Oculus Britanniae An Heroi-Panegyrical poem on the University of Oxford. Illustrated with divers beautiful Similes, and useful Digressions [by Nicholas Amhurst] |
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 | Oculus Britanniae |  |
See! that lean spectre! horrible and wan,
Whose meagre looks declare the quondam man.
Hail mighty Scotus! hail unrival'd sage!
The pride and glory of the monkish age!
Reverse of bookworm! which on books is fed
For books devour'd thee up, and wore thee dead
How didst thou toil and labour for mankind,
Who twenty folio tomes hast left behind!
Unlike the modern writers of our land,
Whom every shallow wit can understand,
So deep your logick flows and so profound,
No common plummet can the bottom sound.
Thy pride it was to sift the darkest themes,
To hood-wink truth and reconcile extremes,
Self-contradicting tenets to maintain,
And prove by reason, that all reason's vain.
Whose meagre looks declare the quondam man.
Hail mighty Scotus! hail unrival'd sage!
The pride and glory of the monkish age!
Reverse of bookworm! which on books is fed
For books devour'd thee up, and wore thee dead
5
Who twenty folio tomes hast left behind!
Unlike the modern writers of our land,
Whom every shallow wit can understand,
So deep your logick flows and so profound,
No common plummet can the bottom sound.
Thy pride it was to sift the darkest themes,
To hood-wink truth and reconcile extremes,
Self-contradicting tenets to maintain,
And prove by reason, that all reason's vain.
| Oculus Britanniae | |