THE END OF KNOWLEDGE. (Bacon.) (HE mistaking or misplacing of the last or farthest end of knowledge, is the greatest error of all the rest. For, men have entered into a desire of learning and knowledge, sometimes upon a natural curiosity and inquisitive appetite; sometimes to entertain their minds with variety and delight; sometimes for ornament and reputation; and sometimes to enable them to victory of wit and contradiction; and most times for lucre and profession;-but seldom sincerely to give a true account of their gift of reason, to the benefit and use of men: as if there were sought in knowledge a couch whereupon to rest a searching and restless spirit; or a terrace for a wandering and variable mind to walk up and down with a fair prospect; or a tower of state for a proud mind to raise itself upon; or a fort or commanding ground for strife and contention; or a shop for profit or sale;-and not a rich store-house for the glory of the Creator and the relief of man's estate. TERNE Apollo! that thy sister fair Is of all these the gentlier-mightiest. When thy gold breath is misting in the West, She unobservéd steals unto her throne, And there she sits most meek and most alone; As if she had not pomp subservient; As if thine eye, high Poet! was not bent O Moon! the oldest shades 'mong oldest trees O Moon! old boughs lisp forth a holier din Innumerable mountains rise, and rise, HAIL, beauteous stranger of the grove! Thou messenger of Spring! Now Heaven repairs thy rural seat, Soon as the daisy decks the green, Delightful visitant! with thee I hail the time of flowers, The schoolboy, wandering through the wood To pull the primrose gay, Starts, the new voice of Spring to hear, And imitates thy lay. What time the pea puts on the bloom, Sweet bird! thy bower is ever green, Thy sky is ever clear; Thou hast no sorrow in thy song, No winter in thy year! Alas, sweet bird! now in my fate, Dark scowling skies I see Fast gathering round, and fraught with woe And wintry years to me. |