasting attribute to man,
Which yet he never had, nor ever can:
Grant it were long, e're he did thus rebound
Downward, reciprocating to the ground:
Grant, he alive, his Grandson's Heir more scores
Of years could count, than all the Patriarchs hours:
Nay, grant his life-time were indefinite,
No death, nor any glimpse of death in sight
With gastly shape the mortal to affright:
Yet still, even then, we hardly could descry
The smallest pay of true felicity,
Fit to reward the Gainer's industry.
These present things for all that tawdry dress,
With which our forward Senses they entice,
Are but illusion, not realities.
What ever smiling charms they seem to wear,
At our approach the Fantoms disappear;
And when we'd clasp the joy, there's nothing there.
[Page 35]But then howe're they otherwi
[...]e may please,
They cannot pair with thinking Substances.
This World does in its narrow ring contain
Nothing can fill the roomy Soul of Man.
Can any objects fill the eye or ear?
They but digest the entering light or air;
And then for other objects they prepare.
Material joys much less can fill the Mind:
For still there's something, something still behind.
And yet what is there more for us to try,
Untry'd by avarice or luxury,
Which often chous'd provoke our just despair
Of finding any thing, that's worth much care?
For men have long observ'd and us'd all means,
That shew'd themselves with any fair pretence;
Balking no opportunity they met
Pimping to their insatiate appetite:
But still whatever methods they go through,
No holding [...]satisfaction does accrew.
Always unfixt from this to that they move
By turns the matter of their hate and love.
[Page 36]What they but now admired, again they flight,
And so it sleeps in long oblivion's night.
From Solomon's own more general testimony concerning the things, that are pursued in them, ch. 1. v. 12. to ch. 2.
I WHO this pungent doctrine now propose
So painful to our Mammonists and Beau's,
And which but few think orthodox and sound
(The Many seldom in the right are found),
Like some defeated Lover, do not write
To gratify revenge and please my spite,
Calling the World and pleasure Vanity,
Because they've been unkind and strange to me.
No, I more of its favours have receiv'd,
Than e're, when I had leave to ask, I crav'd,
Or Envy would hereafter have believ'd.
Witness thou Sun, who often seest me shine
With rays not much inferiour to thine!
Witness thou Porch of judgment, which dost hear
The awful sentences I utter there!
Witness ye massy Pillars that support
The roof and thwarting cedars o're that Court!
Witness that Throne, which Elephants club'd to make
And couchant Lions bear upon their back!
[Page 37]Witness ye Seed of
Abraham, that stand
Beneath the shadow of my scepter'd hand!
Witness thou India's Golden Chersonese,
Whose mountains my repeated Fleets made less!
Witness my Knowledge that best boon from God,
Which more than all lifts me above the Crowd:
My knowledge, more than through all ages past
The Arabs or Chaldaeans have profest:
Greater than that, which [wondrous too] did grace
The four fam'd Poets of good Zerah's race:
So great, astonish'd Princes from afar,
Their Legates sent to pay their homage here,
To th'intellectual Worlds great Emperour!
And as no sullen mood or prejudice
From disobliging usage does arise:
So neither want of diligence to see,
Or power to judge veils any thing from me.
Nought I assert, but what I've fully known;
I, who am gray in long experience grown.
For being with wealth sufficient qualify'd,
And with a piercing Iudgment fill'd beside
[Page 38][E're since in
Giboon wak'd I saw methought
A brighter morn within than that without,
A light which through my closed eye-lids came [...]
When Truth rose on me in a midnight-dream]
I set my self to search the Univ [...]rse,
But first to see what censure that which near'st
Does lie, this little portion of it, bears [...]
And, after all, the entertainments here
Are poor and thin, mere dieting on Air,
Which wise Purveyers will not fetch too far.
There's no expedient; no, no remedy:
Crooked and straight shall in one thought agree
Sooner than they cease to be Vanity.
Amaz'd indeed and struck my self with this,
A while I stood arrested with surprize.
But when the melancholy bonds were broke,
I thus within my self reflecting spoke.
See, I am now advanc'd to great estate [...]
Which was the white my aims all pointed at.
Both riches, grandeur, pleasures, and renown,
With their united lustre gild my Crown,
[Page 39]Which proudly thus
embellish'd does
outshine The humble glories of old Heber's Line,
And like a lamp shall light my name and me,
Through all the dusky Ages yet to be.
But yet what profit do I reap by this?
Only a larger crop of Vanities.
For all these blazes but beguile the eye;
While underneath the dazling shin [...] does lie
A sooty crust of foul deformity.
Knowledge, tho best companion here indeed,
It self does something of vexation breed.
To know brings with it an alloy of pain,
Confused thoughts, a hot and aking brain,
Many doubts to be resolv'd and knots unty'd,
Many sly errours hard to be deny'd,
Much curiousness scarce to be satisfy'd.
Beside there's nauseous work, that does in [...]est
A Scholar's life, and ever moves his breast.
For Logic first and Rhetoric must teach
Many useless rules for Reason and for Speech:
[Page 40]And when that's o're, still he's oblig'd to read
The excrements of every looser Head;
When motions of State shall squirt 'em out,
Or needless Controversies set a foot.
He must not always look for honest sense
In books; but crambe's, lies, impertinence,
No exercise of Parts, but patience.
Thus Learning's sower'd [too sweet for us, if not!]
And poison's made of life's best antidote.
IV. From Solomon's experience, and a closer examinaion, of some particulars, that are most admired and laboured for, ch. 2.
BUT hold, tho Knowledge and the Fiary scenes
Of Students watching in their lonesome dens,
Some Worldling cries, have many real frights
Immixt with their fantastical delights;
Tho other better things than these there be,
That bilk our wishes quite or in degree:
Yet tho your rule in many things be true,
It has its many just exceptions too.
For there are, which too generally you blame [...]
Some things adapted to our carnal frame,
That can an equal recompence bestow
For all the pressing toils we undergo.
[Page 41]Such are the pleasures, which our Bodies crave,
The proper guerdon labouring Bodies have.
For sure God did not Bodies just create
To serve a Soul, a thought, we know not what.
To what poor end was he at this expence
Of making Objects fitted to our Sense,
If we may'nt use the means to make them meet,
And two such Friends as those must never greet?
Why were we not all Soul, and sent to dwell
With meager Spirits and Forms intangible?
But hold again. This common plea I know;
And have examin'd, whether it be so,
Not only by a slight or general view,
But by particular induction too,
Expecting once to find as much as you.
My first essay was Mirth and gay efforts
Procur'd by jolly Company and sports.
As, 1. Mirth, v. 1, 2.
For this I saw all men are apt t' admire:
This is the business of each well-spleen'd Quire.
When they in friendly Feasts or Clubs combine;
This is their first, this is their last design:
[Page 42]Nor do they budge, or sneakingly retire,
Till dying Laugh with fainting jaws expire.
But would you learn more perfectly this trade
Of Mirth, its cause, intrigues, and how 'tis made,
From what was then observ'd and seen by me?
A short Apprentiship may make you free.
First labour by discourse to win applause;
And therefore rote it o're at every house:
Twill make you ready. But especially
Take care among your Common Places be
Of tuant stories a large treasury.
Be they or true or false, the thing's all one,
So they are sting'd with some sharp jest or pun.
A skilful touch o'th' Mimic too does well,
If jaunting hands and writhen features tell
Their share of all. And if compleat you'd be,
To these add confidence and drollery.
(For as for News, what's done at Babylon,
In Egypt, Persia, or here in Town,
That's dry, and chiefly fits a Prophet's Son.)
[Page 43]If these Arts fail, then you must
[...]all to Play
To pass your time [and money both] away.
Or 'twill be necessary complaisance,
Among the Female kind, to sing, or dance.
If sing; then choose a Song of Love does treat:
For that a secret pleasure does beget.
If dance; when Music vibrates on the strings,
And general Tarantulism begins,
Be sure you gently squeeze your Lady's hand,
And tell her silent what she'll understand.
'Tis ten to one but she returns a smile;
And that's the happiness, for which you toil.
These are the ways of Merriment; which try'd,
Iudgment was easy: Vanity! I cry'd.
When th'awful Word hereafter [...]all demand,
How well employ'd we such an hour did spend;
'Twill be a quaint response to say, I play'd
A game or two at Bowls with neighbour Gad;
Or heard our Isaac gibe or tell a tale;
Or led up Madam Cos [...]i at a Ball.
[Page 44]Beside there's something in this frolick strain
Seems mad, or antick, to a thinking Man:
To see Folks move, as if some Magic skill
Would neither let 'em go, nor hold 'em still;
Or valiant Knight of Israels ancient blood,
Poorly pursue a trundling piece of wood;
Or some great Company on purpose met,
As't were for business, in a circle sit,
And please themselves, confus'dly to declaim
Of what's not true, or not belongs to them;
Or else contend for mastery in droll,
At which one winded Scold would beat 'em all.
And what's the end? To laugh; and that's no more
But one dull repetition o're and o're,
In which there's no great matter to be seen:
For as some laugh, just so do others grin.
Suppose i'th' article of rising Mirth,
A shade disrob'd of prejudice and earth,
Or Angel, in a suit of chrystal geer
Should come unseen, unheard, to see and hear
The various tricks and many humours there.
[Page 45]Mean while some deal their jests and
[...]ree discourse,
And some prop'd Noddles are but Auditors.
At last the intermitted laugh breaks out
Much like that noise, when Pageants born about
Provoke the ovant Mobile to shout.
And then what odd, deform'd, peculiar ways
Men have to spoil the muscles of a Face!
