He 's wisest that by others harmes growes wise When I behold the Queene of seas and night Shifting her formes in changes to our sight I see the world Cameleon-like pursue Her changing humors and her diuers hue Sometimes me thinks I see a peasant ride In his full-moone of surfet and of pride As if he tilted gainst authoritie Defied his Taylors importunitie Scornd his poore Saffron-laundresse and his hoast Beat his poore Shoomaker and rid in post To dicing-Tauerns next day without faile His moone is chang'd he damned in a Iayle Sometimes I see some sacred retiques turnd To Theaters prophane and tapers burnd For damned Comedies where singing quires At midnight cast their odoriferous fires Which to a diuell would appeare a change Of most vnchristian toleration strange Sometimes I see more then mine eyes would see Steeples to stables turn'd and Sanctitie Chang'd into rauenous Roabes of pollicie That I more wonder at this transmutation Then at the Moones alturnate alteration Againe reflect mine eye vpon the age That was and is I see times pilgrimage Corrupted with such pestilence of euill That man to man turnes wolfe nay more a diuell I see ambition begging innocence Well-landed for a foole as if all sense Were tied to pompe or policie of state That our best landed men are fooles by fate Which makes meÌ„ count a Scholler blest in Schooles Which though they begge the 'r seldom begd for fools He 's got in an Eclipse so weake by birth He liues by th' aire hath not a foote of earth This is a fatall thing prodigious chance Great fortunes fauour grossest ignorance Sometimes I see the euer-turning spheare Of man and fortune like new-Moones appeare Still waxing to a full increase of light Till it seeme round full circled and most bright To all men eyes till by the darkesome shade Of some mischance a blacke eclipse be made Thus haue I seene inconstant Tradesmen floate Now rich to morrow broake not worth a groate T is the condition of this glorious frame And all things that beneath the Moone we name Nay eu'n the things aboue her orbed face Do couet changes from their naturall place Till with mutations all things thinke it best To melt vnto their Chaos and so rest When man is borne and speechlesse prophesies Of times successions and his miseries He first begins to waxe then wanes to worse Sees many Moones and then begins to curse The changes of the times which many yeares His vexed soule hath markt the swift careeres Of Sunne and Moone and notes the age turnd Iew With tedious howers then he bids adeiw Vnto his golden daies when in his rage His long liu'd tongue speakes of the wicked age Tels what a braue world t was when Bullens towers Trembled like Aspen leaues at Henries powres Obseruing not the world the same to stand VVhen t is mens manners change and not the land Here could I fing the changes of all states Eu'n from the conquering and victorious gates Of Tyber-grasping Roome tell of her storie VVrite of her changes and her waning glorie Euen to this mightie Westerne Monarchie Since first the Danes subdude her libertie But more then I can write all things perswade What euer were or is to be shall fade And though the world were euiternall thought T is not eternall but shall change to nought But now I turne my sailes from seas to land Here 's more then men will reade or vnderstand Though orderly next to the firmament These wandring planets do themselues present And next to them earth water aire and fire Succeed in place my spirit to inspire VVith matter of diuine Philosophie To tell of euerie primate qualitie That with predomination doth present The Lordly pride of euerie Element In bodies mixt and first I should repaire To the three Regions of the subtill Aire Tell of the fearefull Comets in the skie Whose diuers formes giue to the prodigie Ten fearefull seuerall kinds which so we name As they are diuers in their formes or flame Of thunder lightning and their blasting mightâ— Of haile snow raine and tempests of the night Of Fiers that haunt Churchyards and forlorne graues Of Winds by which our ships dance on the waues Of earthquakes and the veines of euerie mine Of gold for which we cut the burning line Of plants of trees and of their qualities How in their formes and place they simbolize And how againe for enuie and despight The vine and Colewort neuer do delight To grow one by another then to sing Of glistering Iewels and each pretious thing To tell the vertue of the Chrysolite The sparkling Carbuncle that shines by night The purple Hyacinth whose stone imparts Sollace and mirth to our griefe-nummed harts The heauenly Azure Saphirs qualitie Whom Authors say preserueth chastitie The greene Smaragdus foe to Venus reakes Whose stone in hot coniunction blushing breakes And many more that by the glorious Sunne In the earths wombe take their conception These in their order should my pen incite Of Natures vniuersall workes to write And in sweet morall lectures to applie The worlds abuses to their misterie But that I hardly can be brought to thinke The time loues gaull by which I make mine inke Or haue so much wit in their shallow braines To reade and vnderstand me for my paines For by this