In vain doth man the name of just expect,
If his devotions he to God neglect ;

So much we reverence God, as first to know
Juftice from him, not from ourselves, doth flow;
God thofe accepts, who to mankind are friends,
Whofe juftice far as their own power extends;
In that they imitate the power divine,
The fun alike on good and bad doth fhine;
And he that doth no good, although no ill,
Does not the office of the juft fulfil.
Virtue doth man to virtuous actions fteer,
Tis not enough that he should vice forbear;
We live not only for ourfelves to care,
Whilft they that want it are deny'd their share.
Wife Plato faid, the world with men was stor'd,
That fuccour each to other might afford;
Nor are thofe fuccours to one fort confin'd,
But feveral parts to feveral men confign'd;
He that of his own ftores no part can give,
May with his counfel or his hands relieve.
If fortune make thee powerful, give defence
'Gainft fraud, and force, to naked innocence:
And when our justice doth her tributes pay,
Method and order muft direct the way:
First to our God we must with reverence bow;
The fecond honour to our prince we owe;
Next to wives, parents, children, fit respect,
And to our friends and kindred we direct:

Then we must those who groan beneath the weight
Of age, difeafe, or want commiferate:

'Mongit thofe whom honeft lives can recommend,

Our juftice more compaffion fhould extend;
To fuch, who thee in fome diftress did aid,
Thy debt of thanks with intereft should be paid:
As Hefiod fings, fpread waters o'er thy field,
And a moft juft and glad increase 'twill yield.
But yet take heed, left doing good to one,
Mischief and wrong be to another done;
Sach moderation with thy bounty join,
That thou may't nothing give, that is not thine;
That liberality's but cast away,

Which makes us borrow what we cannot pay:
And no accefs to wealth let rapine bring;
Do nothing that's unjuft, to be a king.
Juftice must be from violence exempt,
But fraud's her only object of contempt.
Fraud in the fox, force in the lion dwells;
But juftice both from human hearts expels ;
But he's the greatest monster (without doubt)
Who is a wolf within, a fheep without.
Nor only ill injurious actions are,
But evil words and flanders bear their fhare.
Truth juftice loves, and truth injuftice fears,
Truth above all things a juft man reveres :
Though not by oaths we God to witnefs call,
He fees and hears, and still remembers all;
And yet our atteftations we may wrest,
Sometimes to make the truth more manifeft;

If by a lye a man preserve his faith,
He pardon, leave, and abfolution hath;
Or if I break my promife, which to thee
Would bring no good, but prejudice to me.
All things committed to thy truft conceal,
Nor what's forbid by any means reveal.
Exprefs thyfelf in plain, not doubtful words,
That ground for quarrels or difputes affords:
Unless thou find occafion, hold thy tongue;
Thyfelf or others, careless talk may wrong.
When thou art called into public power,
And when a crowd of fuitors throng thy door,
Be fure no great offenders 'fcape their dooms;
Small praise from lenity and remiffness comes:
Crimes pardon'd, others to thofe crimes invite,
Whilft lookers-on fevere examples fright:
When by a pardon'd murderer blood is fpilt,
The judge that pardon'd hath the greates guilt;
Who accufe rigour, make a grofs mistake,
One criminal pardon'd may an hundred make:
When juftice on offenders is not done,
Law, government, and commerce, are o'er-
thrown;

As befieg'd traitors with the foe confpire,
T'unlock the gates, and fet the town on fire.
Yet left the punishment th' offence exceed,
Juftice with weight and measure must proceed:
Yet when pronouncing fentence, feem not glad,
Such fpectacles, though they are juft, are fad;
Though what thou doft, thou ought'ft not to
repent,

Yet human bowels cannot but relent:
Rather than all muft fuffer, fome must die;
Yet nature must condole their mifery.
And yet, if many equal guilt involve,
Thou may't not thefe condemn, and thofe ab-
folve.