What motly peals, how dissonant and loud,
Astonish all the wondering Neighbourhood!
If passion e're assaults a Spirit's breast,
I dare divine this would disturb his rest,
So different from the Music of the Blest.
He his Ethereal substance would contract,
And shrugging thus within himself reflect.
Sure life's a dream, in which imagin'd sight
Does shew these men wild Draughts of false delight,
But not one glance of death; else they'd prepare
For that new life, when they must wake elsewhere [...]
Not waste this time, but use it, e're't be gone;
And catch the dropping sands, before they're run.
[Page 46]Thus all in haste the tired Ghost would fly
The loathed confines of Mortality,
And bear deep signs of anger up on high.
[...]. Wine, v. 3.
This pleasure answering not the vogue't had won,
To th' Vine I made my application,
Noting according to my first intent
The true effects of this experiment.
Oft I had heard the qualities of Wine
Describ'd in Dithyrambics as divine:
How't bears up men in soaring ecstasies,
Wing'd with the vapours from their glasses rise:
Makes Beggars rich, and Subjects great as Kings
[Pleasing, tho but imaginary things]:
To trembling Cowards valour does impart,
And like some Waters petrify the heart:
Gives what more sparing Nature does deny,
And others plod for, Art and Poetry
(Poor Nature dares not always spend so high):
No heats, no thoughts like those this liquid fire,
In noble Breasts does kindle and inspire;
[Page 47]Thoughts, that remain behind, when we are gone,
And make us live to be for ever known [...]
What is it, that the mighty Vine can't do?
'Tis both the Tree of life and knowledge too.
Thus fill'd with glosing hopes of something more,
Than in that fiddling Mirth I found before;
And fondly deeming I had hit the joy,
Which could reward Men's labours and employ;
A remedy at least for all their grief,
Wherewith to cure the malady of life;
Much satisfaction sliding to my heart
Doubled th' exulting pulses of that part,
Which with a secret tickle roll'd from thence,
And hasted through the gratulating veins,
(So was I mov'd) with their more rapid streams
To tell the outworks and more distant limbs.
I thirsted for a taste of that new bliss,
The bare conceit of which could do all this.
With speed I got those Liquors, that abroad
Were celebrated most for choice and good.
[Page 48]And Vineyards of my own beside I
nurs'd, So rich, their breasts unpress'd did almost burst.
Such were the clusters Baalhamon bred;
And those adorn'd mount Carmel's fertile head:
Mount Carmel, which with pride looks down upon
The sober element of weak Kishon;
Carmel, whose sides Bel's Prophets not so red
Shall die, as have the Grapes, that for me bled.
So with their racy juice I crown'd my bowl,
And in that bath I wash'd, I drown'd my Soul.
Not the scorch'd Mower all dissolv'd in sweat,
And then drunk up with sucking Sun and heat,
More greedily does snatch the welcome pot,
His now transpired Spirits to recruit,
When he from Gibeah's Meadows comes, than I
Diving to find that Pearl, Felicity.
How weak and credulous a thing is Man,
Obnoxious to every small trepan,
That seems to whisper pleasure in his ear,
Tho not the least ingredient of't be there!
(Tho none I'm sure deserv'd 'em more than mine)
Are only rants of Men in drunken fits,
And empty visions of enchanted Wits;
Which they themselves next morning must deny,
When sleep unspells the charming fallacy,
And clears the mists, that on their Iudgments lie:
When the suggesting active Spirits flown,
And all the fair Idea's dead and gone,
Only the ashes of departed Sin,
To be lamented o're, remain within,
And Thoughts, that stalk about them, tho unseen.
Briefly (for tho my Post did not permit,
That Fuddling or the base effects of it
Should touch me, as they use [too oft] to do
The meaner Members of some tippled Crew;
Yet what I felt not, came within my view)
Let them, who've seen the Pagan Priests outdone,
Or raving Bedlams in a Summer Moon:
Them, who have spew'd, till Eyes with tears infus'd
Wept as it were to find themselves abus'd:
[Page 50]Them, who with frequent falls and nastiness
Have reel'd home loathsome Spectacles of vice:
Them, whose light Pockets and dishonest scars
Have of their fault been dear Remembrancers:
Or them, whose tumid face and shooting head
Have once confin'd 'em to a fulsome bed:
Let them, experienc'd Persons, if they please,
Or can, be Advocates for Drunkenness;
Which for my part I must profess I hate
More than recoiling stomach does its meat,
Or eager Lovers an unthought defeat,
Or oft-crown'd Valour to be overcome,
Or crowding Nature does a Vacuum.
3. Magnificence and Wealth in Buildings, Gardens, Fountains and Pools, Servants, Cattel, Money, and Music, v. 4. to ch: 3.
As when the Sun's enlarg'd from some thick Cloud,
Which it before in sable plaights did shroud,
He darts his radiant shafts the fiercer round,
And with his glittering arms gilds all the ground:
Iust so when time my Reason did restore,
Which grossest fogs of Wine had cover'd o're,
Methought it seem'd more glorious to appear,
With an effulgence far more bright and clear;
[Page 51]'Cause 'twas more valuable than before,
And more inform'd; and never on that score
To be obscur'd and over-clouded more.
Thus I became more soberly inclin'd,
Something more harmless, if I could, to find;
Some innocenter Delicate for sense
(For tru'st delights consist in innocence.)
The likeliest thing, that did it self suggest,
Was Buildings, such as might my fancy feast,
And fitly entertain a royal Guest.
Therefore lest clumsy work or long delay,
Should pall or wear my appetite away,
Of Servants larger numbers I employ'd,
Than all the costly Kings on Earth beside.
Have you observing seen th' industrious Bees
Perform their constant round of Offices?
Some straggle all the fields and gardens o're,
Plundering the wealth of every richer Flower:
Others already fill'd with spoils abroad,
Till their silk wings crack almost with the load,
[Page 52]By wondrous skill the easiest journey choose,
To reach their common home and Rendezvous:
Others by Companies relieving these,
March out to all the fragrant Provinces:
Others are watchful Guards to drive away
Their Dronish enemies and Bees of prey:
While others pitch and curiously contrive,
Their tents in hexagons spread through the hive.
Thus now engag'd and mov'd by our Command,
Builders and Workmen swarm'd about the land.
Some indigested rude materials sought,
Which others with Sidonian axes cut,
Or with their Saws, or Plains, or Chisels wrought.
Full thirty thousand, a List fit for war,
Under the faithful Adoniram's care,
Beside good Hiram's Forces join'd to that,
Did whole Libanian woods depopulate.
And thrice as many to be added yet
Such mighty Stones did from the Quarries get,
As might be own'd their Children without shame
By those big-belly'd Mountains, whence they came;
[Page 53]While other seven Myriads did convey
The monstrous burdens home.
Nor wanted Metals: For a numerous Fleet
Brought hither these beyond all count or weight.
At last all touch'd by Huram's dextrous tools,
Or those at least that copy'd from his rules,
Such Structures to their just completion brought,
Not working Melancholy e're fram'd a Plot
More noble at th' expence of very thought.
Their arduous ridges rear'd themselves so high
Ore rooms of state and vast capacity,
I'th' Sky they seem'd to fix their proud abode,
Where twinkling Vanes new Constellations show'd.
Now, Babel, cease to tell thy Walls; and cea [...]e,
Memphis, to vaunt thy barbarous Miracles.
Beside that Temple, which I first did raise
For God's own Name and residence a place:
Where every roof, and wall, and post, and door
Was clad with bright Parvaim's purest Oar,
And grav'd with curious figures, flowers, and trees,
'Mong which thick flew Seraphic Images:
[Page 54]Where two large Cherubs shaded with their wings
The seat and archives of the King of Kings:
Where broider'd Tissue made the mystic fence:
Where golden Altar breath'd up frankincense:
Where golden tables, golden vessels were
(Gold was the only metal durst come there;
And when it came, seem'd too to blush for fear):
Where, answering to this inward glorious side,
Without stood molten Pillars, whose tall heads
With nets, and chain-work wreaths were covered:
Without the Holocausts our faults did bear
Upon an Altar twenty cubits square
(It need be [...]trong, when such a weight is there):
Without in brazen banks fresh waves did play;
Fresh, tho they were inclosed in a Sea:
Without courts, porches, lodgings did abound,
Which Parian walls in order compass'd round.
Beside all this.—And yet from this
My other unnam'd fabricks you may guess,
What cost and skill requir'd to finish them;
Such as the towers of our Ierusalem,
And many more the stumbling-stones of faith,
So numerous and great: But chiefly those
I founded for my own immediate use,
My Palace, and my forrest Summer-house.
But feeble language labours more t' express,
Than I did to effect, their sumptuousness.
For marble there, there cedar, there gold shone,
Confounding rays with paint, and precious stone,
Whose lambent flames and ever-waking light,
Kindled that middle darkness of the Night,
Which with its revolution c [...]eckers time
In every other meaner place and clime.
Nor was the matter only rare, but Art,
Which God in hidden manner did impart
To make me great by things as yet unknown,
Prevented Ages late perfection.
For many things I had carv'd with such care,
Tho done of old, they seem'd reacted there:
[Page 56]And Worthies look'd with such vivacity,
As if, risen from the Dead, they came to see
Themselves excell'd, and to admire me:
Me, whose own Statue too was there, so true,
That puzzled, which was I, my self scarce knew.
VVith these I neither should omit, nor can,
The House I made for my Egyptian,
Beyond the Pyramids, that she had seen,
VVorthy my royal Bride and Israel's Queen.
For state and softness temper'd did conspire
To give the work a character like her.
And as a fit appendage to all this,
Gardens I made, that equall'd Paradise.
