Hy did my parents send me to the Schools,

That I with knowledge might enrich my mind?

Since the Desire to Know first made men fools,

And did corrupt the root of all mankind.

For when GOD's hand had written in the hearts

Of the First Parents, all the rules of good;

So that their skill infused, did pass all Arts

That ever were, before, or since the Flood;

And when their Reason's eye was sharp and clear,

And, as an eagle can behold the sun,

Could have approached the Eternal Light as near

As th'intellectual angels could have done:

Even then, to them the Spirit of Lies suggests

That they were blind, because they saw not Ill;

And breathes into their incorrupted breasts,

A curious Wish, which did corrupt their Will.

For that same Ill they straight desired to know,

Which Ill (being nought but a defect of Good);

In all GOD's works, the Devil could not show,

While Man, their Lord, in his perfection stood.

Even so, by tasting of that fruit forbid,

Where they sought Knowledge, they did Error find;

Ill they desired to know, and Ill, they did;

And to give Passion eyes, made Reason blind.

For then their minds did first in Passion see,

Those wretched Shapes of Misery and Woe,

Of Nakedness, of Shame, of Poverty,

Which then their own experience made them know.

But then grew Reason dark, that she no more

Could the fair forms of Good and Truth discern:

Bats they became, that eagles were before;

And this they got by their Desire to Learn.

But we, their wretched offspring, what do we?

Do not we still taste of the fruit forbid?

Whiles, with fond fruitless curiosity,

In books profane we seek for knowledge hid?

What is this Knowledge but the sky-stol'n fire

For which the Thief still chained in ice doth sit,

And which the poor rude Satyr did admire,

And needs would kiss, but burnt his lips with it?

What is it, but the cloud of empty rain,

Which when Jove's guest embraced, he monsters got?

Or the false pails, which oft being filled with pain,

Received the water, but retained it not?

Shortly, what is it but the fiery Coach

Which the Youth sought, and sought his death withal?

Or the Boy's wings, which when he did approach

The sun's hot beams, did melt, and let him fall?

What can we know? or what can we discern?

When Error chokes the windows of the Mind;

The divers Forms of things how can we learn,

That have been, ever from our birthday, blind?

When Reason's lamp (which, like the sun in sky,

Throughout man's little world her beams did spread)

Is now become a Sparkle, which doth lie

Under the ashes, half extinct, and dead;

How can we hope, that through the Eye and Ear,

This dying Sparkle, in this cloudy place,

Can re-collect these beams of knowledge clear,

Which were infused in the first minds, by grace?

So might the heir, whose father hath in play

Wasted a thousand pounds of ancient rent,

By painful earning of one groat a day,

Hope to restore the patrimony spent.

The wits that dived most deep, and soared most high,

Seeking man's powers, have found his weakness such;

"Skill comes so slow, and life so fast doth fly;

We learn so little, and forget so much."

For this, the wisest of all moral men

Said, He knew nought, but that he nought did know!

And the great mocking Master, mocked not then,

When he said, Truth was buried deep below!

For how may we, to other's things attain,

When none of us, his own Soul understands?

For which, the Devil mocks our curious brain,

When, Know thyself! his oracle commands.

All things without, which round about we see,

We seek to know, and have therewith to do;

But that, whereby we Reason, Live, and Be,

Within ourselves, we strangers are thereto.

We seek to know the moving of each sphere,

And the strange cause of th' ebbs and floods of Nile;

But of that Clock, which in our breasts we bear,

The subtle motions we forget the while!

We that acquaint ourselves with every zone,

And pass both tropics, and behold both poles;

When we come home, are to ourselves unknown

And unacquainted still with our own souls!

We study Speech, but others we persuade;

We Leechcraft learn, but others cure with it;

We interpret Laws which other men have made,

But read not those which in our hearts are writ.

Is it because the Mind is like the Eye,

(Through which it gathers knowledge by degrees)

Whose rays reflect not but spread outwardly,

Not seeing itself, when other things it sees?

No, doubtless, for the Mind can backward cast

Upon herself, her understanding light;

But she is so corrupt, and so defac't,

As her own image doth herself affright.

As in the fable of that Lady fair,

Which, for her lust, was turned into a cow;

When thirsty to a stream she did repair,

And saw hersel