Page:Poetical Works of John Oldham.djvu/81

Rh Well pleased He was to find All answered the great model and idea of His mind: Pleased at himself He in high wonder stood, And much His power, and much His wisdom did applaud, To see how all was perfect, all transcendent good. Let meaner spirits stoop to low precarious fame, Content on gross and coarse applause to live, And what the dull and senseless rabble give; Thou didst it still with noble scorn contemn, Nor wouldst that wretched alms receive, The poor subsistence of some bankrupt, sordid name: Thine was no empty vapour, raised beneath, And formed of common breath, The false and foolish fire, that's whisked about By popular air, and glares a while, and then goes out; But 'twas a solid, whole, and perfect globe of light, That shone all over, was all over bright, And dared all sullying clouds, and feared no darkening night; Like the gay monarch of the stars and sky, Who wheresoe'er he does display His sovereign lustre, and majestic ray, Straight all the less, and petty glories nigh Vanish, and shrink away, O'erwhelmed and swallowed by the greater blaze of day. With such a strong, an awful and victorious beam Appeared, and ever shall appear, thy fame. Viewed, and adored, by all the undoubted race of wit, Who only can endure to look on it; The rest o'ercome with too much light, With too much brightness dazzled, or extinguished quite. Restless and uncontrolled, it now shall pass As wide a course about the world as he; And when his long-repeated travels cease, Begin a new and vaster race, And still tread round the endless circle of eternity.