Classic Poem

W H en God from Earth form'd Adam in the East,
He his own Image on the Clay imprest;
As Subjects then the whole Creation came,
And from their Natures Adam them did Name,
Not from Experience, (for the World was new)
He only from their Cause their Natures knew.
Had Memory been lost with Innocence,
We had not known the Sentence nor th'Offence;
'Twas his chief Punishment to keep in Store
The sad Remembrance what he was before;
And though th' offending Part felt mortal Pain,
Th immortal Part its Knowledge did retain.
After the Flood, Arts to Chaldaea fell,
The Father of the Faithful there did dwell,
Who both their Parent and Instructer was;
From thence did Learning into Ægypt pass:
Moses in all th' Ægyptian Arts was skill'd,
When Heav'nly Pow'r that chosen Vessel fill'd;
And we to his High Inspiration owe,
That what was done before the Flood, we know.
From Æypt , Arts their Progress made to Greece ,
Wrapt in the Fable of the Golden Fleece.
Musaeus first, then Orpheus Civilize
Mankind, and gave the World their Deities;
To many Gods they taught Devotion,
Which were the distinct Faculties of one;
The Eternal cause, in their immortal Lines
Was taught, and Poets were the first Divines:
God Moses first, then David did inspire,
To compose Anthems for his Heav'nly Quire;
To th'one the Style of Friend he did impart,
On th'other stampt the likeness of his Heart:
And Moses , in the Old Original,
Ev'n God the Poet of the World doth call.
Next those old Greeks, Pythagoras did rise,
Then Socrates , whom th'Oracle call'd Wise;
The Divine Plato Moral Virtue shows,
Then his Disciple Aristotle rose,
Who Natures Secrets to the World did teach,
Yet that great Soul our Novelists impeach;
Too much manuring fill'd that Field with Weeds,
While Sects, like Locusts, did destroy the Seeds;
The Tree of Knowledge blasted by Disputes,
Produces sapless Leaves instead of Fruits;
Proud Greece , all Nations else Barbarians held,
Boasting her Learning all the World excell'd.
Flying from thence, to Italy it came,
And to the Realm of Naples gave the Name,
Till both their Nation and their Arts did come
A welcome Trophy to Triumphant Rome ;
Then wheresoe'er her Conqu'ring Eagles fled,
Arts, Learning, and Civility were spread;
And as in this our Microcosm , the Heart
Heat, Spirit, Motion gives to ev'ry part;
So Rome 's Victorious Influence did disperse
All her own Virtues through the Universe.
Here some Digression I must make, t' accuse
Thee, my forgetful, and ingrateful Muse:
Couldst thou from Greece to Latium take thy Flight,
And not to thy great Ancestor do right?
I can no more believe Old Homer Blind,
Than those, who say the Sun hath never shin'd;
The Age wherein he liv'd was dark, but he
Could not want Sight, who taught the World to see:
They who Minerva from Jove's Head derive,
Might make Old Homer 's Skull the Muses Hive;
And from his Brain, that Helicon Distil,
Whose Racy Liquor did his Off-spring fill.
Nor old Anacreon, Hesiod, Theocrite
Must we forget, nor Pindar 's lofty Flight.
Old Homer 's Soul at last from Greece retir'd;
In Italy the Mantuan Swain inspir'd.
When Great Augustus made Wars Tempests cease,
His Halcyon days brought forth the Arts of Peace;
He still in his Triumphant Chariot shines,
By Horace drawn, and Virgil 's mighty Lines.
'Twas certainly mysterious that the Name
Of Prophets and of Poets is the same;
What the Tragedian wrote, the late success
Declares was Inspiration, and not Guess:
As dark a Truth that Author did unfold,
As Oracles, or Prophets e'er fore-told:
At last the Ocean shall unlock the Bound
Of things, and a New World by Typhis found ,
Then Ages far remote shall understand
The Isle of Thule is not the farthest Land .
Sure God, by these Discov'ries, did design
That his clear Light through all the World should Shine,
But the Obstruction from that Discord springs
The Prince of Darkness makes 'twixt Christan Kings;
That peaceful Age, with Happiness to Crown,
From Heav'n the Prince of Peace himself came down.
Then the true Son of Knowledge first appear'd,
And the old dark Mysterious Clouds were clear'd,
The heavy Cause of th'old accursed Flood
Sunk in the sacred Deluge of his Blood.
His Passion, Man from his first Fall, redeem'd;
Once more to Paradice restor'd we seem'd;
Satan himself was bound, till th'Iron Chain
Our Pride did break, and let him loose again.
Still the Old Sting remain'd, and Man began
To tempt the Serpent, as he tempted Man;
Then Hell sends forth her Furies, Avarice, Pride,
Fraud, Discord, Force, Hypocrisie their Guide;
Though the Foundation on a Rock were laid,
The Church was undermin'd, and then betray'd;
Though the Apostles these Events foretold,
Yet even the Shepherd did devour the Fold:
The Fisher to convert the World began,
The Pride convincing of vain-glorious Man;
But soon, his Follower grew a Sov'raign Lord,
And Peter 's Keys exchang'd for Peter 's Sword,
Which still maintains for his adopted Son
Vast Patrimonies, though himself had none;
Wresting the Text to the old Gyants Sense,
That Heav'n, once more, must suffer Violence.