plague we euer are outstript When we whip others we our selues are whipt By Carters and poore silly senslesse hinds Whose grosser bodies carry grosser minds For vnderstanding such lend onely lookes And thinke of Poems as of coniuring bookes Where in they see braue circles to the eye But more admire then know the misteriee Of Arts profunditie I feare none but such My selfe hath liu'd too long and writ too much FINIS Pâ—thagoras his opinion The end of Man Anaxagoras Principle Motus raptus Or contrary motion Plinie lib. 1. vt nauta naui it a intelligentia coeli Zab. lib. de motu coeli Scalig. excer 68. Sect. 1. Heauenneeds no place of conseruation Sol homo generat hominem Ptolomies opinion Empuros Arist. Aquinas his opinion Math. Ch. 5. In this heauen Paul was rapt Genes 1. Parescumparibus Sapiens dominabitur Astris Aâ—st lib. 1. de coelo The world is eternall Theophrastus Plinie Cic. Odimus quos timemus Uox populi vox Dei Corruptio vnius generatio alterius The beautious Princesse Elizabeth Arist. l. 4. probl 15. Animum cum coelo mutant Zabarell lib. 1. de motu grauium leuium Uenienti occurrite morbo Non nobis solum nati Aristocratâ—a Democratia Monarchia Omnis motus non est causa calorss Scaliger Virtus vera nobilâ—tas Omnia mea mecum porte Pithegoeas his opinion Anima est totaâ—toto in qualibet parte Thales opinion of water to be the mother of all things Himmasequitur temperamentum corporis opino Galen Zeuxis an excellent Painter Singulariae sensus vniuersaliâ— intellectus Aris. Topi. lib. prim Ichnumon or Pharoahs rat Regdomontanus made a Flie of Iron like a natural Flie. * Copernicus his opinion
On Peters rocke and not on Peters Sands The third in order of these things Diuine Is that bright heauen transparent Christaline Hauing no twinkling starre or glistering pride But like some waterie body clarified From wheÌ„ce some say that wheÌ„ the world was made And that great Elohim the globes bases laid Dispersing darkenesse and the tenebrous night To formes of beautie and celestiall light That then his mightie Spirit heauen did moue To seperate those waters from aboue From these below and to this element To place his likenesse in the firmament For since we see that seaes with earth compare And heauen with earth in things that likely are The earth brings foorth the dog the foamie maine And Heauen it selfe equiuocates the same When with his singing and canicular beames He bakes the earth and dries the Christall streames And therfore with Harmonious consent Heauen hath proportion to this Element And thus we reade in natures Characters Like liues with like to shun intestine warres The fourth heau'n is that glorious spangled globe Embost with starres and like a gorgeous robe Purl'd ore with natures Ape and Zany-art Trailes downe his starrie traine and doth impart Day to black night and with his groue of starres Like candles shine to wind wrackt Marriners Some fixt some wandring in their tinsell'd Orbe Whose number fixt Philosophers record To be one thousand two and twentie cleare Well knowne vnto the Sea-cuft Maâ—riner By these the iocund Boateson at first sight Soust with the Ruffin seaes and scratch with might Whistle a maine and from the hatches skip The nimble squires of the dancing ship And fearelesse kick the billowes with disdaine Tearing the curled bowels of the maine These giue propension to each mans deffects And by their fatall influence and aspects Besides that vniuersall prouidence On whose great nod depends each consequence Of second causes from their crittick powers At Caesars birth acts Caesars tragick howers But if their kind coniunctions smiling meete Our first natiuitie and with a sweet And Iouiall dalliance in a golden shower Kindly imbrace our first conceptions hower Then shall Augustus though but meane by birth Sway seuen hill'd Rome and taxe the verge of earth Foot-boyes shall pearch with Kings Tanners ride On great Seianus courser side by side With some most Lordly Consull Rearemice flie By daylight with the Eagles maiestie And will not reason mount Agathocles The Potters sonne to the Piramides Of honour and high state what vertue marres And hates in fooles shall prosper by their starres Yet feare not thou whose crabbed fate suspends Thy fortune progresse and whose learned ends Aimes at eternitie though whipt with need And dogged censure and whose wounds doe bleed With times incision sterne authoritie Dissecting Arts like an Anotomie Reading their physick lectures to the eares Of our contempts to greatnesse great in feares And pale suspects who iealious of deserts Doe Sepulcher aliue both Armes and Artes For thou in spight of their maleuolent rage Times simony and furie of the Age Ecclipses and all Planetarie hate Like a Byssextile-yeere shalt leape thy fate Wise men like sluces in the plague of warres Were made to rule those onely rule the starres Nor can base Gypses tell them of their fate Impostors with their figures calculate Of blacke futuritie Astrologie diuine The ascendent fortune of their heauenly signe For wise men are not borne as Midwiues be To waite on luckie howres or for the fee Of Bisket influence their vertue barres The superstition of such