Quarrels have long been in vogue among sages' Still, though in many things wranglers and rancorous, All the philosopher-scribes of all ages Join, @3una voce,@1 on one point to anchor us. Here is the gist of their mystified pages, Here is the wisdom we purchase with gold -- @3Children of Light, leave the world to its mulishness, Things to their natures, and fools to their foolishness; Berries were bitter in forests of old.@1 Hoary old Merlin, that great necromancer, Made me, a student, a similar answer, When I besought him for light and for lore: @3Toiler in vain! leave the world to its mulishness, Things to their natures, and fools to their foolishness; Granite was hard in the quarries of yore.@1 And on the ice-crested heights of Armenia, And in the valleys of broad Abyssinia, Still spake the Oracle just as before: @3Wouldst thou have peace, leave the world to its mulishness, Things to their natures and fools to their foolishness; Beetles were blind in the ages of yore.@1 | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...TO LADY ANNE HAMILTON by WILLIAM ROBERT SPENCER AN HYMN OF HEAVENLY LOVE by EDMUND SPENSER MAY MORNING by CELIA LEIGHTON THAXTER THE HYMNARY: 403. MARTYRS by ADAM OF SAINT VICTOR WESTWARD BOUND by BETSY H. ASHMORE FULFILLMENT by CLARIBEL WEEKS AVERY AMBITION by WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT TO MY HONOURED FRIEND MR. DRAYTON; AFFIXED TO 'POLYOLBION' by WILLIAM BROWNE (1591-1643) |