De Guiana, carmen Epicum.* 'Then most admired sovereign, let your breath Go forth upon the waters, and create To raise him with choice bounties, that could add Height to his height; and like a liberal vine, Not only bear his virtuous fruit aloft, Free from the press of squint-eyed Envy's feet, But deck his gracious prop with golden bunches, And shroud it with broad leaves of rule o'ergrown From all black tempests of invasion. Those conquests that like general earthquakes shook The solid world, and made it fall before them, Built all their brave attempts on weaker grounds And less persuasive likelihoods than this; Nor was there ever princely fount so long Pour'd forth a sea of rule with so free So let thy sovereign Empire be increased, And with Iberian Neptune part the stake, Whose trident he the triple world would make. You then that would be wise in wisdom's spite, Directing with discredit of direction, And hunt for honour, hunting him to death; With whom before you will inherit gold, You will lose gold, for which you lose your souls; You that choose nought for right, but certainty, And fear that value will get only blows, Till as men have desert that getteth nought, They loathe all getting that deserves not aught; And use you gold-made men as dregs of men; And till your poison'd souls, like spiders lurking, In sluttish chinks, in mists of cobwebs hide Your foggy bodies, and your dunghill pride. O Incredulity! the wit of fools, That slovenly will spit on all things fair, The coward's castle, and the sluggard's cradle, How easy 'tis to be an infidel! But you patrician spirits that refine The tract of heaven in morn-like glory opens, That know you cannot be the kings of earth, Claiming the rights of your creation, you; That are so far from doubting likely drifts, That in things hardest y'are most confident. You that know death lives where power lives unused, Joying to shine in waves that bury you, And so make way for life even through your graves; That will not be content like horse to hold A threadbare beaten way to home affairs; But where the sea in envy of your reign, Closeth her womb as fast as 'tis disclosed, That she like avarice might swallow all, And let none find right passage through her rage; There your wise souls, as swift as Eurus lead, Your bodies through, to profit and renown, And scorn to let your bodies choke your souls In the rude breath and prison'd life of beasts; You that herein renounce the course of earth, And lift your eyes for guidance to the stars, One soil doth nourish, and one strength combine; You that are blest with sense of all things noble, In this attempt your complete worths redouble. But how is Nature at her heart corrupted, (I mean even in her most ennobled birth) How in excess of sense is sense bereft her! That her most lightning-like effects of lust Wound through her flesh, her soul, her flesh unwounded; And she must need incitements to her good, Even from that part she hurts. O! how most like Art thou, heroic author of this act, To this wrong'd soul of nature; that sustain'st Pain, charge, and peril for thy country's good, And she, much like a body numb'd with surfeits, Feels not thy gentle applications, For the health, use, and honour of her powers. Yet shall my verse through all her easelock'd ears, Trumpet the noblesse of thy high intent, tence, For thine are clear; and what more nimble spirits Apter to bite at such unhooked baits, Gain by our loss; that must we needs confess, His bating colours English valour swarms, Sets their glad feet on smooth Guiana's breast, Where, as if each man were an Orpheus, A world of savages fall tame before them, Storing their theft-frée treasuries with gold; And there doth plenty crown their wealthy fields, There Learning eats no more his thriftless books, Nor Valour, estridge-like, his iron arms. There Beauty is no strumpet for her wants, Nor Gallic humours putrefy her blood; But all our youth take Hymen's lights in hand, And fill each roof with honour'd progeny ; There makes society adamantine chains, And joins their hearts with wealth whom wealth disjoin'd. There healthful recreations strow their meads, And make their mansions dance with neighbourhood, That here were drown'd in churlish avarice. Where new Britannia humbly kneels to heaven, The world to her, and both at her blest ΤΟ MY ADMIRED AND SOUL-LOVED FRIEND, MASTER OF ALL ESSENTIAL AND TRUE KNOWLEDGE, M. HARRIOTS.* To you, whose depth of soul measures the | Or starve themselves, and quench their height And all dimensions of all works of weight, Reason being ground, structure and ornament, To all inventions grave and permanent, This artizan, this God of rational loves, In rough integuments, I send for censure, Spent to conduct him to our envious light, From your applause, crown'd with their Such crowns suffice the free and royal mind, To their own crowns, their souls; betray'd to scorn, To gaudy insolence and ignorance, Profane attendance at their states and That are mere servants to this servile earth; fiery spirits. Thus as the soul upon the flesh depends, Virtue must wait on wealth; we must make friends Of the unrighteous mammon, and our Must bear the forms of fools or parasites. My free soul hath, my body will be never That smother'd fervour that in loathed Lies swept from light, and no clear hour O, had your perfect eye organs to pierce In nights of sorrow, this hid soul of mine; Under the claws of this foul panther earth: Then under all those forms you should discern My love to you, in my desire to learn. These must have other crowns for meeds Skill and the love of skill, do ever kiss ; than merits, No band of love so strong as knowledge is; Which who is he, that may not learn of you, Whom learning doth with his light's throne endow? What learned fields pay not their flowers t' adorn Your odorous wreath? Compact, put on, and worn By apt and adamantine industry, For your great object, far from plodding gain, Or thirst of glory; when, absurd and vain, Most students in their whole instruction are, But in traditions more particular; True learning hath a body absolute, Nor made for sale, glazed with sophistic sleights, But wrought for all times proof, strong to bid prease And shiver ignorants, like Hercules, On their own dung-hills; but our formal clerks, Blown for profession, spend their souls in sparks, Framed of dismember'd parts that make most show, And like to broken limbs of knowledge go, When thy true wisdom by thy learning won, Shall honour learning while there shines a sun; And thine own name in merit, far above Their tympanies of state, that arms of love, Fortune, or blood shall lift to dignity; Whom though you reverence and your empery Of spirit and soul, be servitude they think And but a beam of light broke through a chink To all their waterish splendour; and much more To the great sun, and all things they adore, In staring ignorance; yet your self shall shine Above all this in knowledge most divine, And all shall homage to your true worth owe, You comprehending all, that all, not you. And when thy writings that now Error's night Chokes earth with mists, break forth like eastern light, Showing to every comprehensive eye Gript in thy hand, crushing digested Art Crown'd with heaven's inward brightness showing clear What true man is, and how like gnats appear, O fortune-glossed pompists, and proud misers, That are of arts such impudent despisers; Then past anticipating dooms and scorns, Which for self-grace each ignorant suborns, Their glowing and amazed eyes shall see How short of thy soul's strength my weak words be; And that I do not like our poets prefer For profit, praise, and keep a squeaking stir With call'd-on muses to unchild their brains Of wind and vapour : lying still in pains Continue then your sweet judicial kind |