Juftice, when equal fcales fhe holds, is blind,
Nor cruelty, nor mercy, change her mind;
When fome efcape for that which others die,
Mercy to thofe, to thefe is cruelty.

A fine and flender net the fpider weaves,
Which little and light animals receives;
And if the catch a common bec or fly,
They with a piteous groan and murmur die ;
But if a wafp or hornet fhe entrap,
They tear her cords like Sampson, and escape;
So like a fly the poor offender dies;
But, like the wafp, the rich escapes and flies.
Do not, if one but lightly thee offend,
The punishment beyond the crime extend;
Or after warning the offence forget;
So God himself our failings doth remit.
Expect not more from fervants than is juft,
Reward them well, if they obferve their truft;-
Nor them with cruelty or pride invade,
Since God and nature them our brothers made;
If his offence be great, let that fuffice;
If light, forgive, for no man's always wife.

VOL. II.

li

I

THE PROGRESS OF LEARNING.

PREFACE.

My early Mistress, now my ancient Mufe,
That ftrong Circaan liquor cease t' infufe,
Wherewith thou didst intoxicate my youth,
Now stoop with dif-inchanted wings to truth;
As the dove's flight did guide Æneas, now
May thine conduct me to the golden bough;
Tell (like a tall old oak) how learning fhoots
To heaven her branches, and to hell her roots.

Till both their nation and their arts did come
A welcome trophy to triumphant Rome;
Then wherefoe'er her conquering eagles fled,
Arts, learning, and civility were spread;
And as in this our microcofn the heart
Heat, fpirit, motion, gives to every part;
So Rome's victorious influence did difperfe
All her own virtues through the universe.
Here fome digreffion I muft make, t' accuse
Thee, my forgetful and ingrateful Mufe.
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 fun hath never fhin'd;
The age wherein he liv'd was dark, but he

WHEN caft,

He his own image on the clay impreft;
As fubjects 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 loft with innocence,
We had not known the fentence, nor th' offence;
'Twas his chief punishment to keep in flore
The fad 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 Chaldæa fell,
The father of the faithful there did dwell,
Who both their parent and inftructor was;
From thence did learning into Ægypt pafs:
Mofes in all th' Ægyptian arts was kill'd,
When heavenly power that chofen veffel fill'd;
And we to his high infpiration owe,

'That what was done before the flood, we know.
From Egypt, arts their progrefs made to Greece,
Wrapt in the fable of the golden fleece.
Musæus, first, then Orpheus, civilize
Mankind, and gave the world their deities;
To many gods, they taught devotion,
Which were the diftinct faculties of one;
Th' Eternal caufe, in their immortal lines,
Was taught, and poets were the first divines:
God Mofes firft, then David did infpire,
To compofe anthems for his heavenly quire;
To th' one the style of friend he did impart,
On th' other stamp the likeness of his heart:
And Mofes, in the old original,

Even God the poet of the world doth call.
Next thofe old Greeks, Pythagoras did rife,
Then Socrates, whom th' oracle call'd wife;
The divine Plato moral virtue fhews,
Then his difciple Aristotle rofe,
Who nature's fecrets to the world did teach,
Yet that great foul our novelifts impeach;
Too much manuring fill'd that field with weeds,
While fects, like locufts, did destroy the feeds;
The tree of knowledge, blafted by difputes,
Produces fapless leaves instead of fruits;
Proud Greece all nations elfe barbarians held,
Boafting her learning all the world excell'd.
Flying from thence, to Italy it came,
And to the realm of Naples gave the name,