gossipping starres But more then man his reason rules the skies His manhood shares a godhead that is wise In this faire starrie Mirrour of the skie Damaskt with beautie and varietie Of thousand constellations whose cleare flames Are knowne in maps by their celestiall names For there the faire Oryon and the Beare Maior and Minor grace this hemispheare Swift Pegasus and Perseus radiant light Burnish the tan'd face of the blackemores night Bright Cassiopeia and Ioues Eagles shines Besides the constellations of the signes Which euery foole in Physicke can make good Their vse in purges pills and letting blood And euery Almanacke druggest poorely read Can tell what witlesse signe raignes in his head But leauing these beyond their yearely date To smoke an Indian sulphure we create Againe our hallowed Altars and in fires Of morrall vowes our sacred Muse aspires Tell me thou graue and mightie Stagerite Oracâ—lous Schocleman whose deluding light The lothsome Epicure and horrid sect Of damned Atheisme follow with direct And eager sent what genius could deuise To spread so large such monstrous heresies That euen besides graue Orpheus and the rest Proclus and Plinie and the learned brest Of sharpe Auerroes Christian Atheists crie The world 's eternall and shall neuer die VVhen by the state of starres we may discrie The world 's firme ruin and mortalitie And Platoes creature hauing life and breath As they decline shall languish vnto death And as a crazed bodie full of howers Renders his siluer head and vitall powers His radicall moisture spent and euery part Gasping for motion from the panting hart To natures disolution so shall passe Both heauen and earth vnto their pristine Mars Although some say that this great Continent And all this glorious guilt-hatcht firmament Shall change his forme and accidentall frame Although the part substantiall be the same Alleaging for their weake Philosophie This sacred place of sweet diuinitie Yet by the fall of starres our reasons prooue A totall wrack of earth and heauen aboue For first we see the Sunne whose bright Carrier Trots through the ring of time and dates the yeer In his diurnall progresse now declines More neere the earth then in the former times When learned Ptolome obserued the starres Their houses signes and different characters Cheering old Ops now doting with long daies VVith cordiall flames and charitable rayes That else in this consumption would exspire VVanting so bright a Nurse whose cheering fire Restores her health with his preseruatiue cure Adding new life to her old temperature Besides infection of each element Corruption of the purest temperament Physitions now turne Satyrs and complain That nature is a stepdame in the frame Of this last Age when croking Rauens sing Their liues large Charter merrier then a king The stately Stag a hundred yeares shall graze But man to wormes meate turnes in fewer dayes Pigmies for Gyants that with Babell power Were wont to scale the high Olympiade Tower And wrastle with the Gods now dwarfes are borne Ne're made to fight but made to natures scorne The Arcadian Kings two hundred yeares did liue But now the thriftie heauens doe scarcely giue Halfe of that pension to the noblest man His graue but sixe foot long his life a span VVhich shewes the world corrupted from his best Declines his setling progresse to the west For since all things from their sincere creation Couet absurdities in generation And euery thing steales to his priuatiue
looke Like Sculs in Church-yards that but late was tooke From gastly bones as if the world did lust Like Sextons to appeare in deadmens dust As if their periwigs to death they gaue To meale it in some gastly dead mens graue And thus like Ghosts appeare to humane sight As if a resurrection should affright The weakenesse of our natures which indeed Should with diuiner vse the morrall reade Of their owne frailties and like Phillips slaue Ring a memento of their ashy graue Iust of that colour for in such a face I reade the horrors of that deadly place VVhere Golgotha was found this must I tell Nor Schrichowses nor the fatall passing-bell Makes me remember pale necessitie Eternall silence of mortalitie Nore oft then powdred faces oh ther 's grace Th' are liuing graues and haue a sauing face Hence then you horrid drugs that do consume The noble rankes like graues and yet perfume Your vglinesse with pleasure to the sense Chasing their bloods with your hot excellence Of lust and amorous charmes begon growe dull And decke the forehead of one gastly scull That our faire formes may in their beauties rise Admir'd for red and whites simplicities But now from Venus Nunnerie of Loue Vnto the god of shifts our spheare we moue Charme earth great Hermes with thy Snaky rod VVhilest Englands Ioy adores the shifting God TO THE RIGHT WORSHIPFVLL AND WORTHY GENTLEMAM Sir Iohn Woodward Knight R. A. wisheth the best temporall happinesse and future riches Of Mercurie ☿ WOrthie Sir me thought I obserued in you a Saintlike adoration of vertue not to her Image but to her substance your actions crownes your worthy intentions and speakes you more then Gentleman like formalitie the eager appetite