Newes from the Dead/To the happy Instruments of the Executed Maids Recovery
To the happy Instruments of the Executed Maids Recovery.
Oxford (the Arts Metropolis) ner'e knew
A rarer feat then was perform'd by you.
Brave Æsculapian friends! whose Art could give
After the Execution a Reprieve.
And yet 'twas timely too: for though grim Death
Had seiz'd the passage of her Vitall breath,
Yet you a new one made: And the same Veine
That let out blood, receiv'd in Life againe.
The Soule, which is in every part entire,
Can, undiscern'd by you, to none retire:
Since you no lesse the tracke of soules doe know,
Than that of Liverets in new-fallen Snow.
Others can by their Chymistry reduce
A Plant or flower from its dust or juyce;
But your sublimer Art hath done much more
Whil'st humane soules you from their Urnes restore.
Yet though your skill and pity could dispence,
More daies to her beguiled Innocence:
No Art removes à ruin'd Virgins shame,
Unlesse revived she, be not the same.
Thus 'tis more easy to recall the Dead
Then to restore a once-lost Maidenhead.