They who Minerva from Jove's head derive,
Might make old Homer's skull the Mufes' hive;
And from his brain, that Helicon distil,
Whofe racy liquor did his offspring fill.
Nor old Anacreon, Hefiod, Theocrite,
Muft we forget, nor Pindar's lofty flight.
Old Homer's foul, at last frora Greece retir'd,
In Italy the Mantuan fwain in pir'd.
When great Auguftus made war's tempefts cease,
His halycon days brought forth the arts of peace;
He ftill in his triumphant chariot fhines,
By Horace drawn, and Virgil's mighty lines.
'Twas certainly mysterious that the name
Of prophets and of poets is the fame;
What the Tragedian † wrote, the late fuccefs
Declares was infpiration,'and not guess:
As dark a truth that author did unfold,
As oracles or prophets e'er foretold:
"At laft the ocean fhall unlock the bound
"Of things, and a new world by Tiphys found,
"Then ages far remote fhall understand
"The ifle of Thule is not the fartheft land."
Sure God, by these discoveries, did design
That his clear light through all the world fhould
fhine,

But the obftruction from that discord fprings
The prince of darkness made 'twixt Chriftian kings;
That peaceful age with happiness to crown,
From heaven the Prince of Peace himself came
down;

Then the true Sun of Knowledge first appear'd,
And the old dark mysterious clouds were clear'd,
The heavy caufe of th' old accurfed flood
Sunk in the facred deluge of his blood.
His paffion, man from his firft fall redeem'd;
Once more to paradife reftor'd we feem'd;
Satan himself was bound, till th' iron chain
Our pride did break, and let him loose again.
Still the old fting remain'd, and man began
To tempt the forpent, as he tempted man;
Then hell fends forth her furies, Avarice, Pride,
Fraud, Discord, Force, Hypocrify, 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:

Vates. Seneca. The Prophecy.

The fifher to convert the world began,
The pride convincing of vain-glorious man;
But foon his followers grew a fovereign lord,
And Peter's keys exchang'd for Peter's fword,
Which ftill maintains for his adopted fon
Vaft patrimonies, though himself had none;
Wrefting the text to the old giants' sense,
That heaven, once more, mutt fuffer violence.
Then fubtle doctors fcriptures made their prize,
Cafuifts, like cocks, ftruck out each other's eyes;
Then dark diftinctions reafon's light difguis'd,
And into atoms truth anatomiz'd.
Then Mahomet's crefcent, by our feuds encreaft,
Blafted 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 emiffary, rofe from hell

1

To poffels Peter's chair, that Hildebrand,
Whofe foot on mitres, then on crowns did ftand,
And before that exalted idol, all

(Whom we call Gods on earth) did proftrate fall.
Then darknefs Europe's face did overspread,
From lazy cells, where fuperftition bred,
Which, link'd with blind obedience, fo encreaft,
That the whole world, fome ages, they oppreft;
Till through thofe clouds the fun of knowledge
brake,

And Europe from her lethargy did wage;
Then firft our monarchs were acknowledg'd here,
That they their churches' nurfing fathers were,
When Lucifer no longer could advance
His works on the falfe ground of ignorance,
New arts he tries, and new defigns he lays,
Then his well-ftudy'd mafter-piece he plays;
Loyola, Luther, Calvin he infpires,

And kindles with infernal flames their fires,
Sends their forerunner (confcious of th' event)
Printing, his moft pernicious inftrument!
Wild controverfy then, which long had flept,
Into the prefs from ruin'd cloyfters leapt ;
No longer by implicit faith we err,
Whilst every man's his own interpreter;
No more conducted now by Aaron's rod,
Lay elders, from their ends create their God;
But feven wife men the ancient world did know,
We scarce know feven who think themselves
not fo.

When man learn'd undefil'd religion,

We were commanded to be all as one;
Fiery difputes 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 fects and infects come in throngs;
To name them all would tire a hundred tongues.
So were the centaurs of Ixion's race,
Who a bright cloud for Juno did embrace;
And fuch the monsters of Chimæra's Lind,
Lions before, and dragons were behind.
Then from the clashes between popes and kings,
Debate, like fparks from flints' collifion, fprings,