Like it the chosen plat of peerless soil
VVas stor'd with all delights, was Eden all,
VVith all the prime of Vegetables fill'd,
That sweetly on their great Spectator smil'd.
No Serpent, no Forbidden fruit was there;
But all was innocent as well as fair.
The well-plac'd trees in decent order grew,
VVith equal prospects every way quite through.
[Page 57]Among them those, which Nature made to bear
The Orange, Cherry, Apple, Plumb, or Pear,
(Beside Pomgranates, Olives, Dates, and Nuts,
And all our other kinds of Eastern fruits)
Their several sorts of dangling pendants wore,
Not at their ears, but proudly deck'd all o're.
And those she made with different intent
Only for shelter and for ornament,
That Sun, which gives them life, from us to fence,
The Limes, the Planetrees, or Idean Pines,
Let down a spreading canopy of shade,
Through which no prying ray could me invade.
(So when some furious Father aims his power,
Burning with wrath, at his inferiour;
His eldest, tallest Son does interpose,
And kindly intercepts his Parent's blows)
For in the walks, that underneath these lay,
I oft deceiv'd the hottest gleam of day:
VVhile all their leafs inspired with the wind,
And trembling with the motion left behind,
[Page 58]In rustling
consorts join'd: and as they
play'd, Themselves danc'd to the Music which they made.
At a due distance from this Guard of trees
Grew tender flowers by their Families:
The Sharon Rose, that kindly left it's home
For Court, where modest blushes rarer come;
The Crown Imperial, fitter for the place,
As both its name declare and stately grace;
Tulips, and Lillies, rivals of my pride
Blanch'd with the purest light; and scores beside:
VVhich keeping each their proper area
A regular Scene of colours did display;
So many, that the Rainbow not more ways
On mortal eyes reflects the Solar rays;
Nor more variety of tincture dies
The fringed curtains of the morning Skies,
Not yet quite drawn to let the Racer rise.
No Sense had reason to complain: For there
They all had proper matter to admire.
The Thyme, the Iasmine, and the Tuberose,
VVith aromatic odours sum'd my nose;
[Page 59]And many more, that
breath'd their unseen spice
And (which are truest) natural essences.
And here too braided on the walls did grow
Peaches and other trees, whose every bough
So pleasant seem'd and press'd beneath their weight,
At once they beg'd and tempted me to eat.
Nay, th' Understanding here might find repast,
And Spirit exercise it's subtile taste,
Seeing the natures of the flowers and trees,
And all their several pretty qualities:
How these by kindly heat conceiv'd of seeds
The Earth with her nutricious vertue feeds;
Till grown too big to stay within her womb,
By gentle force they strive to get more room:
How then being born they more and more appear,
And all the VVinter's victory repair:
How all the parts, with which they are supply'd,
Are into sundry figures modify'd
By different bores of narrow passages
And veins, through which they circulate and rise;
[Page 60]Or else made in such shape, that they may pass
Only the pores led to their proper place:
How they toil'd not their diet to prepare,
But trusted Heaven to be their Caterer.
What e're he gave, content they dy'd, or throve
Instructing us our seasons to improve,
And, as they did, to point at what's above.
Pity, as I look'd on, methought it was,
Such beauty e're should fade like common grass:
Pity the envious wind should blow upon,
Or ruffle this their peaceful region:
Or any scorching Dog-star squint in there,
Or Teveth hide the glory of the year.
I therefore did what in my power lay,
Desirous to reprieve 'em from decay;
But chiefly Fountains rais'd, that in the heat
With cordial water might them recreate,
Which duly fell in artificial showers
Upon th' adjacent beds and knots of flowers;
Because from them some pleasure does accrew
Almost peculiar to us Great ones too.
[Page 61]And then remembering with delight I'd seen
Rivers in even Meads divide the green,
And as they flow'd along between the banks,
Indent their sinuous sides,
I also caus'd clear Channels to be made,
Through which the fluent Element convey'd
Seem'd in continu'd streams, like Time, to run,
And with unheeded pace still slided on.
Pools too I made to ope their spacious eyes,
Which, as they look'd undazled at the Skies,
Did in their chrystal humour represent
Another World, another Firmament.
In them another Sun there seem'd to dive
Unquench'd, and with the hostile Waters strive;
And other Clouds there seem'd to float like these
Upon the bounds of the Antipodes.
So like's this World to a deceit of sight,
That with an empty show does seers cheat.
Had I, poor helpless I, been left alone,
Like Adam once just made, both all and one,
[Page 62]My
Eden to observe my self and dress;
This had substracted from my happiness.
I then in vain had curs'd the stubborn Spade,
And mourn'd the crooked furrows it had made
Within the bending of my callous hand,
Not so much Lord, as Servant of my land.
But Providence, to which so much I ow'd,
Which had such kindnesses on me bestow'd,
And seem'd full as ambitious to give,
As I it's gifts was ready to receive,
Broke not it's golden thred of love off here,
Which always compass'd me and every where.
Beside those Workmen and Artificers
Th' accounts above imperfectly rehearse,
Servants I had; some Officers, that knew
In course what 'twas their duty bid 'em do;
And some, that waited, till with bended knee
They took the honour of commands from me;
So many, 'twou'd be doubly vain to guess
Blindly a number, that was numberless;
[Page 63]Or dare those mighty multitudes report,
That fill'd the Trains retaining to my Court.
For me both Sexes emulously strove
In work all day, and join'd at night in love.
Whole Families of Slaves were born to me:
Their Souls were almost my propriety.
Add here the warlike Cherethean Band,
And Pelethites, the flower of all the Land,
That round me Guards and Sentinels did stand.
Add here those Governours dispers'd about,
Where I their several Borders did allot,
That constantly maintain'd my dubious board [...]
With what their fruitful Districts did afford.
Add here my Princes too, whose names remain
In those amazing Annals of our reign,
Where faithful Nathan and the other Seers,
Annex us to the Story of past years.
And since the lower Class of Beasts was made
For our use too, all sorts of these I had.
What Deer my Chases, Purlieus, Parks did keep,
Witness the herds o're Bether's lawns do skip.
[Page 64]Both Sheep and Goats my crowded folds did fill,
Or hung upon the pitch of supine hills.
And Droves, whole Droves of true Bashanic breed,
That serv'd my pleasure too as well as need,
O'respread, as they led out their several Clans,
With sleek py'd colours all the champian Plains.
There Bulls and Oxen in their Majesty,
Methought made up an awful Spectacle;
VVhich I before those cruel sports prefer,
VVhen beasts in Cirques do one another tear.
How gravely pac'd the pursy Beevs were wont,
To shake the curls upon a surly front!
Upon what rocky well-built sculls they bore
Crescent-like Arms, with which their [...]oes they gore!
But when they mutual threats and anger spoke,
VVhat Thunder rent the air, what streams of smoke!
But sure the Horse among all Sensitives,
Most pleasure to his Tyrant Master gives.
VVhen in his tinsel furniture he's drest,
How proud he looks! He vaunts his haughty crest,
[Page 65]And champs his bit, to shew how he disdains
The short confinement of the silly reins.
And when he's loos'd upon his utmost pace,
He then as fleet as Thought devours the race.
Again when drawn into the martial Field,
He's fierce to fight and ignorant to yield.
He snuffs, and smells the Battel from afar,
And miserable throngs of impious War;
Ioyful to hear the croaking Trumpets sound
From a firm bank of adverse Shields rebound;
Neither affected with his Riders fear,
Nor with the pushing point of Pike or Spear.
He strongly paws and prances o're the Dale,
That parts the Armies, Death's small interval,
Longing that while the opposite Troops to meet,
And trample arms and banners under feet.
That nothing of magnificence or state
Might absent be (for I aim'd but at that),
With these I peopled Towns, the best that were
In all Mizraim's Stables or elsewhere.
[Page 66]But Money, that's the
Master-nerve of all
[...] For want of which the stoutest Empires fall:
And Crowns are worth, if that don't hold 'em up,
Barely their value in a Goldsmith's shop.
For tho our Subjects talk [...] yet surely more
Our currant images than us adore.
This is the Idol of the World below,
To which all hearts in general do how,
VVhich Satan-like defies its Maker too.
This then, which is so highly magnify'd,
Must have its due regard, at least be try'd,
To see what vertues heaps of riches hide.
In Maps where Eziongeher's shew'd to be
Upon the coral lips of the Red Sea,
A Navy I rigg'd out, which sailing from that Bay.
Upon the Deep's soft lap did cleave their way
With diving keels to Ophir [now first known],
Where many a clod's a good Estate alone.
Hence they successful brought in full-fraught Pines,
The [...]illage got from whole impoverish'd Mines:
[Page 67]So great, as they in
triumph homeward rode,
The yielding Plain bow'd with the mighty load,
And in an arch invers'd on either side
Rais'd up it self to look into their pride.
Scanty Arithmetic could scarce contain
Their summs of Gold in Numbers longest chain.
To these were added all the choicest things,
That make peculiar treasures unto Kings.
For them I did not only fetch, but they
Brought from all differing times and lengths of Day,
Upon the Earths broad face were well lay'd out,
If every Present but one Proverb bought.
But in particular I can't omit
(Her faithful Love to me does merit it.
The hardest heart, the arrant'st flint that is,
Admits such strong impressions as these)
The bounty of the wise Sabean Queen,
Which had it self a fair possession been:
Beside those Stones, to me more precious fa [...]
