As by that early action may be judg'd,
When flipping from thy mother's eye thou went'st
Alone into the temple; there wast found
Among the gravest Rabbies difputant
On points and questions fitting Moses chair,
Teaching not taught; the childhood shows the man,
As morning shows the day. Be famous then 220
By wisdom; 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 alfo know, and write, and teach
To admiration, led by nature's light;
And with the Gentiles much thou muft converse,
Ruling them by perfuafion as thou mean'ft;
Without their learning how wilt thou with them,
Or they with thee hold conversation meet?
How wilt thou reason with them, how refute
Their idolisms, traditions, paradoxes?
Error by his own arms is best evinc'd.
Look once more ere we leave this fpecular mount
Westward, much nearer by southwest, behold
Where on the AEgean 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 sweet recess,
City' or fuburban, ftudious walks and fhades;
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 found
Of bees induftrious murmur oft invites
To studious mufing; there Iliffus rolls
His whisp'ring ftream: within the walls then view The schools of ancient sages; his who bred Great Alexander to fubdue the world,
Lyceum there, and painted Stoa next :
There thou shalt hear and learn the fecret power Of harmony in tones and numbers hit
By voice or hand, and various-measur'd verse,
AEolian charms and Dorian lyric odes,
And his who gave them breath, but higher fung,
Blind Melefigenes thence Homer call'd,
Whose poem Phoebus challeng'd for his own. 260
Thence what the lofty grave tragedians taught
In Chorus or Iambic, teachers best
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 high paffions beft defcribing:
Thence to the famous orators repair,
Those ancient, whofe refiftless eloquence
Wielded at will that fierce democratie,
Shook th' arsenal and fulmin'd over Greece, 270
To Macedon and Artaxerxes throne:
To fage philofophy next lend thine ear,
From Heav'n defcended to the low-rooft house
Of Socrates; see there his tenement,
Whom well inspir'd the oracle pronounc'd
Wisest of men; from whose mouth issued forth
Mellifluous ftreams that water'd all the schools
Of Academics old and new, with those
Sirnam'd Peripatetics, and the sect
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 fhort 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 sense; Others in virtue plac'd felicity,
But virtue join'd with riches and long life;
In corporal pleasure he, and careless ease;
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 shames not to prefer,
As fearing God nor man, contemning all
Wealth, pleasure, pain or torment, death and life,
Which when he lifts, he leaves, or boasts he can,
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 themselves, of God much more,
And how the world began, and how man fell
Degraded by himself, on grace depending?
Much of the foul they talk, but all awry,
And in themselves seek virtue, and to themselves
All glory arrogate, to God give none,
Rather accufe him under ufual names,
Fortune and Fate, as one regardless quite
Of mortal things. Who therefore feeks in these
True wisdom, finds her not, or by delufion
Far worse, her false resemblance only meets, 320
An empty cloud. However many books,
Wife men have faid are wearifome; who reads
Inceffantly, and to his reading brings not
A spirit and judgment equal or fuperior,
(And what he brings, what needs he elsewhere seek?) Uncertain and unfettled ftill remains,
Deep vers'd in books and shallow in himself,
Crude or intoxicate, collecting toys,
And trifles for choice matters, worth a fpunge;
As children gathering pebbles on the shore. 330
Or if I would delight my private hours
With music or with poem, where so soon
As in our native language can I find
That folace? All our law and story strow'd
With hymns, our pfalms with artful terms inscrib'd,
Our Hebrew fongs and harps in Babylon,
That pleas'd fo well our victors ear, declare
That rather Greece from us these arts deriv'd;
Ill imitated, while they loudest sing
The vices of their Deities, and their own
In fable, hymn, or fong, so personating
Their Gods ridiculous, and themselves past shame.
Remove their swelling epithets thick laid
As varnish on a harlot's cheek, the rest,
Thin fown with ought of profit or delight,
Will far be found unworthy to compare
With Sion's fongs, to all true tastes excelling,
Where God is prais'd aright, and God-like men,
The Holieft of Holies, and his Saints;
Such are from God inspir'd, not fuch from thee, 350
Unless where moral virtue is exprefs'd
By light of nature not in all quite loft.
Their orators thou then extoll'ft, as those
The top of eloquence, statists indeed,
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