Page:Madagascar, with other poems - Davenant (1638).djvu/162

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I simply should so great a debt defray;I'le keepe it to maintaine mee, not to pay.Yet, for my soul's last quiet when I die,I will commend it to posteritie:Although 'tis fear'd ('cause they are left so poore)They'll but acknowledge, what they should restore:However, since I now may erne my Bayes,Without the taint of flatterie in prayse;Since I've the luck, to make my prayses true.I'le let them know, to whom this Debt is due:Due unto you, whose learning can directWhy Faith must trust, what Reason would suspect:Teach Faith to rule, but with such temp'rate law,As Reason not destroys, yet keeps't in awe:Wise you; the living-Volume, which containesAll that industrious Art, from Nature gaines;The usefull, open-Booke, to all unty'd;That knowes more, than halfe-Knowers seeme to hideAnd with an easie cheerefulnesse reveale,What they, through want, not sullennesse conceale.That, to great-faithlesse-Wits, can truth dispence'Till't turne, their witty scorne, to reverence:

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