Than others are, because bestow'd by her;
[Page 68]Beside those Gums, born on her happy Sands,
Perfum'd too by her only sweeter hands
(For sweeter they than freshest morns in May,
Or quintessence of her Panchaia);
Metal so radiant, none was e're so fine,
But that, which with her borrow'd beams did shine,
Worn by her self, when (doleful word!) she gave
Her last kind visit, and so took her leave.
But tho this chink of Money seems to be
To most the most delightful harmony:
Methought it rather grated on my ears,
And with discordant and untuneful jars,
As 'twas turn'd o're, awaken'd sleeping cares.
To temper and abate this harshness then
With so [...]ter sounds of Instrumentts and Men,
Mu [...]ic desir'd to be admitted in;
Music, that came adorn'd with mighty names,
And kindred to coelestial Anthems claims.
This made our good Iessides send his Prayers,
In airs and gales of Music to the Spheres
[Page 69]And Seats above; while all the listening
Quire Struck with his Lyric numbers wish'd him there;
There, where he was e're this by sympathy:
For Minds are join'd, that in one thought agree.
And true, tho why force should in Measures lie
Not scouting Reason plainly can descry,
We know it does, and that great strength they have:
Within our selves their conquests we perceive.
Therefore such voices I procur'd, as did
Even Chenaniah's famous School exceed:
Women, whose accents were more taking shrill,
Than from the Poplars breaths the Philomel:
And Men, whose Bases were so plump and deep,
They might contend with largest Organ-pipe.
And these their several parts so well did bear,
They summon'd all my Soul into my ear;
I had no sense, no thought, but what was there.
To such a pitch had time improv'd this skill,
As 'twere against I came, my joys to fill.
For first Men knew no Songs, no Tunes or Notes,
But what were hit by chance in artless throats:
[Page 70]But what those Chanters wildly did express,
Art by degrees taught to adorn and dress.
Nor stop'd she soon: For not contented here,
Nature's assistant only to appear,
She further set her self t' invent and frame
What Nature never did design nor aim;
As crooked Cornets, Trumpets straight and long,
That were all throat, and spoke without a tongue,
The Cymbal, Viol, Lute, and royal Lyre,
Organ, which is it self a kind of Quire,
And many more, all which to name would be
As hard as reckon Sound's variety.
And with these too, the noblest e're were form'd,
My state was still encreas'd, my passions charm'd;
While they, as if they kn [...]w the Audience,
Address'd themselves in their best eloquence,
In words so smooth, not Fame's own flatteries
Were half so powerful or apt to please.
Thus I was great: and sure if Happiness
Could be attain'd by that, I had no less;
[Page 71]Enthron'd, where gaping Princes gaz'd at me,
On top of Grandeur's highest pinnacle;
Dissolv'd in pleasures flowing every way;
Exhausting Ages triumphs every day;
Wealthy and rich to that immense degree,
That all the World fear'd a Monopoly:
Poor Israel ne're saw the like before,
Amaz'd at this great novelty the more.
Not Saul, tho he were God's own Successour,
Nor our fam'd Father e're obtain'd one hour
Like my whole life.
They were in troubled Seas of warfare toss'd,
With poverty and adverse fortunes cross'd:
But I in Halcyonian calm have reign'd,
And all the depths of peace and plenty drain'd.
Thus lofty Pines among the bushes grow;
Thus I look'd down upon the World below,
Upon puissant Thrones and Princes too;
Greater than any King preceded me,
Or those, that follow after, e're shall be.
[Page 72]Whatever
greedy Appetite could
crave, My tender heart consented still and gave;
Till last reviewing all I'd undergone,
I gladly saw the work, long work, was done.
And this in troth the greatest pleasure was,
This the chief meed of many tedious days.
So when some Mathematic problem's solv'd,
Clear of those doubts, in which it was involv'd;
The Scholar smil [...]s to see his Axioms lie
In gradual method and dependency,
And lead to some insipid verity.
But then this truth (here lies the difference)
Detected ushers many consequents,
And small to great discoveries does tend:
Whereas my labours in themselves did end.
Pity the quiet joys of Privacy
To men so unperceiv'd and private be!
With it more sound fruitions sometimes dwell
Than with the glossy Crown of Israel:
The solid trophies of a vanquish'd mind,
In narrow wishes pleasures unconfin'd:
[Page 73]A little well-built house, retired shade
And walk, a cleanly spring by Nature made:
A few stanch Friends, that seasonably resort,
Without the clog and bustle of a Court:
And to support the comfort of all that
A moderate, independent, clear estate,
From tempting want or superfluity,
From Rich mens scorn, and Poor mens envy free.
Whose fortune's blest with this, more happy is
Than I with all these huge magnific toys;
Which having perfected, no good I know
Resulting, but to say, 'Twas I did so;
Or stare at what is done, which soon will cloy [...]
And all Spectators do as well as I.
But when a stricter scrutiny I made,
And all my works with nearer eye survey'd,
They scarce afforded me this tiny joy,
And poor proportion of felicity:
They rather seem'd to own their vanity.
[Page 74]For 'tis nought else but Vanity and Pride
Makes men the bounds of decency exceed,
Above what Nature and their Stations need.
Beside (tho fatal late experience
Is th' only argument that will convince)
How many chances hover over them,
That giddy stand upon this steep extreme;
If one of which should beat them from on high,
They fall the deeper into misery?
How many darts of malice must they shock,
With which the fairest marks are soonest struck?
How manifold's their business and their care?
Too sure more than their privileges are.
True, I had Slaves to execute commands:
But then this was but working with their hands.
The plot and management of all was mine:
From me came every action and design.
And thus my Servants, they serv'd me alone;
But I was Servant to them every one.
Power's but Slavery in another name:
For bate that thin disguise, 'tis much the same.
[Page 75]Therefore when every
course of pleasure
r [...]n, And all its little wagers often won,
At last I turn'd and looking backward view'd
That useful Wisdom, with which God endu'd
Me setting out; I saw that never spends
It self on these, but on important ends:
Wisdom, true high-born Wisdom, which outvies
The folly, that with doting Worldlings is,
As far as Day adult in full-grown height
Its funeral and mournful Pall of night.
For as when Night has put out humane eyes,
And Form and Colour in it bury'd lies;
At every obvious rotten post men stay
To fumble and enquire out their way,
Embracing with an undiscerning arm
What e're is next, tho't be to their own harm.
So they, whose groping Understanding's blind,
When ignorance folds up the mu [...]led Mind,
Lay hold on present things, and them they love,
Not kenning what's more distant and above.
[Page 76]But that choice blessing, Wisdom, is a
ray Shot from the Father of eternal day;
And they, whose humble Souls are clear'd with this,
From far see glimmerings of a greater bliss,
And all the useless Pomps of Earth despise.
They know Death comes, tho with a tacit pace,
And every part of Time, as it does pass,
Is one step more to th' period of their race;
Where they and Fools laid down together have
Their final sleep in one cold Inn, the Grave.
From this none can pretend immunity;
But there all ashes undistinguish'd lie.
Therefore they argue thus; Why am I wise?
Why feel I in me reasoning faculties?
Not for the sake of sensual Vanities.
For every Fool has Sense as well as I,
And may those objects of't as long enjoy,
Since he as long may live, as late may die.
But what I've done may make me live in Story,
And give what Fools can't have, immortal glory.
[Page 77]A poor reward! In ancient Authors read
To be in dust and mould twice buried!
To furnish themes for Boys, discourse for Fops,
Paper for Bog, or lumber for the Shops!
But granting this some happiness to be,
Yet still more bad than good fill History.
And History it self in little space
Perhaps expires, and then it wants (alas!)
Another History to tell it was.
Or if some lucky Author chance to bear
The teeth and rage of many an unborn year,
(Suppose the last in all Time's Calendar);
Yet through mistaking ignorance or spite,
Few can or will interpret him aright,
(For some can read as foul as most indite)
Or if his meaning well express'd be known,
As clear as plainest Demonstration;
'Tis odds the Reader will not think it true:
The Man writ as Historians use to do,
To serve his, or some Faction's interest,
Or over-credulous loyalty at best.
[Page 78]Thus late Posterity know us no more,
Or little more than we knew them before.
Now all my Works appear'd more and more vai [...]
And all my study'd wonders turn'd to pain.
Now I grew faint and weary of the light
Offensive to my weak and tired sight,
And sated with th'unsavoury breath I drew,
When out, scarce worth the drawing in a new.
I long'd those better buildings to espy,
Not made with hands, that rise beyond the Sky,
Far off, above th'approach of Vanity.
But here a thought return'd. When I am dead,
My Greatness in two yards of Coffin hid,
Then, then the Ages coming after me,
Some worse effects of what I've done may see:
When some loofe Unthrift, or close whining Heir,
Shall drop into my workmanship and care,
Not through the merit of his chosen worth,
But labour of that womb, which brought him forth:
When he shall swell with over-big conceit
Of that estate, for which he never sweat;
[Page 79]Shall
feed his idle and inglorious ease,
His brutal lust, or pining avarice
With riches, that I foolishly made his;
And so, when I am gone, shall bring me in
An Accessary to the vilest sin.
Indeed there are, whose honest prudent ways
Deserve a Censurer's whole stock of praise,
All whose advantages of wealth or power,
Tend to atchieve what they were given for.
But in a line of Heirs 'twas never known [...]
This character should suit with every one:
That every Son should be a miracle
As 'twere derived down ex traduce;
Or by a new example, Wit and Sense,
Should still run parallel with Inheritance.
Compare the shol [...]s of Fools and Debauchees,
With those are truly vertuous and wise;
You'l scarce find one of these for many a score:
Nay, I'm afraid the disproportion's more.
Can any think, that their Succession then
Should be distinguish'd from the rest of men?
