A learned and a happy ignorance Divided me From all the vanity, From all the sloth, care, pain, and sorrow that advance The madness and the misery Of men.
No error, no distraction I Saw soil the earth, or overcloud the sky. I knew not that there was a serpent's sting, Whose poison shed On men, did overspread The world; nor did I dream of such a thing As sin, in which mankind lay dead. They all were brisk and living wights to me, Yea, pure and full of immortality. Joy, pleasure, beauty, kindness, glory, love, Sleep, day, life, light, Peace, melody, my sight, My ears and heart did fill and freely move. All that I saw did me delight. The Universe was then a world of treasure, To me an universal world of pleasure. Unwelcome penitence was then unknown, Vain costly toys, Swearing and roaring boys, Shops, markets, taverns, coaches, were unshown; So all things were that drown'd my joys: No thorns chok'd up my path, nor hid the face Of bliss and beauty, nor eclips'd the place. Only what Adam in his first estate, Did I behold; Hard silver and dry gold As yet lay under ground; my blessed fate Was more acquainted with the old And innocent delights which he did see In his original simplicity. Those things which first his Eden did adorn, My infancy Did crown.
Simplicity Was my protection when I first was born. Mine eyes those treasures first did see Which God first made.
The first effects of love My first enjoyments upon earth did prove; And were so great, and so divine, so pure; So fair and sweet, So true; when I did meet Them here at first, they did my soul allure, And drew away my infant feet Quite from the works of men; that I might see The glorious wonders of the Deity.
