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And like the Block, unmoved lay: but ours,
As much to active, like the Stork devours.
Is there no temperate Region can be known,
Betwixt their Frigid, and our Torrid Zone?
Could we not wake from that Lethargick Dream,
But to be restless in a worse Extreame?
And for that Lethargy was there no Cure,
But to be cast into a Calenture?
Can knowledge have no bound, but must advance
So far, to make us wish for ignorance?
And rather in the dark to grope our way,
Than led by a false Guide to erre by day?
Who sees these dismal Heaps, but would demand
What barbarous Invader sack'd the Land?
But when he hears, no Goth, no Turk, did bring
This desolation, but a Christian King;
When nothing, but the Name of Zeal, appears
'Twixt our best actions, and the worst of theirs;
What does he think our Sacrilege would spare,
When such th' effects of our Devotion are?
Parting from thence 'twixt anger shame and fear,
Those for what's past, and this for what's too near:
My eye descending from the Hill, surveys
Where Thames among the wanton Vallies strays.
Thames.Thames the most lov’d of all the Ocean sons,
By his old sire to his embraces runs,
Hasting to pay his tribute to the Sea,
Like mortal life to meet Eternity.
As much to active, like the Stork devours.
Is there no temperate Region can be known,
Betwixt their Frigid, and our Torrid Zone?
Could we not wake from that Lethargick Dream,
But to be restless in a worse Extreame?
And for that Lethargy was there no Cure,
But to be cast into a Calenture?
Can knowledge have no bound, but must advance
So far, to make us wish for ignorance?
And rather in the dark to grope our way,
Than led by a false Guide to erre by day?
Who sees these dismal Heaps, but would demand
What barbarous Invader sack'd the Land?
But when he hears, no Goth, no Turk, did bring
This desolation, but a Christian King;
When nothing, but the Name of Zeal, appears
'Twixt our best actions, and the worst of theirs;
What does he think our Sacrilege would spare,
When such th' effects of our Devotion are?
Parting from thence 'twixt anger shame and fear,
Those for what's past, and this for what's too near:
My eye descending from the Hill, surveys
Where Thames among the wanton Vallies strays.
Thames.Thames the most lov’d of all the Ocean sons,
By his old sire to his embraces runs,
Hasting to pay his tribute to the Sea,
Like mortal life to meet Eternity.
Though