[Page 80]If each third Century produce an Heir
Neither debauch'd, nor fool, nor knave, 'tis fair,
And more, all men consider'd, than their share.
Thus men their buildings, treasures, lands dilate,
And needless honours still accumulate,
To make some undeserving things be great.
What real profit then, what true delights,
Reward their toilsome days and restless nights?
More solid good I'm sure by much accrews
From the free, comfortable, moderate use,
Of what men's cares as moderate produce.
But this a Vertue is, which God more rare
Himself does wisely sprinkle here and there.
The man, whom his Omniscience does try,
And then bear witness to his piety;
That happy man, that Favourite it is,
That he enriches and adorns with this:
VVhen Votaries of worldly pleasure moil,
And mortify themselves with work a while,
On Earth to get a fancy'd Heaven at last,
A Heaven that's never found or quickly past;
Prompted by bottomless desire, not need,
Nor even pleasure, still to heap up more,
And by a monstrous Paradox the sto [...]e
To think or fear less than it was before;
Nay, tho perhaps they've neither Brother, Son,
Nor any Kin, to throw their bags upon,
When they themselves are quite worn out and done.
And so a servile life they undergo,
Thieves to themselves, Slaves to they know not who
For when, like Asses, they have born the weight,
But never understood the use of it,
They leave it to the man, whom God thinks fit.
V. From the changeableness and uncertain revolution of Times and Seasons (some of which are here particularized); from whence it comes to pass, that Men are neither sure of obtaining what they desire, nor, of enjoying long what they obtain by their irregular labours, ch [...] 3. v. 1. to 16.
BUT if obdurate tempers don't believe
The small content their Labours products give,
Th' uncertainty of them they must: For this
The whole Material system testifies.
See, its Orbs move, and all things else in them;
And every hour brings a peculiar Scheme.
See, how the flitting Seasons, and each age
Of things, stay but to measure out their stage,
[Page 82] Down which [a
prone descent] they
headlong [...], And yield their room to that, which next thrusts o [...]
In short, Time's a continu'd flight of Nows,
VVhere one succeeds still as the former goes;
And which, as't flies, fans forward other things
By the wide agitation of its wings,
Bringing to them their turns to be and cease,
As Nature works, or Providence decrees.
And now Great Ghost, from whom good thoughts proceed
By ways unknown as thou from the Godhead,
Enlarge my narrow faculties, while they
Collect some of this World's Phaenomena,
And how they change their aspects every day.
Say how both Life, and Gardens, Palaces,
And Mirth, and Love, Prosperity, and Peace,
Have proper times, in which they only can
Give welcome answers to the suit of Man:
And when they do, those times are quickly gone [...]
And then again his work is all undone.
That so his Labours either not succeed,
Or shortly lose the Offspring, which they breed.
[Page 83]As there's a time prefixt for man to come
From Nature's silent shop of life, the Womb:
A time, in which his tender body grows,
And fits him for the business he shall choose [...]
So there's an Ep [...]cha to follow that,
From which another being he must date
In that remoter World, where once pent in
No Passenger e're yet return'd again.
Poor Man declares, when first he does appear,
How short his Part is in this Theatre;
Blushes, and with his yet unpractis'd breath [...]
Whimpers the Tragic Prologue to his death.
As there's a season calls to plant or sow;
A space, in which the Vegetables do
Cover the wrinkles of the Spade or Plow:
So they too, leaving us, e're long begin
To die, or are pluck'd up, as well as Men.
(For there's a time, when Violence or Chance,
The horrour of our mortal change enhance;
When slower Nature hasty they prevent,
And pluck us up with Sword or Accident:
[Page 84]As well as one more merciful, when these
Do rather fright than hurt the men they seize;
When Death can't draw his sting, but civilly
Iust licks the trembling prey and passes by).
There is a time, which ruins do deface
With nodding Towers, crashing Palaces;
When age has gnaw'd their canker'd cramps, or war,
Or hurricane the Piles does over-bear:
As well as one that gives us leave to raise
In them our present safety, future praise.
As there's a time, when Trouble's pressures squeeze
Grief's watry Symbols from men's briny eyes,
Until the empty'd glands deny supplies;
When gloomy Heaven veils its countenance
In pitchy mists, without the least kind glance;
When faithless Friends no longer deign to know
Their Mates obscur'd in night, or chang'd with woe;
But darkness having swallow'd up their Sun,
They're left all melancholy, all alone
To those fierce Spectres vex Affliction:
[Page 85]So true, there is a revolution still,
When Heaven does refresh 'em with a smile;
When it returns and vigorously displays
The long (oh long it seems!) eclipsed rays;
With these dries off their cheeks the blubbering tears,
With these dispells their many cares and fears:
And then they laugh, and sing, and dance a while,
Till some new cross the gayety does spoil.
Now precious Stones are fetch'd from far, & join
To make us burly Princes proudly shine,
Or some Court Lady, wanting helps, look fine.
And now again by ignorance or vice
They're thrown away like Stones of common price.
Now free admittance to the rites of Love
Lets Man his pleasure legally improve,
And all that mingled Sexes does surprize
Iust enter'd in the Marriage mysteries.
And now again Embraces are deny'd,
And he or wants, or not enjoys a Bride:
As when [at least] a competent Demain,
Or in the lieu of that some honest Gain
[Page 86]Is lacking to support a double life,
And all the charges marry'd with a Wife;
When sickness does divide the Genial bed;
Or age has quench'd the fires of youth, and spread
The ashes o're the Old man's hoary head.
Now there's a gracious turn and lucky hit
(For 'tis no more; tho folks misconstrue it
For forecast, cunning management, or wit),
When all things in a gush of fortune flow,
And riches tumble in, men know not how:
When whatsoever Rumb they chance to steer,
The Ocean's smooth to them, the Heavens clear.
But then another time reverses this,
Full of ill tidings, losses, miseries.
For their gilt Vessel, tho built strong and great,
A stronger tempest often does beset:
And then the sully'd calm does disappear,
And clouds contra [...]t the circle of the Air;
The feathering Sea predicts a shipwrack nigh,
And sporting Dolphins shew themselves hard by;
[Page 87]While on a sudden comes the
envious blast, And muttering anger rives the lofty Mast:
At last the Cargo lifted over-board,
The surges cast ashoar it's naked Lord.
Now Mourning does invade, and cloaths are rent,
As'twere to give the sobbing tumour vent:
When Death arrests Relation or Friend,
And leaves us but imperfect men behind.
Again we cast our jetty weeds, and all
Remains are bury'd of a Funeral.
And then new friendships we contract apace,
And Wives and Children fill the empty space,
Affording Death more opportunities,
Still to repeat our sorrowful disguise.
Tho our Creator has conferr'd on Man
An art to speak as no more Livings can
(For Beasts, dumb Linguists, by some ruder note,
A general passion only cypher out:
While men have words, or later made, or ours,
Their thoughts articulate Embassadours,
[Page 88]Which their intentions to each other show,
And carry all Expresses to and fro);
Yet still he may not use it when he please,
But other things command the tongue, that's his.
Now must the nimble member breathless lie,
And motionless, in inactivity,
Not daring to interpret or reveal,
VVhat 'tis the Mind is doing in its cell:
Altho't perhaps is weaving something there
Better than all the Fustian it may hear.
A few stiff forms with frontless pride set off
Shall give the better Scholar a rebuff.
Or some ill-willer watching for a word,
VVhich he perfidious Villain would distort
To some bad use, and to the Speaker's hurt,
Restrains the tongue; while he sits fretting by
For want of colour how to make a lie.
Or else th' Authority some have or take,
Permits the passive Subject not to speak:
For tho their reasonings, emptiness and froth,
VVould turn a Soul, that knows the gust of Truth;
[Page 89]Yet peace be sure, there's no expedient,
Only to bite your lips and be content,
Unless you'l be so base to complement.
But now the Prisoner's bonds are loos'd;
And now speak you not only may, but must:
Because unseasonable Silence is
(Tho it may be your temper and your choice)
Sometimes as faulty as ungovern'd noise.
For if I speaking my own good promote,
I'm false to self, if I forbear to do't.
Or if the Social laws require't of me,
I'm forc'd to tune my tongue to Company.
But thy praise chiefly shall my words rehearse,
VVho on the selvage of the Universe,
Great God, dost sit; who fill'st the Land and Air,
And all the race thy fruitful VVord did bear;
The whole Creation's everlasting theme,
The Song of Saints and warbling Seraphim.
Be pleas'd t' accept my meaner service here,
Till in that Court and Consort I appear,
[Page 90]Then these Poetic
First-Fruits I'll throw down
An humble Offering before thy throne,
And spend the coming long Eternity
In Heavenly Hymns, and riper Poetry.
Even Love, which like some universal life
Cements the VVorld's more solid limbs so fast,
That they in stable wedlock piece and last,
And keeps the looser elements from strife,
It self can't always last, but has its fate,
And sinks into the Grave of Friendship, Hate.
Man's such a complicated humourist,
Made up of passion, pleasure, interest,
So different in kind or in degree,
'Tis difficult to define Humanity.
This makes the yoke unequally to press
Friends necks, one drawing that way, t'other this.
The knot, which interest and pleasure ty'd,
Pleasure and interest again divide.
Nay, they, whom equal Sympathy did bind,
And Sex perswades still to continue kind,
Turn Renegades to love, and change their mind.
[Page 91]For Lust (if that
alone the marriage
knit Without some nobler thought to second it)
Strangely its object fairest represents
To them, that stand remotest off from thence:
But if the distant prospect be pursu'd,
It lessens, till it does the sight elude.
