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The Works of the Reverend and Learned Isaac Watts, D. D.

Containing, besides his Sermons, and Essays on miscellaneous subjects, several additional pieces, Selected from his Manuscripts by the Rev. Dr. Jennings, and the Rev. Dr. Doddridge, in 1753: to which are prefixed, memoirs of the life of the author, compiled by the Rev. George Burder. In six volumes

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TO THE MUCH HONOURED MR. THOMAS ROWE, THE DIRECTOR OF MY YOUTHFUL STUDIES.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
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TO THE MUCH HONOURED MR. THOMAS ROWE, THE DIRECTOR OF MY YOUTHFUL STUDIES.

Free Philosophy.

I.

Custom, that tyranness of fools,
That leads the learned round the schools,
In magic chains of forms and rules!
My genius storms her throne:
No more, ye slaves, with awe profound
Beat the dull track, nor dance the round;
Loose hands, and quit th'inchanted ground:
Knowledge invites us each alone.

II.

I hate these shackles of the mind
Forg'd by the haughty wise;
Souls were not born to be confin'd,
And led, like Sampson, blind and bound;
But when his native strength he found
He well aveng'd his eyes.
I love thy gentle influence, Rowe,
Thy gentle influence like the sun,
Only dissolves the frozen snow,
Then bids our thoughts like rivers flow,
And choose the channels where they run.

III.

Thoughts should be free as fire or wind;
The pinions of a single mind
Will thro' all nature fly:
But who can drag up to the poles
Long fetter'd ranks of leaden souls?
A genius which no chain controls
Roves with delight, or deep, or high:
Swift I survey the globe around,
Dive to the centre thro' the solid ground,
Or travel o'er the sky.