Emblems With elegant figures :: :: University of Virginia Library

It were some kind of Guilt but to reherse
How wanton sin once domineerd in verse:
Vice then usurp't the chiefest wits we know;
But now the choysest in religion flow.
See here are flames that shoot both heat and light,
To warm our hearts, & make our darknesse bright
That we inflam'd might love, and loving see
The holiest raptures clad in poetrie.
How sad's the world! Vertue no place can win,
Vnlesse by pleasure it be usher'd in.
Such is thy holy cosenage, which gaines
Men to that goodnesse by thy pleasing straines;
Which else they would neglect, if th'had not bin
Brib'd by delight in those, to let it in.
How poysoned is the world that there must be
Some poyson us'd for its recoverie!
How sick too is the world, whose health must be
Procured by its own infirmity!
To work this riddle cure, there's not in all
Thy Book a line, but is medicinall.

Thomas Wall, M. A. OXON