University of Virginia Library

MUSOPHILUS.

CONTAINING a Generall defence of all Learning.

TO THE RIGHT worthy Knight Sir Fovlke Grivell.

If I haue err'd or run a course vnfit
To vent my vnderstanding in this kinde
Your approbation hath beene cause of it
That fed this gratefull error of my mind
For your most worthy and iudicious Knight
Did first draw forth from close obscuritie
My vnpresuming verse into the light
And grac'd the same, & made me known therby:
And euery man we see is easily
Confirm'd in that wherein he takes delight,
But chiefly when he findes his industry
Allon'd by him he knowes can iudge aright.
Though praise I feare me is not vertues friend
So much as we would make it seeme to be,
For more vndone, then raised thereby we see
Whereas themselues men cannot comprehend.
And for my part, I haue beene oft constraind
To reexamine this my course herein
And question with my selfe what is containd
Or what solidity there was therein.
And then in casting it with that account
And recknings of the world, I therein found
It came farre short, and neither did amount
In valew with those hopes I did propound
Nor answer'd the expences of my time
VVhich made me much distrust my selfe & ryme
And I was flying from my heart and from
The station I was set in, to remaine:
And had left all, had not fresh forces come
And brought me backe vnto my selfe againe,
And furnisht my distrusts with this defence
This armor wherewithall the best I could
I haue made good, against the difference
Offortune, and the world, that which I told.
And haue maintain'd your honor in the same
VVho herein holds an interest in my fame.