274
��PARADISE REGAINED
��His whispering stream. Within the walls then view 250
The schools of ancient sages his who bred Great Alexander to subdue the world, Lyceum there; and painted Stoa next. There thou shalt hear and learn the secret
power
Of harmony, in tones and numbers hit By voice or hand, and various-measured
verse,
^Eolian charms and Dorian lyric odes, And his who gave them breath, but higher
sung,
Blind Melesigenes, thence Homer called, Whose poem Phoebus challenged for his own. 260
Thence what the lofty grave Tragedians
taught
In chorus or iambic, teachers best Of moral prudence, with delight received In brief sententious precepts, while they
treat Of fate, and chance, and change in human
life,
High actions and high passions best de- scribing.
Thence to the famous Orators repair, Those ancient whose resistless eloquence Wielded at will that fierce democraty, Shook the Arsenal, and fulmined over Greece 270
To Macedon and Artaxerxes' throne. To sage Philosophy next lend thine ear, From heaven descended to the low-roofed
bouse
Of Socrates see there his tenement Whom, well inspired, the Oracle pro- nounced Wisest of men; from whose mouth issued
forth Mellifluous streams, that watered all the
schools
Of Academics old and new, with those Surnamed Peripatetics, and the sect Epicurean, and the Stoic severe. 280
These here revolve, or, as thou likest, at
home, Till time mature thee to a kingdom's
weight;
These rules will render thee a king com- plete Within thyself, much more with empire
joined."
To whom our Saviour sagely thus re- plied:
��" 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 re- ceives Light from above, from the Fountain of
Light,
No other doctrine needs, though granted
true ; 290
But these are false, or little else but
dreams,
Conjectures, fancies, built on nothing firm. The first and wisest of them all professed To know this only, that he nothing knew; The next to fabling fell and smooth con- ceits; A third sort doubted all things, though
plain sense;
Others in virtue placed felicity, But virtue joined with riches and long life ; In corporal pleasure he, and careless ease ; The Stoic last in philosophic pride, 300
By him called virtue, and his virtuous man, Wise, perfect in himself, and all possess- ing.
Equal 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 lists, he leaves, or boasts
he can;
For all his tedious talk is but vain boast, Or subtle shifts conviction to evade. Alas ! what can they teach, and not mis- lead, 309 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 Soul they talk, but all awry; And in themselves seek virtue; and to
themselves
All glory arrogate, to God give none; Bother accuse him under usual names, Fortune and Fate, as one regardless quite Of mortal things. Who, therefore, seeks
in these
True wisdom finds her not, or, by delusion Far worse, her false resemblance only meets, 320
An empty cloud. However, many books, Wise men have said, are wearisome; who
reads
Incessantly, and to his reading brings not A spirit and judgment equal or superior,
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