Tixall Poetry/A Contemplation upon the Shortness and Shallowness of Human Knowledge

by unknown author

A Contemplation

upon the Shortness and Shallowness on Human Knowledge.

 

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If of the smallest star in sky
We know not the immensity;
If those pure sparkes that stars compose,
The highest human wit doe pose;
How then, poore shallow man! canst thou
The Maker of those gioryes know!

If we know not the air we draw,
Nor what keepes winds and waves in awe;
if our small sculls cannot containe
The flux and saltness of the maine;
If scarce a cause we ken below,
How can we the Supernail know!

If it be a misterious thing,
Why steele should to the loadstone cling;
If we know not why jett should draw,
And with such kisses hug a straw;
If none can truly yet reveale,
How simpathetick powders heale:

If we scarce know the earth we tred,
Or half the simples there are bred,
With mineralls, and thousand thinges,
Which for man's food and health she bringes
If nature's so obscure, then how
Can we the God of nature know?

What the bat's eye is to the sun,
Or of a gloworme to the moone,
The same is human intellect,
If on our Maker we reflect;
Whose magnitude is so immense,
That it transcends both soule and sense.

Poore purblind man! then sit thee still,
Let wonderment thy temples fill:
Keep a dew distance; doe not pry
Too near, lest, like the silly flye,
Whilest she the wanton with the flame doth play,
First fyres her wings, then fooles her life away.

 

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