And all the Arts of Life, they chang’d into the Arts of Death in Albion.

And all the Arts of Life, they chang’d into the Arts of Death in Albion.

The hour-glass contemned, because its simple workmanship
Was like the workmanship of the plowman, and the water-wheel
That raises water into cisterns, broken and burn’d with fire,
Because its workmanship was like the workmanship of the shepherd ;
And in their stead intricate wheels invented, wheel without wheel,
To perplex youth in their outgoings, and to bind up labours in Albion
Of day and night the myriads of eternity, that they may grind
And polish brass and iron hour after hour, laborious task;

Kept ignorant of its use, that they might spend the days of wisdom
In sorrowful drudgery, to obtain a scanty pittance of bread ;
In ignorance to view a small portion and think that all,
And call it Demonstration, blind to all the simple rules of life.

 

W.B.