Thomas Humphry Ward, ed. The English Poets. 1880–1918.rnVol. II. The Seventeenth Century: Ben Jonson to Dryden
Ben Jonson (15721637)Epode (from The Forest)
N
Is virtue and not Fate;
Next to that virtue, is to know vice well,
And her black spite expel.
Which to effect (since no breast is so sure
Or safe, but she ’ll procure
Some way of entrance) we must plant a guard
Of thoughts to watch and ward
At the eye and ear, the ports unto the mind,
That no strange or unkind
Object arrive there, but the heart, our spy
Give knowledge instantly
To wakeful reason, our affections’ king:
Who, in th’ examining,
Will quickly taste the treason, and commit
Close the close cause of it.
’Tis the securest policy we have
To make our sense our slave.
But this true course is not embraced by many—
By many? scarce by any.
For either our affections do rebel,
Or else the sentinel,
That should ring larum to the heart, doth sleep;
Or some great thought doth keep
Back the intelligence, and falsely swears
They are base and idle fears
Whereof the loyal conscience so complains.
Thus, by these subtle trains
Do several passions invade the mind,
And strike our reason blind.