of her beautie makes me present her to you vnmaskt and vnpainted with adulterate complexion your incouragements are massie and this labour Geometrically proportioned to your person Your onely character is to be ingenious and generous I haue prooued it you may hap finde your natiuitie calculated vnder some of these Planets when their influence shall in some of them answer to your acute conceite I stand bound to you that haue so nobly espoused this labour for your bedfellow as Alexander kept Homers Iliades vnder his pillow this quintessence extracte◠from the Phylosophicall body of art without quacke saluing poetrie may perhaps teach you more then Paracelsian skill in the spirits of vertue and make you more then a bare professor of Alcumie rich and wealthie in the practise of her you know her grounds are infallible seeke her therefore in these Satyrs and proue rich in her Elixar Your worships to the best of art and power Robert Anton. THE PHILOSOPHERS SIXTH Satyr of Mercurie ☿ WHen I obserue how Alcumists disclose The fallacie of art with onely shewes Of Minerall spirits and with cheates present The alterations of each element And with their tricks like some most powerfull iet Draw greedy fooles to kisse the counterfet Of the Elixar as if art had done And made more gold then nature or the sunne Or their purse-purging-misterie of fire Could finde more wealth then Crassus could desire When I behold rich sweating Clownes bemone The losse of lands for the Philosophers stone Men of good worship gulld with oyles and glasses Pawning their plate in hope of gold like asses Oh then thou God of crochets and slie trickes My yerking Muse adores thy politickes When I behold a peasant rich in clothes Clad in a Tirian-die and skarlet hose Obscure in parentage and base in friends Hauing no lands to helpe but fingers ends And a false bale of dice and yet so roares In Ordinaries with his band of scoares And librarie of reckonings brauely payed With a high festiuall-surfet though displayed Then wittie Hermes tell the age permits How many gallants onely liue by wits When I obserue some Lawyer shift a case With Angels from his right from place to place Iuggle with by-clarkes and with counterfees Of either partie stretch their practises Vnto an Ambodexter course of right Smooth vp the weake and fawne on men of might Then winged Mercurie I doe admire The actiue flames of thy most subtill fire When I behold so many slights of men Eu'n from the scraping and rough Citizen Vnto the loftie-climing-dignitie Of some smooth Courtiers crauing subtiltie Then thou deepe charmer of quick Argus eies Thy art with thy bright planet doe arise When I behold a Vsurer ensnare The lauish issue of some hopefull heire Wrapt vp in bonds for some commodities With his damn'd broker by his policies Procures for composition then my braine Adores the Engins of thy wittie traine But tell me thou acute ingenious man That nam'st thy selfe a slie Mercurian Thou that like Scenica in memorie Transcends the vulgar in capacitie Thou whose rare vertues are vnparaleld VVhose words like Delphos Oracles are held Thou that do'st censure Homer to be blind Both in his mole-eied sense and in his minde And call'st thy selfe a wit at euery feast That cares to loose thy friends more then thy iest Keep'st company at Tauernes and canst write A baudie-pamphlet for a baudes delight Art criticall on stages and think'st Art To be diffus'd through euery sencelesse part Of thy weake iudgement like some great mans sonne Sent onely vnto Cambridge to begon Afore he reades his elements aright A great mans learning onely rests in sight Know'st thou not fend vsurper of sharpe man How art defines a true Mercurian Not euery Brazier though his art be rare Can equall skilfull Mirons molten mare VVhose brazen frame liue Stalions vs'd to couer As if to art proud nature were a louer Not euery limmer of phantastick shapes Can weare the name of Zeuxes for his grapes Not euery slash of ayres most subtill spirit Shall weare this planets influence with his merit Not euery brickel Poet that aspires And faine would flie with Sidneys noble fires Into the brest of greatnesse we insert Into the laureat Chor us of quick art And though the Kalends of these daies permits That euery man will companie the wits Scipio will haue his Ennius to indite And great Mecaenas baudy Horrace write A Pamphlet to I dolatrize their name Yet in the passage of immortall fame T is not the stirring motion of the pen Nor the phantasticke humors of those men No nor their flames begot in smoke and wine That can inspire their blockheads with diuine And most inuentions straines of rauishing fits Vnlesse great Hermes charme their apish wits VVith arts and deeper skill then that which wine Brings forth to shame good byrthes with bastard rime Nor euery Almanack-maker that can tell How euery Planet in his house doth dwell The quarters of the Moone and giue the reason To plow to purge to lib in euery season No nor a Gipses trickes in Palmestrie Can merit a true birth from Mercurie No nor a plodding Graduat deepe in art That searches euen the center and the hart Of euery scruple that with Snake-like twinnes