To the Same (T. S.) (Let Me Not Live If I Not Wonder Why)

Let me not live if I not wonder why
In night of rurall contemplation I,
So long have dream't, when from thy lips I might
As instantly gain intellectuall light
As by this Amphitheater of aire
The Suddain beames of Sol imbibed are;
Why then by reflex Letters like the Moon
Shine I, when thou invit'st me to thy Noon?
Why do I vainly sweat here to controule
Th' assertours of the perishable Soule,
Where all the reason I encounter, can
Scarse win beliefe a tustick is a man.
To reconcile the contradiction
Of Freedome with Predestination,
To be resolv'd the Earth doth rost upon
Her Ax is as a spit against the Sun,
Or what bold Argive fleet durst to translate
Of those beasts that first straid from Ararat,
Onely the noxious to America,
And how these puny Pilots found the way,
Or whether from the habitable Moon,
Like Saturn, they, and Vulcan, tumbled down,
Whether abroad Imaginations work,
Whether in numbers potency doth lurk,
Whether all Earth intended was for gold,
And thousands more we doubtfully do hold?
Thus we poor Scepticks in the region
Of Fancy float, foes to assertion,
But I will pearch on thee, and make my stand
Of setled knowledge on thy steady hand.