And then the recreant Couple soon forget
The Lovers once familiar Alphabet,
The Cant of sighs and tears, of wounds and darts,
The strength of vows, and interchange of hearts.
The o'regrown bodies of whole Polities,
That stretch themselves o're many Provinces,
Are not exempted from such turns as these.
Tho they their tumid parts with labour draw,
Upon the gouty legs of State and Law:
Yet in their mutual leagues they run, they fly,
Through all the doublings of inconstancy.
The men, that lately on their Frontiers met,
And joy'd each other civilly to greet,
Distributed their wishes and their prayers,
And curs'd the very notion of Wars;
[Page 92]While Peace her influence divides, and
pours On both her blessings and her battening showers;
The Vineyards flourish, and the Figtrees hit,
While under them the Owners safely sit;
The field its full return of harvest bears,
Nor any ravaging destroyer fears;
The flocks not kill'd nor driven by the Foe,
In their full numbers to Beth-eked go;
The thriving Arts and Sciences encrease,
And every School enjoys a learned ease;
These in a pet abjure their happiness.
Some petty cause has blow'd the sleeping coal,
Which now begins to burn without controul;
Ambition to be fill'd, a Mistriss gain'd,
Or needy General to be maintain'd.
For this two infest Kingdoms must engage;
And clangent Trumpets public ills presage,
With their hoarse cadences and trembling note
Soliciting for Souldiers rouud about.
Men from their Callings and their business fly,
Not pitying a helpless Family,
[Page 93]Their childless
Parents, their own little
Brood, Or Wives that now commence their Widowhood.
In Companies and Troops they march all day,
Loaded with Arms and hopes of some small Pay.
At night sup'd with a Snapsack's stint of bread,
What lately was their board, becomes their bed;
And when they rising their fatigue renew,
They leave the measures of their graves in dew.
Nay [worse than this] all bars are now broke down:
No Law nor no Religion is known,
But Irresistibility alone;
No future life, no God, no sacred Word;
But good and bad decided by the Sword.
The sins, that us'd to dread a witness by,
In darkness skreen'd themselves from humane eye,
And sculk'd to hide their own deformity,
Now making open entries domineer,
Not painted with the signs of shame or fear.
Undauntedly men bid a long Adieu
To all the Legends of the Priestly crew [...]
[Page 94]No little nook or dark retreat is free
From plunder, violence, and cruelty.
What all their lives poor Labourers have done,
In one sad hour is snatch'd away and gone,
Nor footstep left of many a tedious Sun.
War robs of all at once, nor even spares
The last reserve of their declining years:
Their dewy sweat now ends in showering tears.
Virgins are rap'd, their Lovers looking on,
And scarce survive to know they are undone.
The Plowman falls by some unheeded blow,
His trembling fingers beckening to his Plow,
To stay and see its parting Master go.
His Nose (poor man!) makes furrows in that place,
Where last the Coulter and the Share did grase.
Babes from the breast are torn, nay from the womb,
And Life in posse kill'd, a life to come.
The mitred Priest before the Altar dies
[The Sacrificer made a Sacrifice],
Invoking Heaven with his dying cries.
[Page 95]The strokes the while within the Chancel sound,
And hideous Echo's from the Vault rebound.
Should this Ierusalem (as much I dread)
Be by the impious Casdim conquered;
Rubbish and mangled corpses must deface
The beauteous mansions of this sacred place.
The Temple, nor its holiest part would be
A refuge from the common misery;
Altho it Heaven it self does typify.
Its matchless gold, tho by the weight it seem
Loath to remove from thence; and every Gem,
Tho dazling too the Robbers eyes, must go
To grace the Triumphs of a forreign Foe.
The Vessels stain'd with Heathen healths and blood
Must serve a Babylonish King or God.
The Corban made for God's emerit Poor
(For that's one reason of this hallow'd store)
Must pay a barbarous Host for making more.
Nothing so precious or divine dwells there,
Which daring Sacrilege would deign to spare;
No, not the Records of their Saviour.
[Page 96]But last, as 'twere to
expiate this theft,
'Twould make a Holocaust of all was left.
These are those mighty Actions, whose praise
Empties the Panegyrist's Common-place!
But now what pen can suitably repeat
The horrour of two Armies, when they meet?
When once the sad Alarm does signify
To Death and them a doubtful battel nigh;
The jaws of Hades and the Grave beneath
Dilated send up steams of poison'd breath.
The Country rais'd are gadding out to hear,
What Omens tell whose overthrow is near.
The Souldier stun'd with sad surprizing news
Hardly his broken faculties can use.
He catches at the arms, that next him lie;
Or seeks the Sword that hangs upon his thigh.
Concern and headlong tumult undermine
The formal Military discipline.
Thus they, who huff the gentle Sons of peace,
Whose innocence their only armour is,
[Page 97] Betray that prowess and redoubted might,
Which swaggers when there is no Opposite,
Or only such as ne're pretend to fight.
The Bravo now could wish the battel won;
Tho all his unjust plunder too was gone.
He dreads that righteous Plain, in which he sees
Th'impendent vengeance of his wickedness,
The strength of Poor mens tears and Widows cries
And their once fruitless importunities.
But now necessity does bid him rouse,
And fear it self makes him couragious.
'Tis this supports the honour of the Day,
Teaching the flinching Souldiery to stay:
'Tis this with force perswades 'em to come on;
'Tis this brings up the form'd Battalions.
And now two Woods, whose metal trunks [compact
In lines, that cross each other [...]o exact,
They make from any side transparent Glades]
Cacuminate in Pikes;
Two such great moving Woods divide the Field;
Only a few kind turves some respite yield.
[Page 98]A thousand rambling Spirits possess that room,
Expecting ever when their Fellows come.
The fatal Angel hovers o're each Host,
Devoting those this Victory must cost.
The tingling Pole with shouts and hallows rings;
And flying Ensigns beat their flapping wings.
Men fire their rage, and throw about their eyes,
Which scatter sparks and angry particles.
Here the bent arm exalts as massy blade,
And tries its blows before the Onset made.
There barbed darts rang'd ready for the Fight
Appear like naked teeth prepar'd to bite.
To fence off these two walls of serred Shields
Expose their boasted Charges and their Fields,
Purchas'd by some forgotten Ancestor,
Or't may be chance, or money, and no more,
But soon with some rude palt to be eras'd,
Or with the Bearer overwhelm'd and lost.
For not these Orbs, tho sevenfold, can bear
The force and inundation of War;
[Page 99]When once the Signal given has drawn the
sluce To all the cataracts of death let loose:
Death, that employs all hands, intends all nerves,
Doubling life's motions;
As 'twere their end the sooner to acquire,
That in their utmost point they might expire.
While he all o're the field makes his Parade,
In his triumphant gastliness array'd.
All wan, with hanging chin, and sinking eyes,
Swift in a Mourning Chariot he hies
About, his bearded weapon brandishing,
Fitly resembling the old Serpent's sting.
No Ethiopian reeds are half so keen,
Nor mortal a whole Parthian Magazine.
Round him lie naked sculls, and mouldering bones [...]
By which his Cannibal repast he owns.
Behind he wears his Arms, A naked pair
Eating the fruit, which they were bid forbear;
An Adder by, that does himself sustain
Upon his scaly folds and circled train.
Condens'd of gasps, which dying lips produc'd.
In this he slides insensibly along,
Unseen to all the busy'd fighting throng.
Where e're a wound gapes wide enough to bear
The bigness of his shaft, he steeps it there.
The present venom soon infects the whole,
Mov'd by the blood, and chases thence the Soul;
Which being turn'd out of its ruin'd house
Straightway to reckon with its Landlord goes.
Thus thousands have, and still more thousands must
Leave strength and beauty prostrate in the dust:
While others envy their felicity,
From all their misery and pain set free;
When they among the Carnage groveling lie,
Almost the pity of their Enemy,
Sighing away their breath by slow degrees,
And wishing every foot their brains might squeeze,
Or some kind stab imprison'd life release.
As when our Fathers left the slavish Kill
And sable Tyrant of the banks of Nile;
[Page 101]The
Crimson Sea more kind than he was found,
Transmitting all our Armies on the ground.
But when the cursed Legions follow'd them,
The billows soon return'd, and clos'd the stream.
Some floated then alone at distant space,
Like Beauty-spots upon a ruddy face;
But more in heaps might for a Mask be ta'n,
Or smoaky Island peering through the Main.
Some with their armour plumb the Deep
[As men go to their beds, before they sleep]:
Some with the muddy'd waves dispute their lot,
Swimming with Horse or shipwrackt Chariot.
Iust so the cruddled gore sucks in or rolls
Of separated Minds the mammock'd spoits,
A prey for Dogs, and quarry for the Fowls.
They fall not single but born down by scores,
While all the Welkin with the fragour roars;
As when the conflict of two tilting Clouds
The kindled air with thunder-claps explodes:
[Page 102]Or so, as when the crashing shelves of snow
Or flakes of ice from Ararat's high brow
Do make the Valleys b [...]llow all below [...]
Whilst dread the quaking Stranger's fancy fills,
Fearing the tumbling ruins of the hills.
Victory this time her ruddled Scales does poize,
Which with a doubtful beam by turns do rise,
Till added moments fix down that or this.
The shock of Battel then no more remains,
Diffu [...]'d all o're the Mountains and the Plains.
Which way the disarrayed Army takes,
The murdering Victors follow at their backs;
Who now more fierce than in Battalia
Treble the numbers they before did slay:
Beside the many Wretches, which in crowds
Are thrust on precipices and on floods,
Or forc'd to starve in avious brakes or woods,
Or else compell'd to yeild, when they are [...]a'n,
Their cative necks to an insulting chain.
