Tetrarchs of fire, air, flood, and on the earth
Nations befides from all the quarter'd winds,
God of this world invok'd and world beneath;
Who then thou art, whofe coming is foretold
To me fo fatal, me it most concerns.
The trial hath indamag'd thee no way,
Rather more honor left and more esteem;
Me nought advantag`d, missing what I aim'd.
Therefore let país, as they are transitory,
The kingdoms of this world; I fhall no more
Advife thee; gain them as thou canft, or not.
And thou thyfelf feem'ft otherwife inclin'd
Than to a worldly crown, addicted more
To contemplation and profound difpute,
As by that early action may be judg'd,
When flipping from thy mother's eye thou went it
Alone into the temple; there waft found
Among the graveit Rabbies difputant
On points and questions fitting Mofes chair,
Teaching not taught; the childhood shows the man,
As morning fhows the day. Be famous then 221
By wifdom; as thy empire must extend,
So let extend thy mind o'er all the world
In knowledge, all things in it comprehend :
All knowledge is not couch'd in Mofes Law, 225
The Pentateuch, or what the Prophets wrote;
The Gentiles also know, and wite, and teach
To admiration, led by nature's light;
And with the Gentiles much thou must converfe,
Ruling them by perfuafion as thou mean'ít;
Without their learning how wit thou with them,
Or they with thee hold conversition meet ?
How wilt thou reason with then, how refute
Their idolifms, traditions, paradoxes ?
Error by his own arms is beft vinc'd.
Look once more ere we leave this fpecular mount
Weftward, much nearer by fouthweft, behold
Where on the Ægean fhore a city stands
Built nobly, pure the air, and light the foil,
Athens the eye of Greece, mother of arts
And eloquence, native to famous wits
Or hofpitable, in her fweet recefs,
City or fuburban, ftudious walks and shades;
See there the olive grove of Academe,
Plato's retirement, where the Attic bird
Trills her thick-warbled notes the fummer long;
There flow'ry hill Hymettus with the sound
Of bees induftrious murmur oft invites
To ftudious mufing; there Iliffus rolls
His whip'ring fream: within the walls then view
The schools of ancient fages; his who bred
Great Alexander to fubdue the world,
Lyceum there, and painted Stoa next :
There thou fhalt hear and learn the fecret rower
Of harmony in tones and numbers hit
By voice or hand, and various-meafur'd verfe, olian charms and Dorian lyric odes,
And his who gave them breath, but higher fung,
Blind Melefigenes thence Homer call'd,
Whofe poem Phobus challeng'd for his own. 260
Thence what the lofty grave tragedians taught
In Chorus or Iambic, teachers beft
Of moral prudence with delight receiv'd
In brief fententious precepts, while they treat
Of fate, and chance, and change in human life; 265
High actions, and ligh paffions beft defcribing;
Thence to the famois orators repair,
Thofe ancient, whoe refiftlefs eloquence
Wielded at will that fierce democratie,
Shook th' arfenal and fulmin'd over Greece,
To Macedon and Artaxerxes throne :
To fage philofophy next lend thine ear,
From Heav'n defcended to the low-rooft house
Of Socrates; fee there his tenement,
Whom well infpir'd the oracle pronounc'd
Wifeft of men; from whofe mouth iffued forth
Mellifluous ftreams that water'd all the schools
Of Academics old and new, with those
Sirnam'd Peripatetics, and the fect
Epicurean, and the Stoic fevere ;
These here revolve, or, as thou lik 'ft, at home,
Till time mature thee to a kingdom's weight;
These rules will render thee a king complete
Within thyself, much more with empire join'd.
To whom our Saviour fagely thus reply'd. 285
Think not but that I know these things, or think
I know them not; not therefore am I short
Of knowing what I ought: he who receives
Light from above, from the fountain of light,
No other doctrin needs, though granted true; 290.
But these are falfe, or little elfe but dreams,
Conjectures, fancies, built on nothing firm.
The first and wifeft of them all profefs'd
To know this only, that he nothing knew;
The next to fabling fell and fmooth conceits; 295
A third fort doubted all things, though plain fenfe ;
Others in virtue plac'd felicity,
But virtue join'd with riches and long life;
In corporal pleasure he, and careless eafe i
The Stoic laft in philofophic pride,
By him call'd virtue; and his virtuous man,
Wife, perfect in himself, and all poffeffing,
Equals to God, oft fhames not to prefer,
As fearing God nor man, contemning all
Wealth, pleasure, pain or torment, death and life, 305
Which when he lifts, he leaves, or boafts he
For all his tedious talk is but vain boast,
Or fubtle fhifts conviction to evade.
Alas what can they teach, and not mislead,
Ignorant of themfelves, of God much more,
And how the world began, and how man fell
Degraded by himfelf, on grace depending?
Much of the foul they talk, but all awry,
And in themfelves feek virtue, and to themfelves
All glory arrogate, to God give none,
Rather accufe him under ufual names,
Fortune and Fate, as one regardlef's quite
Of mortal things. Who therefore feeks in thefe
True wildom, finds her not, or by delufion
Far worfe, her falfe refemblance only meets,
An empty cloud. However many books,
Wife men have faid, are wearifome; who reads
Incefiantly, and to his reading brings not
A fpirit and judgment equal or fuperior,
(And what he brings, what needs he elsewhere feek?) Uncertain and unfettled ftill remains,
Deep vers'd in books and fhallow in himself,
Crude or intoxicate, collecting toys,
And trifles for choice matters, worth a fpunge;
As children gathering pebbles on the fhore.
Or if I would delight my private hours
With mufic or with poem, where so scon
As in our native language can I find
That folace? All our law and story ftrow'd
That pleas'd fo well our victor's ear, declare
With hymns, our pfalms with artful terms infcrib'd, Our Hebrew fongs and harps in Babylon,
The vices of their Deities, and their own
That rather Greece from us thefe arts deriv'd;
Ill imitated, while they loudeft fing
In fable, hymn, or fong, fo perfonating
Their Gods ridiculous, and themselves past shame.
Remove their fwelling epithets thick laid
As varnish on a harlot's cheek, the reft,
Thin fown with ought of profit or delight,
Will far be found unworthy to compare
With Sion's fongs, to all true taftes excelling,
Where God is prais'd aright, and God-like men,
The Holieft of Holies, and his Saints;
Such are from God infpir'd, not fuch from thee,
Unless where moral virtue is exprefs'd
By light of nature not in all quite lost,
Their orators thou then extoll'it, as thofe
The top of eloquence, statists indeed,
And lovers of their country, as may feem;
But herein to our prophets far beneath,
As men divinely taught, and better teaching
The folid rules of civil government
In their majestic unaffected ftile
Than all the' oratory of Greece and Rome.
In them is plainest taught, and easiest learnt,
What makes a nation happy', and keeps it fo,
What ruins kingdoms, and lays cities flat;
Thefe only with our law best form a king.
So fpake the Son of God; but Satan now
Quite at a lofs, for all his darts were spent,
Thus to our Saviour with ftern brow reply'd.
Since neither wealth, nor honor, arms nor arts,
Kingdom nor empire pleafes thee, nor ought
By me propos'd in life contemplative,
Or active, tended on by glory', or fame,
What doft thou in this world? the wilderness
For thee is fitteft place; I found thee there,
And thither will return thee; yet remember
What I foretel thee, foon thou shalt lave caufe 375
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