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Word A Word B Word C Word D Occurrence Frequency Band MI MI Band Prominent
truth_n great_a know_v world_n 4,002 5 4.4108 4 true
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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A62328 The Sceptical muse, or, A Paradox on human understanding a poem. 1699 (1699) Wing S847; ESTC R32629 3,876 14

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THE Sceptical Muse OR A PARADOX ON Humane Vnderstanding A POEM Veri nihil Omnia ficta Lucil. Heu quam praecipiti mersa profundo Mens hebet Boet. de Consol Philosoph LONDON Printed for R. Basset at the Goerge in Fleetstreet and Sold by Fr. Hicks Bookseller in Cambridge 1699. THE Sceptical Muse OR A PARADOX ON Humane Vnderstanding TO make a World and stretch the bulky Frame Beyond where Thought or Fancy ever came The great Creators Fiat did suffice Mov'd by one Word the Massy Sphere did rise But when he did the World's great Lord Create The Sacred Triad then in Council sate Let us make Man said God whom we 'll allow To rule the Globe and be Vice-God below Let us Create him too like us Divine And on his Soul let our bright Image shine So spake th' Eternal and was heard around Lowd Peals of Thunder did attend the sound Nature obey'd and lo The teeming Earth Produc'd a Figure of Ignoble Birth Of small account 'till the Celestial Soul Inform'd the Clay and so compos'd the whole As first the Primogenial Light was hurl'd And scatter'd through the yet unfinish'd World Till God proceeding on his work did place The Lucid Atoms in one shining Mass So those perfections which divided shone In Nature's works did yet unite in none Till Man appear'd a Creature more compleat Where all those lively scatter'd graces met This glorious Being thus Divinely made Exerts its pow'rs and wonders are display'd The Soul which was of purest Angel-kind The reflex Image of its Makers Mind At first unspotted by Polluting Sin With vigour did the Race of Life begin With all its Pow'rs and Faculties compleat Started with Joy and no resistance met Then th' Vnderstanding without pain did climb Capacious Active Lively and Sublime Clear as fair Fountains and as pure as they Chast as the Morn and open as the day The Will which always follow'd Nature's Voice Was ne'er deceiv'd but made a happy choice Judgment was then convictive and sincere And all Discourse as Intuition clear Then Truth or God himself whom Truth we name For God and Truth are without doubt the same Was always present and uncourted came That Immense Ocean which with Beauty flows That utmost Thule of Extended Vows The Soul possess'd nor from the Object mov'd But gaz'd admir'd contemplated and lov'd Love then that swe●● procession of the Mind Was from all Dross and Earthly Dreggs refin'd Wing'd with pure Zeal above the Clouds it rode And without Plato's Scale arriv'd at God To what perfection must that Schollar reach Whom God's Immediate Discipline did teach Man at the first in perfect state appears Mature in Knowledge and mature in Years From him We first Philosophy may trace Parent of Wisdom as of Human Race O the Vast Riches of this New-born Mind To furnish this Heav'n prov'd excessive kind Lavish'd its Treasures and left none behind Since then no Soul so brightly clad appears Such Seraph's Robes nor Heav'nly Garments wears Unstudy'd Knowledge only was design'd The rich Attire of Adam's glorious Mind Thro' Nature's maze he knowledge could persue And no dark Object could contract his View The Prospect lengthen'd as the Mind advanc'd While all before in beauteous Order danc'd Creation stoop'd and ev'ry Creature came Display'd its Nature and receiv'd a Name Thus Knowledge first was without pains acquir'd Man knew enough but yet to more aspir'd To be more knowing and more like his God Leaving the true forbidden paths he trod But O Abortive hopes O fickle Joy His vain Ambition God did soon destroy For lo A Cloud comes wing'd with sudden night Man falls by Sin and God withdraws his Light No more he finds the use of shining day But gropes for Knowledge and mistakes his way So Angels once a happy state could boast O the bright Glories of that shining Host But when th' Apostates fierce Rebellion dar'd Sin'd to be great and with th' Almighty warr'd Vengeance Divine did soon the fact persue And from Elysium sent the Godless Crew Our mis'ry then from Adam first we date Begun too soon and ending very late Life now does scarce one glimpse of light display We mourn in darkness and Despair of day That Nat'ral light once dress'd with Orient beams Diminish'd looks and now a Twilight seems A Miscellaneous Composition made Of Night and Day of Sun-shine and of Shade Through an uncertain Medium now we look And find that Falshood which for Truth we took So Rays projected from the Eastern Skies Shew the false Day before the true can rise Unhappy Man who through successive years To Life's last Ebb from early Childhood Errs No sooner born but proves a Foe to Truth For Infant Reason is o'er powr'd in Youth The Cheats of sense will half our Learning share And Preconceptions all our knowledge are Reason 't is true should over sense preside Correct our Notions and our Judgments guide But false Opinions rooted in the mind Hood-wink the Soul and keep the Reason blind Reason's a Taper which but faintly burns A Languid Flame that glows and dies by turns We see 't a while and but a little way We travel by its Light as Men by Day But quickly dying it forsakes us soon Like Morning Stars that never stay till Noon The Soul can scarce above the body rise And all we see is with corporeal Eyes That little knowledge now which Man obtains From outward Objects and from Sense he gleans He like the painful Bee must plod and sweat By day must toil by night that toil repeat And yet at last what little Fruit he gains A Beggar 's Harvest glean'd with mighty pains The Passions still predominant will rule Uncivil rude nor bred in Reason's School Our Understanding they with darkness fill Cause strange Conceptions and pervert the Will On these the Soul as on some flowing tide Must sit and on the swelling Billows ride Hurry'd away for how can be withstood Th' Impetuous Torrent of the boyling blood Be gone false hopes for all our Learning 's vain Can we be free when these the rule maintain These are the tools of Knowledge which we use The spirits heated will strange things produce Tell me who e'er the Passions could controul Or from the body disengage the soul Till this is done our best persuits are vain To conquer Truth and unmixt knowledge gain Custom the World 's great Idol we adore And knowing this we seek to know no more What Education did at first receive Maturer Age confirms us to believe The careful Nurse and Priest is all we need To learn Opinions and our Country's Creed The Parents precepts early are instill'd And spoil the Man while they instruct the Child To what hard Fate is Human-kind betray'd When thus Implicit Faith's a Vertue made When Education more than Truth prevails And nought is current but what Custom seals Thus from the time we first begin to know We live and learn but not the wiser grow We seldom use our