The mighty summs of War, that sweeps more men,
Than Sea or Pestilence, than Love or Wine!
[Page 103]And after all this vast expence of blood,
And many images of God destroy'd;
After Exchequers drain'd, and money fails,
That might have built a thousand Hospitals;
At length the shatter'd Regiments return
Their wounds, their rags, their sins, their dead to mourn.
For what is't now men forfeit their repose,
When all the world is always changing thus?
In such an Olio of things as this
They, when they choose, themselves can hardly please.
But when they once have fix'd their rolling eyes,
And say, in such a Dish their pleasure lies;
There's the reward, for which they slave and strive,
And 'tis for that they chiefly care to live:
Yet they the proper Season for't must wait;
And that perhaps ne're comes, or else too late
(For every Season bears not every thing,
No more than Autumn fruits adorn the Spring).
But if it does, it makes but little stay;
Next Course of time serv'd up takes it away.
[Page 104]For if you point at pleasures, that require
To be enjoy'd by Youth or Age entire;
That age is gone, e're you effect your thought,
Or else more years soon after push it out.
If those things take you, that suppose a Peace;
Or War prevents, or close may follow these,
And you of all your purposes disseize.
But if you such a sanguine Creature are,
To place your main delight in acts of War;
Some milder Being keeps the Nations tight,
Or makes 'em their contentions to remit,
When Death has cram'd your mouth with blood and loam,
Or else return'd again disabled home,
Perhaps you've satisfy'd your longing mind,
And left some fragments of your limbs behind.
In short, if Pelf amass'd, if Land, or House,
Be th'end, to which your labours you dispose;
Only some friendly opportunities
Give the Adventurer so great a Prize,
Without which nothing else but Blanks will rise.
[Page 105]But grant you
draw with skill, or
hit by chance;
Another chance may rob you of your gains;
Or strike your self, and render you unfit
To taste the grateful relish of that hit;
Or else, Relations dead, debauch'd, undone,
Embitter Plenty by compassion;
With many more Et caetera's of ills,
The least of which all your enjoyments spills.
Which having well consider'd, I adore
The care of all the Worlds great Governour,
Who so conducts his Government, that we
Through force might to the true Asylum flee.
For as the golden chain of Providence,
That links together various events
With various contrivance [...] forward tends
To reach God's own inscrutinable ends:
So does it guide Observers, that attend,
Up to that Heaven, from whence it does descend.
Here all things altering and unfaithful are;
All methods dark and intricate appear [...]
[Page 106]This raises our research to that degree,
That from its soaring pinions we can see
A World beyond this Worlds convexity;
Where Happiness is ever sure and true,
And fully prov'd, presenting to the view
The books of Providence and Nature too;
Those books, which so perplexing to us now
There puny Saints unriddle and read through.
To that most fortunate and blessed Clime
Convoy me, Lord, in thy appointed time.
And e're that great advancement comes, do thou
Kindly vouchsafe this Earnest e're I go [...]
That I with prudence and content may pass
The unknown tale of my remaining days,
Not too much fretted with that Vanity,
From which but few things in this world are free [...]
And this my grateful Verse shall ever own
Thy gift and thy beneficence alone.
For well I am assur'd, that thy Decree
Can never warp or be repeal'd for me [...]
[Page 107]But still those Laws, which former Ages sway'd,
By this and those to come must be obey'd;
Those Laws, which in th' ethereal Arches kept
On Adamantine plates are grav'd;
Which Nature and Mankind are govern'd by,
The constant rules of their inconstancy.
BUT as I turn the
Pencil of my eye
VI. From the unequal administration of Iustice, by which Men are many times wrongfully disseized of what they get, and sometimes lose their lives beside, ch. 3. v. 16. to ch. 4.
From Fate and Nature to Society,
What terrifying stories does't portray
Upon the table of the Retina!
Men scrape up riches with disease and pain,
Pleasures and honours hurry to attain;
When some pretended Law or unjust Suit
Recalls them all; it may be life to boot.
And then [too late] they wish, they had bestow'd
Their time and strength on some more certain good.
When Man began to multiply his race,
And propagated life did still encrease,
The shooting bran [...]es intermixt did twist,
And so confounded humane interest.
[Page 108]Each
[...]ought his own, even with another's wrong,
Tho't were the aged Stock, from whence he sprung.
Like hungry Tigers wrastling for their prey
The stoutest bore the bloody pledge away.
So cruel Man, so brutish did he seem,
The Woods had lost their [...]erity in him.
Then God exerting favour to Mankind
Them from themselves intended to defend
(Lest they should fall, as Heathen Poets feign
Of our Phenician Neighbours crop of men),
Clear'd up their reasons, taught'em to relent,
And wisely to submit to Government;
Where Liberty being circumscrib'd by rules,
The Weak might live with Strong, with Knaves poor Fools.
But yet both Ethnic Courts, and even thine,
False Israel, pervert the great design:
And what a hedge to justice Heaven meant,
Is made a Blind to catch the innocent.
Iustice! A reverend and awful sound,
But the true substance no where to be found;
To laugh at, when their disputations cease.
And if the Prophets Schools themselves transgress
Their own so celebrated principles;
What may we think of Civil Sanhedrims,
Where Lucre umpires quarrels, judges crimes?
Trust but a Present to bespeak your Cause,
T' engage the Old man's sight, and hide the Laws,
The Nasi or the Ab-beth-din will bow,
And promise to forswear himself for you.
A Treat tack'd to a plausible address,
The interest of beloved Friend or Vice,
A Great man's favour, that implicit Bribe,
A State intrigue, or noisy Baal-rib,
(Beside what Spite, or Ignorance have done,
Or Criticism, or Belial's perjur'd Sons)
How many right Proprieters have cast?
How many Names smote with a sudden blast?
How many lives, which justice ought to save,
Doom'd to a Gibbet and ignoble Grave,
[Page 110]Woose Souls under Heaven's
Saphire altar lie,
And now for vengeance to th' Almighty cry?
No matter what or where your Trial is,
Whether it be in Palestine or Greece:
The Urn's a Lottery, and 'tis a Bet,
Whether the Tau's or Theta's will exceed.
Such are the Tenures, that men labour for,
Which got expose them but to lose the more.
Here turn, my Pen, to meditate upon
A not impertinent Digression.
Sure there's another Life: for else, if not,
How vastly miserable is their lot,
Who through unjust awards are damn'd to die,
Or pine away in shame and poverty?
Or how can God his Attributes acquit,
Or shew his Love and Iustice infinite
And equal to that Might, (for so't must be,
To make a ballance in the Deity)
Which first gave birth to Adam's family;
Unless a future State shall equalize
The differing inequalities of this;
[Page 111]When the
Messiah from the Clouds shall
break The Sun of righteousness, and undertake
To audit and adjust those vast Accounts,
To which the reckoning of the World amounts?
Mean time that such unreasonable Powers,
Who judge with partiality and force,
Might understand how near they are ally'd
To Wolves and all the ravening Class beside!
True, some things all men help to constitute
Common to them and to the thoughtless Brute.
Both draw the same aereal blasts, which blow
The same dark flame within their veins does flow.
Both to the Earth return, and both from thence
Do their obscure originals commence.
As some of Assur's Monarchs may have sprung
(When this is true, why should I hold my tongue?)
From what was once but bare Plebeian dung;
Altho by Matter's restless circling on
The Ordure rose from Close-stool to a Throne:
So now where sleep the royal Careasses,
The very Dogs lift up the leg and piss.
[Page 112]Therefore what specifies the different kind,
Makes Man no Beast, is his immortal Mind.
The brutish Soul, but sensual, ne're survives
The breaking of that body, where it lives:
But when the Hull's absorpt, in which it pli [...]s,
It sinks, and true Companion with it dies.
Not so the Soul of Man, whose better make
Does longer life and nobler Kin bespeak:
Whose Understanding with a pier [...]ing sight
Looks through the World, and peeps at Infinite:
VVhose Will through no necessity does act,
But all free its own desires does direct
To this or that, or any new-found Tract.
For thus it is distinguish'd from that Cell,
Dull cell, in which it sojourns for a while:
And when the doors are op'd, to God it flies,
And emulateth Angels in its rise.
So Fire, when grosser parts with weight fall down,
Scarce stops below the Concave of the Moon.
But how can these unequal Iudges own
This, tho apparent, wide distinction,
To think all Iudgment terminates in them?
The Lion dies not thinking of his prey,
Nor any account to come; just so do they.
So like they make themselves to Savages;
And while they would be more than Men, are less.
Nay, they are faln below the pitch of Beast,
VVho dare be such under that specious vest,
The robe of God's authority imprest.
AS when some weary Traveller has past
From that great Oppression practis'd in the world, by which men are often dispoiled of their gains, and reduced to misery after all their labours, ch. 4. v. 1. to 4.
The difficulties of a dismal Waste;
And now expecting a more pleasant course,
He finds his way degenerate to worse;
Sees craggy rocks and mountains hang before,
Or hears unbridled rivers fiercely roar,
While hasty Night spreads from the Western shore.
So after many tedious journeys made,
VVhere men with others Lives and Fortunes trade,
(Nor could my Rule correct what there was bad)
I hop'd some smoother progress to have had.
[Page 114]But all in vain; such griefs did me dismay,
And damp'd the comfort of this next survey,
Which to make better (as I use to do
Sometimes) I went about incognito.
I saw a sort of melancholy Folks,
Lurking in covert holes or lonesome walks,
Whose tatter'd coats and lowering countenance
Shew'd them in some afflictive circumstance;
So fraid of humane face or two-leg'd tread,
They started, when the leaves but whispered.
