An Extract From Charity

by W.COWPER. | Category: General | Feb 1959

All truth is precious, if not all divine,

And what dilates the powers must needs refine.

But reason still, unless divinely taught,

Whate'er she learns, learns nothing as she ought;

The lamp of revelation only, shows,

What human wisdom cannot but Oppose,

That man in nature's richest mantle clad,

And graced with all philosophy can add,

Though fair without, and luminous within,

Is still the progeny and heir of sin.

Thus taught, down falls the plumage of his pride,

He feels his need of an unerring guide,

And knows that falling he shall rise no more,

Unless the power that bade him stand, restore.

This is indeed philosophy; this known,

Makes wisdom, worthy of the name, his own;

And without this, whatever he discuss,

Whether the space between the stars and us,

Whether he measure earth, compute the sea,

Weigh sunbeams, carve a fly, or spit a flea,

The solemn trifler with his boasted skill

Toils much, and is a solemn trifler still

Blind was he born, and his misguided eyes

Grown dim in trifling studies, blind he dies.

Self-knowledge truly learn'd, of course implies

The rich possession of a nobler prize,

For self to self, and God to man revealed,

(Two themes to nature's eyes forever sealed,)

Are taught by rays that fly with equal pace

From the same centre of enlightening grace.

W.COWPER. | Feb 1959
General

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