Classic Poem

Coy Nature, (which remain'd, th├┤ aged grown,
A beauteous Virgin still, injoy'd by none,
Nor seen unveil'd by any one,)
When Harvey's violent passion she did see,
Began to tremble and to flee,
Took Sanctuary, like Daphne, in a Tree:
There Daphne's Lover stopt, and thought it much
The very Leaves of her to touch:
But Harvey, our Apollo, stopt not so,
Into the Bark and Root he after he did go:
No smallest Fibres of a Plant,
For which the Eye-beams point doth sharpness want,
His passage after her withstood;
What should she do? through all the moving Wood
Of Lives endow'd with sense she took her flight,
Harvey persues, and keeps her still in sight.
But as the Deer, long hunted, takes a Flood,
She leap'd at last into the Winding-streams of Blood;
Of Mans Meander all the Purple reaches made,
Till at the Heart she stay'd,
Where turning Head, and at a Bay,
Thus by well-purged Ears she was o're-heard to say.

Here sure shall I be safe (said she,)
None will be able sure to see
This my Retreat, but only He
Who made both it and me.
The heart of Man, what Art can e're reveal?
A Wall impervious between
Divides the very Parts within,
And doth the very Heart of Man ev'n from itself conceal.
She spoke, but e're she was aware,
Harvey was with her there,
And held this slippery Proteus in a chain,
Till all her mighty Mysteries she descry'd,
Which from his Wit th' attempt before to hide
Was the first Thing that Nature did in vain.

He the young Practice of New Life did see,
Whil'st, to conceal it's toilsome poverty,
It for a Living wrought, both hard, and privately.
Before the Liver understood
The noble Scarlet Dye of Blood,
Before one drop was by it made,
Or brought into it to set up the Trade;
Before the untaught Heart began to beat
The tuneful March to vital heat,
From all the Souls that living Buildings rear,
Whether imploy'd for Earth, or Sea, or Air,
Whether it in the Womb or Egg be wrought,
A strict account to him is hourly brought,
How the great Fabrick does proceed,
What Time, and what Materials it does need.
He so exactly does the Work survey,
As if he hir'd the Workers by the day.