At length my method led me to a place,
To which more privilege appendant was,
Either by custom or by strength maintain'd,
Where such as they a short Protection gain'd.
Here one less coy ask'd me, What sly intent
Brought me to trouble their retirement?
No ill attempt upon you, I reply'd,
But meerly Curiosity's my guide,
A large desire of knowing what is done
'Mong all the gilded objects of the Sun,
Which now for several years has toll'd me on
Through many a mournful observation,
[Page 115]And prompts me further to request of you
A true account of this confounding shew.
He then compos'd into a pleasing air,
Which told what once his charms and graces were,
Thus gave his words the wing:
We once were Men, and free as others are
To choose our conversation any where;
When yet we had no urging cause to shun
The barbarous Bailiff or the instant Dun.
But as when Summer days and warmth decay,
The Summer birds grow silent and give way;
In airy troops they call their fellows forth
Fearing the pointed Armies of the North,
Then post themselves in rocks and hollow trees,
VVhere they endure the Winter's siege and miss
The ravage of their freezing enemies:
So we, when troubles thicken'd in our Sphere,
Thought it our wisest method to retire;
Some to avoid th' inhumane Fiends, that hale
Reluctant Captives to a noisome Iail;
[Page 116]Some to decline their clamorous Creditors,
That still block up or batter at their doors [...]
All this we undergo, and more than this,
For little peccadillo's, or what's less,
For none; even more than Rhetoric can express.
The eloquence of Misery appears
Most, when it speaks by silence and by tears.
But is it lawful then, said I, to know
To what first cause these grievances you owe?
I don't, return'd the Man, impute this ill
To cruelty in God or in his Will.
For when he made the aged Void to teem,
And out of Nothing all these Somethings came;
Lest clashing they should spoil their happiness,
On them peculiar Laws he did impress,
The lasting marks of their Creator's care,
Which they enacted on their bosoms bear.
To Man Reason's this Law, a certain Clue
This Labyrinth of things to lead him through;
Which lost or not observ'd, he quickly errs,
And hurts himself or Fellow-Passengers.
[Page 117]Hence springs our woe, oppress'd by those are great
[...] But void of Reason (too sure! we suffer by't).
Here's one, tho of no finer matter made,
Nor better Pedigree trac'd to the head;
Yet scorns his Brother, an ignoble Swain,
And swells himself for being Gentleman.
He thinks he rivals him, and perks too high;
He'll teach him Manners and his Family:
Tho Guards of Angels at that very time
Perhaps may condescend to wait on him.
Another has observ'd some petty slight;
The Clown's Devoirs were not shap'd out right.
This mighty wrong the Courtier does resent,
Sure to revenge the want of Complement.
The Tradesman thinks his profit is too small,
If, others not supprest, he gets not all.
The Magistrate hates to be cramp'd with Laws,
Or wear such Mittens on his greedy claws.
Therefore (for few transcribe from Solomon)
Pretending Public good, when 'tis his own,
Their threaten'd Properties forsooth to save.
But if that fails, yet he has other ways:
A Plot's the Statesman's well-known Common-place [...]
A Plot, of which the Father call'd knows least;
But yet which seldom dies, if neatly drest.
For when't has tast [...]d air, it lives and thrives,
And deals in Mercenary Narratives:
Till the poor Innocent in this surprize
Is almost made a spotless Sacrifice:
And tho he scapes, 'tis with expence and late,
Glad to be banter'd out of his Estate.
By such oppressive means as these undone
We're forc'd to tick for bread, then forc'd to run:
VVhile others caught from some old Prison grate
Are angling for their livings with a Hat;
Or by a tedious Servitude the debt
Work out, which this Oppression did beget,
Their Family perhaps and tender Sons
Sold too, inheriting their Fathers wrongs.
[Page 119]But what torments us more than being undone,
Is (oh!) our ruin'd reputation,
That heap of scandals and pretended lies,
VVhich the Oppressor's chiefest engine is,
And top of all our weighty miseries.
But there's no help: For strength & power are there,
VVhile to our shrieks and plaints men deafer are
Than raging Sea to swearing Mariner.
Such is the end of all our mighty pains;
This all, that of our labours now remains!
He ended here, and made me praise the dead
From all their potent Circumventors freed.
But happier they, who never were, to live
And see these evils, which us Beings grieve,
But can't affect their quiet Negative.
If when so many Arguments
conspire From that Envy, which [in the last place] most surely attends Mens successful labours, and those effects of them, which are least obnoxious to the forementioned vanities and dangers, ch. 4. v. 4, 5, 6.
To moderate Men's labours and desire,
There's any need of one more in the rear:
[Page 120]Suppose you're prosperous, and have that luck
T'evade th' Oppressor's gripe, and Tyrants stroke;
Yet what another Monster you provoke?
The Envious man; than whom no Feature worse
Sin e're brought forth, or Satan took to nurse.
If but a word drops in another's praise,
What stupifying vapours does it raise
In him? But if he sees his Flock increase,
Free from the Pastor's fear, Wolves and Disease:
Or sees the evening breeze slide o're his grain,
And make dry waves upon the bearded plain;
While well-fill'd ears, their gratitude to show,
Before the Fanner of the Country bow:
This jarrs upon his Soul, which in a fit
Draws in it self, and shivers at the sight.
As when some hated Object strikes the eye,
And entering works by strong Antipathy,
The writhen fibres all the Stomach strain,
And every cell conceives a qualmy pain:
So is he mov'd. His Countenance grows glum,
Or else with quick returns does go and come.
[Page 121]His eyes look glaz'd and narrow all the while,
Seeming important mischief to foretel.
The Hag, that has drunk poison at a pap,
And dandled many an Imp upon her lap,
Can't look more venom'd malice into those,
That she bewitches, than his lids disclose.
And tho the listless Lubber yawning stands
Within his bosom folding up his hands,
Nor stirs his present blessings to improve,
But pines because more fall not from above;
As if ill-nature were the proper means
Appointed to derive us gifts from thence,
And make us Darlings of God's Providence:
Yet to fulfil his rancour and his spite
His mind is brisk, his heavy limbs are light.
He plots to pull that jutting fortune down,
Which hangs above the level of his own.
So vicious is his nature, that if God
In golden showers should descend to load
And stud with lightening Ingots all his grounds,
Comprizing Havilah within their Mounds;
Answerable to that other mighty boon:
Yet still he'd envy Monarchs and their Power,
And be no more contented than before.
And were he so advanc'd, and set alone
A formal thing upon a lofty throne,
Put into cumbering furrs and useless gems,
Wrapt up in purple, prest with diadems,
Gaz'd at, like Comets in the Country Towns,
When all the Greens are fill'd with whispering Clowns [...]
Yet still he'd envy on, and if he has
Sense to conceive Superiour Essences,
He'd envy those Angelic hosts above,
That now on Heaven's glassy champain move.
And could he but be chang'd to one of them,
And yet the canker of his mortal frame
With that ethereal nature be the same;
He'd scorn Creation and its upstart brood
To envy what's eternal, even God.
He'd envy that tremendous Shechinah,
Which no pretending mortal can display;
Which glomerated Clouds and Fires surround;
That Canopy, that covers it, of rays
And Rainbows interweav'd a thousand ways;
Those f [...]lgid Ministers of Heaven's Court,
That to th'Almighty's service do resort;
Those warlike millions of winged Bands
Drawn up, where Michael's flaming Banner stands;
Those Trumpets, and those Songs, that celebrate
The Triumphs of their King and all his State.
In short, how e're preferr'd, his Envy yet,
The eye-sore only chang'd, would be as great.
Far better is that Cottager's poor case,
VVho from his smothering Hive thrusts out his face
Through some kind cranny, which his walls afford
Made of the same frail matter with their Lord,
To ease and cleanse his lungs, with sweeter air,
Of that collected smoke they suck'd in there,
And spies six dapp [...]ed Steeds of some great Peer
Scarce govern'd by the brawny Charioteer;
[Page 124]Views the proud Chariot drawn in State about,
Proud of its gaudy ornaments without,
But prouder of those glistering Sparks within,
Which there, like Stars, through Glasses must be seen;
Marks the per [...] Footmen hanging on the Rails,
And all the waiting, cringing Animals;
And then can pull his head into his clay,
Nor grudge at all the Pomp, that pass'd that way.
So void of reason, void of happiness
Is Envy, the old Snake's especial Vice.
And yet 'tis propagated every where;
No Country from the ugly Spawn is clear.
From th' utmost Southern point our Fleet descry'd
To Tyre's last Colony o'th' other side,
Where e're you choose your dwelling, more or les [...]
It will attend your fortune and success.
Your squinting Neighbours they'll be strange & shie [...]
And then pretend forsooth, that you are high.
If e're they can, they'll lessen your Estate,
Your pleasures quash, your worth depreciate.
[Page 125]The last ne're fails: for certainly your Name
For uncommitted crimes must bear the blame.
Some odious pranks are whisper'd up and down,
For which you're often try'd by every one
O'th' Gossiping and drinking Gangs in town.
These mischiefs do prosperity attend;
And thus at best Men's worldly labours end.
Hence therefore may I neither be remiss,
To lo [...]e my life in lounging idleness;
Nor lay out all my time, my strength, and care,
Meerly for what's but vanity and air:
But may the ends that I propound, be good,
By Heaven commanded, or at least allow'd,
And with a fitting industry pursu'd.
For then tho Worldly ills should obviate,
Or overtake me here; not stir'd for that,
With comfort I may wait the Setting Sun
And surer wages of my Days-work done [...]