Classic Poem

I grant their strangenesse, and their too ill grace,
And too much wretchednesse, to beare the face
Or any likenesse of my soule in them:
Whose Instruments, I rue with many a Streame
Of secret Teares for their extream defects,
In vttering her true forms: but their respects
Need not be less'ned, for their being strange,
Or not so vulgar, as the rest that range
With headlong Raptures, through the multitude:
Of whom they get grace, for their being rude.
Nought is so shund by Virtue, throwne from Truth,
As that which drawes the vulgar Dames, and Youth.
Truth must confesse it: for where liues there one,
That Truth or Vertue , for themselues alone,
Or seekes, or not contemns? All, all pursue
Wealth, Glory, Greatnesse, Pleasure, Fashions new.
Who studies, studies these: who studies not
And sees that studie, layes the vulgar Plot;
That all the Learning he gets liuing by,
Men but for forme, or humour dignifie
(As himselfe studies, but for forme, and showe,
And neuer makes his speciall end, to knowe)
And that an idle, ayrie man of Newes,
A standing Face; a propertie to vse
In all things vile, makes Booke-wormes, creepe to him:
How scorns he bookes, and booke-worms! O how dim
Burnes a true Soules light, in his Bastard eyes!
And, as a Forrest ouer-grow'n breedes Flyes,
Todes, Adders, Sauadges, that all men shunne;
When, on the South-side, in a fresh May Sunne,
In varied Heards, the Beasts lie out, and sleepe,
The busie Gnatts, in swarms a buzzing keepe,
And guild their empty bodies (lift aloft)
In beames, that though they see all, difference nought:
So, in mens meerly outward, and false Peace,
Insteade of polisht men, and true encrease,
She brings forth men, with vices ouer-growne:
Women, so light, and like, fewe knowe their owne:
For milde and humane tongues, tongues forkt that sting:
And all these (while they may) take Sunne, and spring,

*****

To help them sleep, and florish: on whose beames,
And branches, vp they clime, in such extreams
Of proude confusion, from iust Lawes so farre,
That in their Peace, the long Robe sweeps like warre.
That Robe serues great men: why are great so rude?
Since great, and meane, are all but multitude.
For regular Learning, that should difference set
Twixt all mens worths, and make the meane, or great,
As that is meane or great (or chiefe stroke strike)
Serues the Plebeian and the Lord alike.
Their obiects, showe their learnings are all one;
Their liues, their obiects; Learning lov'd by none.
You meane, for most part: nor would it displease
That most part, if they heard; since they professe,
Contempt of learning: Nor esteeme it fit,
Noblesse should study, see, or count'nance it.
Can men in blood be Noble, not in soule?
Reason abhorres it; since what doth controule
The rudenesse of the blood, and makes it Noble
(Or hath chiefe meanes, high birth-right to redouble,
In making manners soft, and man-like milde,
Not suffering humanes to runne proude, or wilde)
Is Soule, and learning; (or in loue, or act)
In blood where both faile then, lyes Nobless wrackt.
It cannot be denyde: but could you proue,
As well, that th'act of learning, or the loue,
(Loue being the act in will) should difference set,
Twixt all mens worths, and make the meane or great,
As learning is, or great, or meane in them;
Then cleare, her Right, stood to mans Diadem.
To proue that Learning (the soules actuall frame;
Without which, tis a blanke; a smoke-hid flame)
Should sit great Arbitresse, of all things donne,
And in your soules, (like Gnomons in the Sunne)
Giue Rules to all the circles of your liues;
I proue it, by the Regiment God giues
To man, of all things; to the soule, of man;
To Learning, of the Soule. If then it can
Rule, liue; of all things best, is it not best?
O who, what god makes greatest, dares make least?
But, to vse their tearms; Life is Roote and Crest
To all mans Cote of Nobless; his soule is
Field to that Cote; and learning differences
All his degrees in honour, being the Cote.
And as a Statuarie, hauing got
An Alabaster, bigge enough to cut
A humane image in it: till he hath put
His tooles, and art to it; hew'n, formd, left none
Of the redundant matter in the Stone;
It beares the image of a man, no more,
Then of a Woolf, a Cammell, or a Boare:
So when the Soule is to the body giuen;
(Being substance of Gods Image, sent from heaven)
It is not his true Image, till it take
Into the Substance, those fit forms that make
His perfect Image; which are then imprest
By Learning and impulsion; that inuest
Man with Gods forme in liuing Holinesse,
By cutting from his Body the excesse
Of Humors, perturbations and Affects;
Which Nature (without Art) no more eiects,
Then without tooles, a naked Artizan
Can, in rude stone, cut th' Image of a man.
How then do Ignorants? who, oft, we trie,
Rule perturbations, liue more humanely
Then men held learnd?