Then subtle Doctors, Scriptures made their prize,
Casuists, like Cocks, struck out each others Eyes;
Then dark Distinctions Reasons Light disguis'd,
And into Atoms Truth Anatomiz'd.
Then Mahomet 's Crescent by our fewds encreast,
Blasted the learn'd Remainders of the East:
That Project, when from Greece to Rome it came,
Made Mother Ignorance Devotion's Dame;
Then, He whom Lucifer 's own Pride did swell,
His faithful Emissary, rose from Hell
To possess Peter 's Chair, that Hildebrand
Whose Foot on Miters, then on Crowns did stand,
And before that exalted Idol, all
(Whom we call Gods on Earth) did prostrate fall.
Then Darkness Europe 's Face did over-spread,
From lazy Cells, where Superstition bred,
Which, link'd with Blind Obedience, so encreast
That the whole World, some Ages, they opprest;
Till through those Clouds the Sun of Knowledge brake,
And Europe from her Lethargy did wake:
Then, first our Monarchs were acknowledg'd here,
That they their Churches Nursing-Fathers were.
When Lucifer no longer could advance
His Works on the false Ground of Ignorance,
New Arts he tries, and new Designs he lays,
Then his well-study'd Master-piece he plays;
Loyola, Luther, Calvin he inspires,
And kindles, with infernal Flames, their Fires,
Sends their Fore-runner (conscious of th'event)
Printing, his most pernicious Instrument:
Wild Controversie then, which long had slept,
Into the Press from ruin'd Cloysters leapt;
No longer by Implicit Faith we err,
Whilst ev'ry Man's his own Interpreter;
No more conducted now by Aaron 's Rod,
Lay-Elders, from their Ends, create their God.
But seven Wise Men the Ancient World did know,
We scarce know seven, who think themselves not so.
When Man learn'd undefil'd Religion,
We were commanded to be all as one;
Fiery Disputes that Union have calcin'd,
Almost as many Minds as Men we find,
And when that Flame finds combustible Earth,
Thence Fatuus Fires, and Meteors take their Birth,
Legions of Sects, and Insects come in throngs;
To name them all would tire a hundred Tongues.
So were the Centaures of Ixion 's Race,
Who a bright Cloud for Juno did embrace;
And such the Monsters of Chimaera 's kind,
Lions before, and Dragons were behind.
Then from the clashes between Popes and Kings,
Debate, like sparks from Flints collision, springs:
As Jove 's loud Thunder-bolts were forg'd by heat,
The like, our Cyclops, on their Anvils, beat;
All the Rich Mines of Learning ransackt are,
To furnish Ammunition for this War:
Uncharitable Zeal our Reason whets,
And double Edges on our Passion sets;
Tis the most certain sign, the World's accurst,
That the best things corrupted, are the worst;
'Twas the corrupted Light of knowledge, hurl'd
Sin, Death, and Ignorance o'er all the World;
That Sun like this, (from which our fight we have)
Gaz'd on too long, resumes the Light he gave;
And when thick mists of Doubts obscure his beams,
Our Guide is Errour, and our Visions, Dreams;
'Twas no false Heraldy, when Madnefs drew
Her Pedigree from those, who too much Knew;
Who in deep Mines, for hidden Knowledge toyls,
Like Guns o'er-charg'd, breaks, misses, or recoils;
When subtle Wits have spun their Thread too fine,
'Tis weak and fragile like Arachnes line:
True Piety, without cessation tost
By Theories , the Practick part is lost,
And like a Ball bandy'd 'twixt Pride and Wit,
Rather than yield, both sides the Prize will quit,
Then whilst his Foe each Gladiator foils,
The Atheist looking on, enjoys the Spoils.
Through Seas of Knowledge we our Course advance,
Discov'ring still new Worlds of Ignorance;
And these Discov'ries make us all confess
That sublunary Science is but Guess,
Matters of Fact to Man are only known,
And what seems more, is meer Opinion,
The Standers by see clearly this Event,
All Parties say they're sure, yet all dissent;
With their new Light our bold Inspectors press
Like Cham , to shew their Fathers Nakedness,
By whose Example, After-ages may
Discover, we more Naked are than they;
All Humane Wisdom to Divine, is Folly,
This Truth, the wisest Man made Melancholy;
Hope, or Belief, or Guess, gives some Relief,
But to be sure we are deceiv'd, brings Grief;
Who thinks his Wife is Virtuous, though not so,
Is pleas'd, and patient, till the Truth he know.
Our God, when Heav'n and Earth he did Create,
Form'd Man, who should of both participate;
If our Lives Motions theirs must imitate,
Our Knowledge, like our Blood, must circulate.
When, like a Bride-groom from the East, the Sun
Sets forth, he thither, whence he came doth run;
Into Earth's Spungy Veins the Ocean sinks,
Those Rivers to replenish which he Drinks;
So Learning which from Reason's Fountain springs,
Back to the Source, some secret Channel brings.
'Tis happy when our Streams of Knowledge flow
To fill their Banks, but not to overthrow.
Ut metit Autumnus fruges quas parturit Æstas,
Sic Ortum Natura, dedit Deus his quoque Finem.