Uncharitable zeal our reason whets,
And double edges on our paffions fets;
'Tis the most certain fign the world's accurft,
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 fun like this (from which our fight we have)
Gaz'd on too long, refumes the light he gave;
And when thick mifts of doubts obfcure his beams,
Our guide is error, and our visions dreams;
'Twas no falfe heraldry, when madness drew
Her pedigree from those who too much knew;
Who in deep mines for hidden knowledge toils,
Like guns o'er-charg'd, breaks, miffes, or recoils;
When fubtle wits have spun their thread too fine,
'Tis weak and fragile like Arachne's line:
True piety, without ceffation toft
By theories, the practice part is loft,
And like a ball bandy'd 'twixt pride and wit,
Rather than yield, both fides the prize will quit;
Then whilft his foe each gladiator foils,
The atheift looking on, enjoys the fpoils.
Through feas of knowledge we our course advance,
Discovering ftill new worlds of ignorance;
And these discoveries make us all confefs
That fublunary fcience is but guess,
Matters of fact to man are only known,
And what feems more is mere opinion;
The ftanders-by fee clearly this event,
All partics fay they're fure, yet all diffent;
With their new light our bold inspectors prefs
Like Cham, to fhew their father's nakedness,
By whofe example, after-ages may
Discover, we more naked are than they;
All human wisdom, to divine, is folly;
This truth, the wifeft man made melancholy;
Hope, or belief, or guefs, gives fome relief,
But to be fure we are deceiv'd, brings grief:
Who thinks his wife is virtuous, though not fo,
Is pleas'd, and patient, till the truth he know.
Our God, when heaven 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 bridegroom from the east, the fun
Sets forth, he thither, whence he came, doth run;
Into earth's fpungy veins the ocean finks,
Thofe rivers to replenish which he drinks;
So learning, which from reason's fountain fprings,
Back to the fource, fome fecret channel brings.
'Tis happy when our streams of knowledge flow
To fill their banks, but not to overthrow.

With wisdom, nothing makes them more renown'd,

Than that thofe years, which others think ex

treme,

Nor to yourself, nor us uneafy feem;

Under which weight moft, like th' old giants,

groan,

When Ætna on their backs by Jove was thrown. CATO. What you urge, Scipio, from right reafon flows;

All parts of age feem burthenfome to those
Who virtue's and true wifdom's happiness
Cannot difcern; but they who thofe poffefs,
In what's impos'd by nature find no grief,
Of which our age is (next our death) the chief,
Which though all equally defire t' obtain,
Yet when they have obtain'd it, they complain;
Such our inconftancies and follies are,
We fay it fteals upon us unaware:

Our want of reasoning these false measures makes,
Youth runs to age, as childhood youth o'ertakes.
How much more grievous would our lives appear,
To reach th' eighth hundred, than the eightieth
year?

Of what, in that long space of time hath past,
To foolish age will no remembrance last.
My age's conduct when you seem t' admire,
(Which that it may deserve, I much defire)
'Tis my first rule, on nature, as my guide
Appointed by the Gods, I have rely'd;
And nature (which all acts of life defigns)
Not like ill poets, in the last declines:
But fome one part must be the last of all,
Which, like ripe fruits, muft either rot, or fall.
And this from nature must be gently borne,
Elfe her (as giants did the Gods) we fcorn.
LæL. But, fir, 'tis Scipio's and my defire,
Since to long life we gladly would afpire,
That from your grave inftructions we might
hear,

How we, like you, may this great burthen bear.
CAT. This I refolv'd before, but now shall do
With great delight, fince 'tis requir'd by you.
LAL. If to yourself it will not tedious prove,
Nothing in us a greater joy can move,
That as old travellers the young instruct,
Your long, our fhort experience may conduct.
CAT. 'Tis true (as the old proverb doth relate)
Equals with equals often congregate..
Two confuls (who in years my equals were)
When fenators, lamenting I did hear,

That age from them had all their pleasures torn,
And them their former fuppliants now scorn:
They, what is not to be accus'd, accufe,

Not others, but themselves their age abuse;
Elfe this might me concern, and all my friends,

Of honour, wealth, and power, to make them sweet,
Not every one fuch happiness can meet.
CAT. Some weight your argument, my Lælius,
bears,

