ODE XXXVIII.
[Rapt by my better Genius, beyond]
1
Rapt by my better Genius, beyond
The power of Earth; I sitt,
And see all humaine follye in its kind.
Not what wee fancie witt,
But has its blemish there; or Arrogance,
Or selfe-opinion,
Or Impudence, or Flatterie, or Chance,
Or blind Affection,
Support the maine. These set away,
What common Things wee doe or Say.
2
Poor crauling Emmetts! in what busie toyle
Wee slip away our Time?
Our glorious Daylight and our midnight oyle
Spent to enlarge our Crime.
What a prodigious Spectacle I veiwe!
When I from hence looke downe
Vpon the Common Earth, which once I knew,
And made my proper owne!
With as much Zeale, as were my Fate
Chained to the whirle of her Estate.
3
Now got above the mist of flesh and blood,
I am inform'd aright,
In all the Misterie of Bad and Good:
A never-fadeing Light
Surrounds me, that to Iudge I cannot erre.
What have I rashly said?
Arrogant foole! my Taper went out here,
And left me halfe-dismaied,
To thinke how it a Tipe might be
Of the great Light put out in Mee.