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The Kingdom
of heaven is like unto a merchant man,
seeking
goodly pearls; who,
when he had found one,
sold
all that he had and bought it. -Matthew 13.45
I know
the ways of Learning; both the head
And pipes that
feed the press, and make it run;
What reason hath
from nature borrowed,
Or of itself, like a good
huswife, spun
In laws and policy; what the stars
conspire,
What willing nature speaks, what forced by
fire;
Both th' old discoveries, and the new-found
seas,
The stock and surplus, cause and history:
All these stand open, or I have the keys:
Yet I love
thee.
I know the ways of Honour, what maintains
The quick returns of courtesy and wit:
In vies of
favours whether party gains,
When glory swells the
heart, and moldeth it
To all expressions both of hand
and eye,
Which on the world a true-love-knot may tie,
And bear the bundle, wheresoe'er it goes:
How many
drams of spirit there must be
To sell my life unto my
friends or foes:
Yet I love thee.
I know the ways
of Pleasure, the sweet strains,
The lullings and the
relishes of it;
The propositions of hot blood and
brains;
What mirth and music mean; what love and wit
Have done these twenty hundred years, and more:
I
know the projects of unbridled store:
My stuff is
flesh, not brass; my senses live,
And grumble oft,
that they have more in me
Than he that curbs them,
being but one to five:
Yet I love thee.
I know all
these, and have them in my hand:
Therefore not
sealed, but with open eyes
I fly to thee, and fully
understand
Both the main sale, and the commodities;
And at what rate and price I have thy love;
With all
the circumstances that may move:
Yet through these
labyrinths, not my grovelling wit,
But thy silk twist
let down from heav'n to me,
Did both conduct and
teach me, how by it
To climb to thee.
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