Yet if Affliction once her warres begin,
And threat the feebler Sense with sword and fire;
The Minde contracts her selfe and shrinketh in,
And to her selfe she gladly doth retire:
As Spiders toucht, seek their webs inmost part;
As bees in stormes vnto their hiues returne;
As bloud in danger gathers to the heart;
As men seek towns, when foes the country burn.
If ought can teach vs ought, Afflictions lookes,
(Making vs looke[83] into our selues so neere,)
Teach vs to know our selues beyond all bookes,
Or all the learned Schooles that euer were.
This mistresse lately pluckt me by the eare,
And many a golden lesson hath me taught;
Hath made my Senses quicke, and Reason cleare,
Reform'd my Will and rectifide my Thought.
So doe the winds and thunders cleanse the ayre;
So working lees[84] settle and purge the wine;
So lop't and prunèd trees doe flourish faire;
So doth the fire the drossie gold refine.
Neither Minerua nor the learnèd Muse,
Nor rules of Art, not precepts of the wise;
Could in my braine those beames of skill infuse,
As but the glance of this Dame's angry eyes.
She within lists[85] my ranging minde hath brought,
That now beyond my selfe I list[86] not goe;
My selfe am center of my circling thought,
Onely my selfe I studie, learne, and know.
I know my bodie's of so fraile a kind,
As force without, feauers within can kill;
I know the heauenly nature of my minde,
But 'tis corrupted both in wit and will:
I know my Soule hath power to know all things,
Yet is she blinde and ignorant in all;
I know I am one of Nature's little kings,
Yet to the least and vilest things am thrall.
I know my life's a paine and but a span,
I know my Sense is mockt with euery thing:
And to conclude, I know my selfe a MAN,
Which is a proud, and yet a wretched thing.