Classic Poem

When he did read how did we flock to hear:
Sure some professors became pupils there.
He would refine abstractions: it was he
That gave the text all its authority,
As if the Stagyrite resigned his pen
And took his censure not his comment then.
And though with some the science goes for pelf,
His lectures made it to transcend itself.
He used the creatures as a scale to storm
The spiritual world, and though 'twas torn
And broken with uncertainties, yet he —
By reason, as by faith — a Deity
Could apprehend and reach. Thus having traced
These secondary things, his soul made haste
To view the Cause and then began to plod,
Nothing being left to puzzle him but God,
Whose mysteries he reached, as far as he
Of his great self had made discovery.
He plundered not the heavens, nor brought he down
Secrets from thence which were before unknown;
Yet some there are believe their wits so ripe
That they can draw a map of the Archetype,
And with strange optics tutored they can view
The emanations of the mystic Jew.
In this his pious ignorance was best
And did excel his knowledge of the rest.
But he is gone and Providence took him
To add to heaven another cherubim.
This to our tears may minister relief:
'Tis this preferment that does cause our grief.

When he did read how did we flock to hear:
Sure some professors became pupils there.
He would refine abstractions: it was he
That gave the text all its authority,
As if the Stagyrite resigned his pen
And took his censure not his comment then.
And though with some the science goes for pelf,
His lectures made it to transcend itself.
He used the creatures as a scale to storm
The spiritual world, and though 'twas torn
And broken with uncertainties, yet he —
By reason, as by faith — a Deity
Could apprehend and reach. Thus having traced
These secondary things, his soul made haste
To view the Cause and then began to plod,
Nothing being left to puzzle him but God,
Whose mysteries he reached, as far as he
Of his great self had made discovery.
He plundered not the heavens, nor brought he down
Secrets from thence which were before unknown;
Yet some there are believe their wits so ripe
That they can draw a map of the Archetype,
And with strange optics tutored they can view
The emanations of the mystic Jew.
In this his pious ignorance was best
And did excel his knowledge of the rest.
But he is gone and Providence took him
To add to heaven another cherubim.
This to our tears may minister relief:
'Tis this preferment that does cause our grief.