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| SURE 1 Man was born to meditate on things, | |
| And to contemplate the eternal springs | |
| Of God and Nature, glory, bliss, and pleasure; | |
| That life and love might be his Heavenly treasure; | |
| And therefore speechless made at first, that He | 5 |
| Might in himself profoundly busied be: | |
| And not vent out, before he hath ta’en in | |
| Those antidotes that guard his soul from sin. | |
| Wise Nature made him deaf, too, that He might | |
| Not be disturbed, while he doth take delight | 10 |
| In inward things, nor be deprav’d with tongues, | |
| Nor injured by the errors and the wrongs | |
| That mortal words convey. For sin and death | |
| Are most infused by accursèd breath, | |
| That flowing from corrupted entrails, bear | 15 |
| Those hidden plagues which souls may justly fear. | |
| This, my dear friends, this was my blessed case; | |
| For nothing spoke to me but the fair face | |
| Of Heaven and Earth, before myself could speak, | |
| I then my Bliss did, when my silence, break. | 20 |
| My non-intelligence of human words | |
| Ten thousand pleasures unto me affords; | |
| For while I knew not what they to me said, | |
| Before their souls were into mine convey’d, | |
| Before that living vehicle of wind | 25 |
| Could breathe into me their infected mind, | |
| Before my thoughts were leaven’d with theirs, before | |
| There any mixture was; the Holy Door, | |
| Or gate of souls was close, and mine being one | |
| Within itself to me alone was known. | 30 |
| Then did I dwell within a world of light, | |
| Distinct and separate from all men’s sight, | |
| Where I did feel strange thoughts, and such things see | |
| That were, or seem’d, only reveal’d to me, | |
| There I saw all the world enjoyed by one; | 35 |
| There I was in the world myself alone; | |
| No business serious seemed but one; no work | |
| But one was found; and that in me did lurk. | |
| D’ye ask me what? It was with clearer eyes | |
| To see all creatures full of Deities; | 40 |
| Especially one’s self: And to admire | |
| The satisfaction of all true desire: | |
| ’Twas to be pleased with all that God hath done; | |
| ’Twas to enjoy even all beneath the sun: | |
| ’Twas with a steady and immediate sense | 45 |
| To feel and measure all the excellence | |
| Of things; ’twas to inherit endless treasure, | |
| And to be filled with everlasting pleasure: | |
| To reign in silence, and to sing alone, | |
| To see, love, covet, have, enjoy and praise, in one: | 50 |
| To prize and to be ravish’d; to be true, | |
| Sincere and single in a blessed view | |
| Of all His gifts. Thus was I pent within | |
| A fort, impregnable to any sin: | |
| Until the avenues being open laid | 55 |
| Whole legions entered, and the forts betrayed: | |
| Before which time a pulpit in my mind, | |
| A temple and a teacher I did find, | |
| With a large text to comment on. No ear | |
| But eyes themselves were all the hearers there, | 60 |
| And every stone, and every star a tongue, | |
| And every gale of wind a curious song. | |
| The Heavens were an oracle, and spake | |
| Divinity: the Earth did undertake | |
| The office of a priest; and I being dumb | 65 |
| (Nothing besides was dumb), all things did come | |
| With voices and instructions; but when I | |
| Had gained a tongue, their power began to die. | |
| Mine ears let other noises in, not theirs, | |
| A noise disturbing all my songs and prayers. | 70 |
| My foes pulled down the temple to the ground; | |
| They my adoring soul did deeply wound | |
| And casting that into a swoon, destroyed | |
| The Oracle, and all I there enjoyed: | |
| And having once inspired me with a sense | 75 |
| Of foreign vanities, they march out thence | |
| In troops that cover and despoil my coasts, | |
| Being the invisible, most hurtful hosts. | |
| Yet the first words mine infancy did hear | |
| The things which in my dumbness did appear, | 80 |
| Preventing all the rest, got such a root | |
| Within my heart, and stick so close unto ’t, | |
| It may be trampled on, but still will grow | |
| And nutriment to soil itself will owe. | |
| The first Impressions are Immortal all, | 85 |
| And let mine enemies hoop, cry, roar, or call, | |
| Yet these will whisper if I will but hear, | |
| And penetrate the heart, if not the ear. | |