Who are not learn'd indeed;
More then a house fram'd loose, (that still doth neede
The haling vp, and ioyning) is a house:
Nor can you call, men meere Religious,
(That haue good wills, to knowledge) Ignorant;
For, virtuous knowledge hath two waies to plant;
By Powre infus'd, and Acquisition;
The first of which, those good men, graft vpon;
For good life is th'effect, of learnings Act;
Which th'action of the minde, did first compact
By infusde loue to Learning gainst all ill,
Conquests first step, is to all good, the will.
If Learning then, in loue or act must be,
Meane to good life, and true humanitie;
Where are our Scarre-crowes now, or men of ragges,
Of Titles meerely, Places, Fortunes, Bragges,
That want and scorne both? Those inuerted men?
Those dungeons; whose soules no more containe
The actuall light of Reason, then darke beasts?
Those Cloudes, driuen still, twixt Gods beame and their brests?
Those Giants, throwing goulden hils gainst heauen?
To no one spice of true humanitie given?
Of men, there are three sorts, that most foes be
To Learning and her loue; themselues and me:
Actiue, Passiue , and Intellectiue men:
Whose selfe-loues; Learning, and her loue disdaine.
Your Actiue men, consume their whole lifes fire,
In thirst of State-height, higher still and higher,
(Like seeled Pigeons) mounting, to make sport,
To lower lookers on; in seeing how short
They come of that they seeke, and with what trouble;
Lamely, and farre from Nature, they redouble
Their paines in flying, more then humbler witts,
To reach death, more direct. For Death that sits,
Vpon the fist of Fate, past highest Ayre,
(Since she commands all liues, within that Sphere)
The higher men aduance; the neerer findes
Her seeled Quarries; when, in bitterest windes,
Lightnings, and thunders, and in sharpest hayles
Fate casts her off at States; when lower Sayles
Slide calmely to their ends. Your Passiue men
(So call'd of onely passing time in vaine)
Passe it, in no good exercise; but are
In meates, and cuppes laborious; and take care
To lose without all care their Soule-spent Time;
And since they haue no meanes, nor Spirits to clime,
Like Fowles of Prey, in any high affaire;
See how like Kites they bangle in the Ayre,
To stoope at scraps, and garbidge; in respect,
Of that which men of true peace should select;
And how they trot out, in their liues, the Ring;
With idlely iterating oft one thing,
A new-fought Combat, an affaire at Sea;
A Marriage, or a Progresse, or a Plea.
No Newes, but fits them, as if made for them,
Though it be forg'd, but of a womans dreame;
And stuffe with, such stolne ends, their manlesse breasts,
(Sticks, rags, and mud) they seem meer Puttock nests:
Curious in all mens actions, but their owne;
All men, and all things censure, though know none.
Your Intellectiue men, they study hard
Not to get knowledge, but for meere rewarde.
And therefore that true knowledge that should be
Their studies end, and is in Nature free,
Will not be made their Broker; hauing powre
(With her sole selfe) to bring both Bride, and dowre.
They haue some shadowes of her (as of me,
Adulterate outward Peace) but neuer see
Her true and heauenly face. Yet those shades serue
(Like errant Knights, that by enchantments swerue,
From their true Ladyes being; and embrace
An ougly Witch, with her phantastique face)
To make them thinke, Truths substance in their arms:
Which that they haue not, but her shadowes charmes,
See if my proofes, be like their Arguments
That leaue Opinion still, her free dissents.
They haue not me with them; that all men knowe
The highest fruite that doth of knowledge grow;
The Bound of all true formes, and onely Act;
If they be true, they rest; nor can be rackt
Out of their posture, by Times vtmost strength;
But last the more of force, the more of length;
For they become one substance with the Soule;
Which Time with all his adiuncts shall controule.
But since, men wilfull may beleeue perchance
(In part of Errors two-folde Ignorance,
Ill disposition) their skills looke as hie
And rest in that diuine Securitie;
See if their liues make proofe of such a Peace,
For Learnings Truth makes all lifes vain war cease;
It making peace with God, and ioines to God;
Whose information driues her Period
Through all the Bodies passiue Instruments;
And by reflection giues them Soule-contents,
Besides, from perfect Learning you can neuer
Wisedome (with her faire Reigne of Passions) seuer;
For Wisedome is nought else, then Learning fin'd,
And with the vnderstanding Powre combin'd;
That is, a habite of both habits standing;
The Bloods vaine humours, euer countermaunding.
But, if these showe, more humour then th'vnlearn'd;
If in them more vaine passion be discern'd;
More mad Ambition; more lust; more deceipt;
More showe of golde, then gold; then drosse, less weight;
If Flattery, Auarice haue their soules so giuen,
Headlong, and with such diuelish furies driuen;
That fooles may laugh at their imprudencie,
And Villanes blush at their dishonestie;
Where is true Learning, proov'd to separate these
And seate all forms in her Soules height, in peace?