But not fo much as at first fight appears.
This answer by Themistocles was made,
(When a Seriphian thus did him upbraid,
You thofe great honours to your country owe,
Not to yourself-Had I at Seripho
Been born, fuch honour I had never seen,
Nor you, if an Athenian you had been:
So age, cloath'd in indecent poverty,
To the most prudent cannot easy be;
But to a fool, the greater his estate,
The more uneafy is his age's weight.
Age's chief arts, and arms, are to grow wife,
Virtue to know, and known to exercise;
All just returns to age then virtue makes,
Nor her in her extremity forfakes;
The sweetest cordial we receive at laft,
Is confcience of our virtuous actions past.
I (when a youth) with reverence did look
On Quintus Fabius, who Tarentum took;
Yet in his age fuch cheerfulness was seen,
As if his years and mine had equal been;
His gravity was mixt with gentleness,
Nor had his age made his good-humour lefs;
Then was he well in years (the fame that he
Was conful, that of my nativity)
(A ftripling then) in his fourth confulate
On him at Capua I in arms did wait.
I five years after at Tarentum wan
The quaftorfhip, and then our love began;
And four years after, when I prætor was,
He pleaded, and the Cincian law did pafs.
With ufeful diligence he us'd t' engage,
Yet with the temperate arts of patient age
He breaks fierce Hannibal's infulting heats;
Of which exploits thus our friend Ennius treats,
He by delay reftor'd the commonwealth,
Nor preferr'd rumour before public health.

1. Because our body's firength it much impairs: 2. That it takes off our minds from great affairs: 3. Next, that our fenfe of pleasure it deprives : 4. Laf, that approaching death attends our lives. "Of all thefe feveral causes I'll discourse, “And then of each, in order, weigh the force."

THE FIRST PART.

THE old from fuch affairs is only freed,

Joy'd that from pleafure's flavery they are free,
And all refpects due to their age they fee.
In its true colours this complaint appears
The ill effect of manners, not of years;
For on their life no grievous burthen lies,
Who are well-natur'd, temperate, and wife;
But an inhuman and ill-temper'd mind,
Not any eafy part in life can find.

LAL. This I believe; yet others may difpute, Their age (as yours) can never bear fuch fruit

need;

But to more high affairs our age is lent,
Moft properly when heats of youth are spent.
Did Fabius, and your father Scipio
(Whofe daughter my fon married), nothing do?
Fabricii, Coruncani, Curii;
Whofe courage, counsel, and authority,
The Roman commonwealth reftor'd, did boast,
Nor Appius, with whofe ftrength his fight was loft,

2

Who when the fenate was to peace inclin'd
With Pyrrhus, fhew'd his reafon was not blind.
Whither's our courage and our wifdom come?
When Rome itself confpires the fate of Rome,
The rest with ancient gravity and skill
He fpake (for his oration's extant still.)
'Tis feventeen years fince he had conful been
The fecond time, and there were ten between?
Therefore their argument's of little force,
Who age from great employments would divorce,
As in a fhip fome climb the fhrouds, t' unfold
The fail, fome fweep the deck, fome pump the
hold;

Whilt he that guides the helm, employs his fkill,
And gives the law to them, by fitting still.
Great actions lefs from courage, ftrength, and speed,
Than from wife counfels and commands, proceed,
Thofe arts age wants not, which to age belong,
Not heat, but cold experience, makes us ftrong.
A conful, tribune, general, I have been,
All forts of war I have pait through, and seen;
And now grown old, I seem t' abandon it,
Yet to the fenate I prefcribe what's fit.

