Poems, and phancies written By the Thrice Noble, Illustrious, And Excellent Princess The Lady Marchioness of Newcastle [i.e. Margaret Cavendish]. The Second Impression, much Altered and Corrected |
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A Dialogue betwixt Man and Nature.
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 | Poems, and phancies |  |
A Dialogue betwixt Man and Nature.
Man.It is most strange,
How we do Change;
First to Live, and then to Dye,
Is the greatest misery.
To give us Sense, for nought but Pains to feel,
To makes our Lives only to be Death's Wheel;
To give us Reason, and yet not to know
What we are made for, or what we must do,
Whether to Atomes turn, or to Heav'n fly,
Or change into new Forms and never Dye;
Or else to the prime Matter fall again,
Thence take new Forms and so always remain:
Nature gives no such Knowledge to Mankind,
But strong Desires, which do torment his Mind;
And Senses, which like Hounds do run about,
Yet never can the perfect Truth find out.
O Nature, Nature, Cruel to Mankind,
Gives Knowledge none, but Misery to find.
Nature.
Why doth Mankind complain, and make such moan,
May not I work my will with what's my own?
But men amongst themselves Contract, and make
A Bargain for my Tree, that Tree they take,
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And form it as they please, then Build withall:
Although that Tree by me, to stand, was grac'd,
Just as it grows, by none to be Defac'd.
Man.
O Nature, Trees are Dull, and have no Sense,
And therefore feel no Pain, nor take Offence.
Nature.
But Beasts have Life, and Sense, and Passions strong,
Yet cruel Man doth Kill, and doth them VVrong;
To take that Life before the time, which I
Ordain'd for them, 's to me an Injury.
Man.
What ill Man doth, Nature did make him do,
And he by Nature is prompt thereunto;
For it was in great Nature's power and will,
To make him as She pleased, good or ill.
Though Beasts have Sense, feel pain, yet whilst they Live
They Reason want, for to dispute, or grieve.
Beasts have no pain but what in Sense doth lye,
Nor troubled thoughts to think how they shall Dye.
Reason doth stretch Man's mind upon the Rack,
With Hopes & Joys pull'd up, with Fear pull'd back;
Desire doth Whip and makes him run amain;
Despair doth Wound, and pulls him back again:
For Nature, thou mad'st Man betwixt extremes,
VVants perfect Knowledge, though thereof he Dreams;
For had he been like to a stock or stone,
Or like a Beast to Live with Sense alone,
Then might he Eat and Drink, and all be well,
Ne're troubled be, neither for Heav'n nor Hell;
Man Knowledge hath enough for to inquire;
Ambition great enough for to aspire;
He hath this Knowledge, that he knows not all,
And of himself his Knowledge is but small,
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Two several qualities in Nature fixt,
The one like Love, the other like to Hate,
And striving both they do shut out wise Fate;
And then sometimes man thinks as one they be,
Which makes that Contraries so well agree,
That though the VVorld was made by Love and Hate,
Yet all is rul'd and governed by Fate.
These are man's Fears, man's Hopes run smooth and high,
VVho thinks his mind is some great Deity,
For though the body is of low degree,
In Sense like beasts, their Soul's like Gods shall be.
Nature.
Says Nature, Why doth man complain and cry,
If he believes his Soul shall never Dye?
| Poems, and phancies | |