Raging Euripus , that (in all their Pride)
Driues Shippes gainst roughest windes, with his fierce Tide,
And ebbes and flowes, seuen times in euerie daie;
Toyles not on Earth with more irregulare swaye,
Nor is more turbulent, and mad then they.
And shine; like gould-worms, whom you hardly finde,
By their owne, light; not seene; but heard like winde.
But this is Learning; To haue skill to throwe
Reignes on your bodies powres, that nothing knowe;
And fill the soules powers, so with act, and art,
That she can curbe the bodies angrie part;
All perturbations; all affects that stray
From their one obiect; which is to obay
Her Soueraigne Empire; as her selfe should force
Their functions onely, to serue her discourse;
And, that; to beat the streight path of one ende
Which is, to make her substance still contend,
To be Gods Image; in informing it,
With knowledge; holy thoughts, and all formes fit
For that eternitie, ye seeke in way
Of his sole imitation; and to sway,
Your lifes loue so, that hee may still be Center
To all your pleasures; and you, (here) may enter
The next lifes peace; in gouerning so well
Your sensuall parts, that you, as free may dwell
Of vulgare Raptures, here; as when calme death
Dissolues that learned Empire, with your Breath.
To teach, and liue thus, is the onely vse,
And end of Learning, Skill that doth produce
But tearmes, and tongues, and Parrating of Arte,
Without that powre to rule the errant part;
Is that which some call, learned ignorance;
A serious trifle; error in a trance.
And let a Scholler, all earths volumes carrie,
He will be but a walking dictionarie:
A meere articulate Clocke, that doth but speake
By others arts; when wheeles weare, or springs breake,
Or any fault is in him; hee can mend
No more then clockes; but at set howres must spend
His mouth, as clocks do; If too fast, speech goe
Hee cannot stay it; nor haste if too slowe.
So that, as Trauaylers, seeke their peace through storms,
In passing many Seas, for many forms,
Of forreigne gouernment; indure the paine
Of many faces seeing; and the gaine
That Strangers make, of their strange-louing humors;
Learn tongues; keep note books; all to feed the tumors
Of vaine discourse at home; or serue the course
Of State employment, neuer hauing force
T'employ themselues; but idle complements
Must pay their paines, costs, slaueries, all their Rents;
And, though they many men knowe, get few friends:
So couetous Readers; setting many endes
To their much skill to talke; studiers of Phrase;
Shifters in Art; to flutter in the Blaze
Of ignorant count'nance; to obtaine degrees
And lye in Learnings bottome, like the Lees,
To be accounted deepe, by shallow men;
And carue all Language, in one glorious Pen;
May haue much fame for learning: but th'effect
Proper to perfect Learning; to direct
Reason in such an Art, as that it can
Turne blood to soule, and make both, one calme man;
So making peace with God; doth differ farre
From Clearkes that goe with God & man to warre.
But may this Peace, and mans true Empire then,
By learning be obtainde? and taught to men?
Let all men iudge; who is it can denie,
That the rich crowne of ould Humanitie,
Is still your birth-right? and was ne're let downe
From heauen, for rule of Beasts liues, but your owne?
You learne the depth of Arts; and (curious) dare
By them (in Natures counterfaits) compare
Almost with God; to make perpetually
Motion like heauens; to hang sad Riuers by
The ayre, in ayre; and earth, twixt earth and heauen
By his owne paise. And are these vertues giuen
To powrefull Art, and Vertue's selfe denied?
This proues the other, vaine, and falsified,
Wealth, Honour, and the Rule of Realmes doth fall
In lesse then Reasons compasse; yet, what all
Those things are giuen for (which is liuing well)
Wants discipline, and reason to compell.
O foolish men! how many waies ye vex
Your liues with pleasing them? and still perplex
Your liberties, with licence? euery way
Casting your eyes, and faculties astray
From their sole obiect? If some few bring forth
(In Nature, freely) something of some worth;
Much rude and worthlesse humour runs betwixt;
(Like fruit in deserts) with vile matter mixt.
Nor (since they flatter flesh so) they are bould
(As a most noble spectacle) to behould
Their owne liues; and (like sacred light) to beare
There Reason inward: for the Soule (in feare
Of euerie sort of vice, shee there containes)
Flies out; and wanders about other mens;
Feeding, and fatting, her infirmities.
And as in auntient Citties, t'was the guise
To haue some Ports of sad, and haplesse vent,
Through which, all executed men they sent;
All filth; all offall, cast from what purg'd sinne;
Nought, chaste, or sacred, there going out, or in:
So, through mens refuse eares, will nothing pearse
Thats good, or elegant; but the sword; the herse;
And all that doth abhorre, from mans pure vse,
Is each mans onely Siren; only Muse.
And thus, for one God; one fit good; they prise
These idle, foolish, vile varieties.