When, Goddess, thou lift'st up thy wakened head Thy choir of birds about thee play, And all thy joyful world salutes the rising day. All the world's bravery that delights our eyes, 45 Thou the rich dye on them bestowest, Thy nimble pencil paints this landscape as thou goest. A crimson garment in the rose thou wear'st; A crown of studded gold thou bear'st; 50 The virgin lilies, in their white, Are clad but with the lawn of almost naked light. The violet, spring's little infant, stands Girt in thy purple swaddling-bands; On the fair tulip thou dost dote, 55 Thou cloth'st it in a gay and parti-coloured coat. With flame condensed thou dost thy jewels fix, Flowers fairer than her own, and durable as she. 60 Through the soft ways of heaven and air and sea, Which open all their pores to thee, Like a clear river thou dost glide, And with thy living stream through the close channels slide. But where firm bodies thy free course oppose, 65 Gently thy source the land o’erflows; Takes there possession, and does make, Of colours' mingled light, a thick and standing lake: But the vast ocean of unbounded day In the empyrean heaven does stay; 70 Thy rivers, lakes, and springs below From thence took first their rise, thither at last must flow. Abraham Cowley. CVI TO THE ROYAL SOCIETY. Philosophy! the great and only heir Of all that human knowledge which has been Has still been kept in nonage till of late, Nor managed or enjoyed his vast estate. 5 Three or four thousand years, one would have thought, 10 A science so well bred and nursed, And of such hopeful parts, too, at the first; 15 But oh the guardians and the tutors then, (Some negligent, some ambitious men) Would ne'er consent to set him free, Or his own natural powers to let him see, Lest that should put an end to their authority. That his own business he might quite forget, 20 Instead of vigorous exercise they led him Into the pleasant labyrinths of ever-fresh discourse: 25 The riches which do hoarded for him lie In Nature's endless treasury, They chose his eye to entertain His curious, but not covetous, eye) With painted scenes and pageants of the brain. 30 Some few exalted spirits this latter age has shown, That laboured to assert the liberty (From guardians who were now usurpers grown) Of this old minor still, captived Philosophy; But 'twas rebellion called, to fight 35 For such a long-oppressèd right. Bacon, at last, a mighty man! arose, Whom a wise King and Nature chose Lord Chancellor of both their laws, And boldly undertook the injured pupil's cause. 40 Authority, which did a body boast, Though 'twas but air condensed, and stalked about To graves, from whence it rose, the conquered phantom fled. He broke that monstrous god which stood, 50 In midst of the orchard, and the whole did claim, Which with a useless scythe of wood, And something else not worth a name, (Ridiculous and senseless terrors!) made Children and superstitious men afraid. The orchard's open now, and free: 55 Bacon has broke that scarecrow deity: Come, enter all that will, Behold the ripened fruit, come, gather now your fill! Yet still, methinks, we fain would be 60 Catching at the forbidden tree; We would be like the Deity; When truth and falsehood, good and evil, we Without the senses' aid within ourselves would see; For 'tis God only who can find All nature in his mind. 65 From words, which are but pictures of the thought The thirsty soul's refreshing wine. Who to the life an exact piece would make, 70 75 No, not from Rubens or Vandyck; Much less content himself to make it like 80 The ideas and the images which lie 85 Each judgment of his eye and motion of his hand. From these, and all long errors of the way, In which our wandering predecessors went, And, like the old Hebrews, many years did stray In deserts, but of small extent, 90 Bacon! like Moses, led us forth at last; The barren wilderness he passed, Did on the very border stand Of the blessed Promised Land, And from the mountain's top of his exalted wit, 95 Saw it himself, and showed us it. But life did never to one man allow To fathom the vast deeps of Nature's sea: 100 The work he did we ought to admire, From you, great champions! we expect to get Though Learning has whole armies at command, A better troop she ne'er together drew. 105 ΠΙΟ Methinks, like Gideon's little band, God with design has picked out you, To do these noble wonders by a few. When the whole host He saw, they are, said He, Too many to o'ercome for Me: And now He chooses out his men, Much in the way that He did then: To drink, with their dejected head, The stream, just so as by their mouths it fled: 115 120 125 Thus you prepared, and in the glorious fight Their old and empty pitchers first they brake, 130 Iö! sound too the trumpets here! Already your victorious lights appear; New scenes of heaven already we espy, And crowds of golden worlds on high, 135 |