Page:Gondibert, an heroick poem - William Davenant (1651).djvu/323

 that can never look on great Changes but with tears in his Eyes: for if all Men would observe, That Conquest is the Wheels of the World, on which it has ever run, the Victorious would not think they have done so new, and such admirable actions, as must draw Men from the noble and beautiful▪ Arts, to gaze wholly upon them; neither would the Conquer'd continue their wonder, till it involve them in sorrow; which is then the Mind's incurable Disease, when the Patient grows so sullen, as not to listen to Remedie: and Poesie was that Harp of David, which remov'd from Saul, the Melancholly Spirit, that put him in a continual remembrance of the revolution of Empire.

I shall not think I instruct Militarie Men, by saying, That with Poesie in Heroick Songs, the Wiser Ancients prepar'd their Battels; nor would I offend the austeritie of such, as vex themselves with the mannage of Civil Affairs, by putting them in mind, that whilst the Plays of Children are punish'd, the plays of Men are but excus'd under the title of Business.