Eloquence.
I
To speak or write
Things which dare meet the searching Light;
Solid Discourses pois'd with fit
Judgment, and trimm'd with handsome Wit;
Sweet Numbers, which can Pleasure's Soul distill,
And thro' the willing Heart their Conquests thrill;
II
Words tuned by
The heavenly Sphere's high Melody;
Which with Devotion's Musick ring,
And the Creator's Glory sing;
Words which with charming ravishment surprize,
And all the Hearers' Souls imparadise;
III
Is brave, I grant:
And yet no certain argument
But he who thus doth speak or write
May be a Brat of swarthy Night;
Nor must we think to calculate the Men
By the sole Horoscope of Tongue or Pen.
IV
The Hand which paints
The Glories of sin-conquering Saints,
And makes the Deaths of Martyrs able
To breath fresh Life on a dead Table,
Upon a wicked Arm too often grows:
'Tis them, and not himself the Painter draws.
V
That Man for me
Not in whose Words, but Deeds I see
Zeal's gallant Flames. I dare not found
Substantial Worth upon a Sound:
His only is the solid Excellence
Of Rhetorick, whose Life's his Eloquence.