I every day 'gainst Carthage war proclaim,
(For Rome's deftruction hath been long her aim)
Nor fhall I cease till I her ruin fee,
Which triumph may the Gods defign for thee;
That Scipio may revenge his grandfire's ghost,
Whofe life at Canne with great honour loft
Is on record, nor had he weary'd been
With age, if he an hundred years had seen,
He had not us'd excurfions, fpears, or darts,
But counfel, order, and fuch aged arts;
Which, if our ancesters had not retain’d,
The fenate's name our council had not gain'd.
The Spartans to their highest Magistrate
The name of Elder did appropriate :
Therefore his fame for ever fhall remain,
How gallantly Tarentum he did gain,
With vigilant conduct, when that sharp reply
He gave to Salinator, I stood by,

Who to the caftle fled, the town being loft,
Yet he to Maximus did vainly boast,
'Twas by my means Tarentum you obtain'd;
'Tis true, had you not loft, I had not gain'd.
And as much honour on his gown did wait,
As on his arms, in his fifth confulate.
When his colleague Carvilius ftept afide,
The tribune of the people would divide
To them the Gallic and the Picene field,
Against the fenate's will, he will not yield;
When being angry, boldly he declares
Thofe things were acted under happy stars,
From which the commonwealth found good effects,
But otherwife they came from bad afpects.
Many great things of Fabius I could tell,
But his fon's death did all the reft excel;
(His gallant fon, though young, had conful been)
His funeral oration I have feen

Often; and when on that I turn my eyes,
I all the old philofophers despise.
Though he in all the people's eyes feem'd great,
Yet greater he appear'd in his retreat;
When feafting with his private friends at home,
Such counsel, fuch difcourfe, from him did come,

Such science in his art of augury,

No Roman ever was more learn'd than he;
Knowledge of all things prefent and to conie,
Remembering all the wars of ancient Rome,
Nor only there, but all the world's beside :
Dying in extreme age, I prophefy'd
That which is come to pafs, and did discern
From his furvivors I could nothing learn.
This long difcourfe was but to let you fee,
That this long life could not uneafy be.
Few like the Fabii or the Scipio's are
Takers of cities, conquerors in war.
Yet others to like happy age arrive,
Who modeft, quiet, and with virtue live:
Thus Plato writing his philofophy,
With honour after ninety years did die.
Th' Athenian flory writ at ninety-four
By Ifocrates, who yet liv'd five years more;
His mafter Gorgias at the hundredth year
And feventh, not his ftudies did forbear:
And, afk'd, why he no fooner left the stage,
Said, he faw nothing to accufe old age.
None but the foolish, who their lives abuse,
Age, of their own mistakes and crimes, accufe.
All commonwealths (as by records is feen)
As by age preferv'd, by youth destroy'd have
been.

When the tragedian Nævis did demand,
Why did your commonwealth no longer stand?
'Twas anfwer'd, that their fenators were new,
Foolish and young, and ch as nothing knew.
Nature to youth hot rafhnefs doth difpenfe,
But with cold prudence age doth recompense;
But age, 'tis faid, will memory decay,
So (if it be not exercis'd) it may;
Or, if by nature it be dull and flow:
Themistocles (when ag'd) the names did know
Of all th' Athenians; and none grow fo old,
Not to remember where they hid their gold.
From age fuch art of memory we learn,
To forget nothing, which is our concern;
Their intereft no priest nor forcerer
Forgets, nor lawyer, nor philofopher;
No understanding memory can want,
Where wifdom ftudious industry doth plant.
Nor does it only in the active live,
But in the quiet and contemplative;
When Sophocles, (who plays when aged wrote)
Was by his fons before the judges brought,
Because he pay'd the Mufes fuch respect,
His fortune, wife, and children to negle&;
Almoft condemn'd, he mov'd the judges thus,
Hear, but instead of me, my Oedipus:
The judges hearing with applaufe, at th' end
Freed him, and faid, no fool fuch lines had penn'd,
What poets and what orators can I
Recount! what princes in philofophy!
Whofe conftant ftudies with their age did ftrive,
Nor did they thofe, though those did them furvive.
Old husbandmen I at Sabinum know,
Who for another year dig, plough, and sow;
For never any man was yet fo old,
But hop'd his life one winter more might hold.
Cæcilius vainly faid, each day we spend
Difcovers fomething, which must needs offend;