Dumbness

Sure Man was born to meditate on things,And to contemplate the eternal springsOf God and Nature, glory, bliss, and pleasure;That life and love might be his Heavenly treasure;And therefore speechless made at first, that HeMight in himself profoundly busied be:And not vent out, before he hath ta'en inThose antidotes that guard his soul from sin.Wise Nature made him deaf, too, that He mightNot be disturbed, while he doth take delightIn inward things, nor be deprav'd with tongues,Nor injured by the errors and the wrongsThat mortal words convey. For sin and deathAre most infused by accursed breath,That flowing from corrupted entrails, bearThose hidden plagues which souls may justly fear.This, my dear friends, this was my blessed case;For nothing spoke to me but the fair faceOf Heaven and Earth, before myself could speak,I then my Bliss did, when my silence, break.My non-intelligence of human wordsTen thousand pleasures unto me affords;For while I knew not what they to me said,Before their souls were into mine convey'd,Before that living vehicle of windCould breathe into me their infected mind,Before my thoughts were leaven'd with theirs, beforeThere any mixture was; the Holy Door,Or gate of souls was close, and mine being oneWithin itself to me alone was known.Then did I dwell within a world of light,Distinct and separate from all men's sight,Where I did feel strange thoughts, and such things seeThat were, or seem'd, only reveal'd to me,There I saw all the world enjoyed by one;There I was in the world myself alone;No business serious seemed but one; no workBut one was found; and that did in me lurk.D'ye ask me what? It was with clearer eyesTo see all creatures full of Deities;Especially one's self: And to admireThe satisfaction of all true desire:'Twas to be pleased with all that God hath done;'Twas to enjoy even all beneath the sun:'Twas with a steady and immediate senseTo feel and measure all the excellenceOf things; 'twas to inherit endless treasure,And to be filled with everlasting pleasure:To reign in silence, and to sing alone,To see, love, covet, have, enjoy and praise, in one:To prize and to be ravish'd; to be true,Sincere and single in a blessed viewOf all His gifts. Thus was I pent withinA fort, inpregnable to any sin:Until the avenues being open laidWhole legions entered, and the forts betrayed:Before which time a pulpit in my mind,A temple and a teacher I did find,With a large text to comment on. No earBut eyes themselves were all the hearers there,And every stone, and every star a tongue,And every gale of wind a curious song.The Heavens were an oracle, and spakeDivinity: the Earth did undertakeThe office of a priest; and I being dumb(Nothing besides was dumb), all things did comeWith voices and instructions; but when IHad gained a tongue, their power began to die.Mine ears let other noises in, not theirs,A noise disturbing all my songs and prayers.My foes pulled down the temple to the ground;They my adoring soul did deeply woundAnd casting that into a swoon, destroyedThe Oracle, and all I there enjoyed:And having once inspired me with a senseOf foreign vanities, they march out thenceIn troops that cover and despoil my coasts,Being the invisible, most hurtful hosts.Yet the first words mine infancy did hearThe things which in my dumbness did appear,Preventing all the rest, got such a rootWithin my heart, and stick so close unto 't,It may be trampled on, but still will growAnd nutriment to soil itself will owe.The first Impressions are Immortal all,And let mine enemies hoop, cry, roar, or call,Yet these will whisper if I will but hear,And penetrate the heart, if not the ear.