Page 5
To the Right Honorable, the two HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT.
WHat Poets feign of Phaeton above,
(That, whilst he Sol's great Charet needs would move,
The World was plung'd in Conflagrations,
Through Reins then too-too loose) these three Nations
Have late found true: As if Enceladus
Had from-below turn'd a fresh side on us,
To let-loose Aetna's flames; Or else, as if
These floating-Islands had (by Waves most stiff
And sturdy Winds) quite-lost their Anchor-hold,
So now on this side, now on that side rowl'd;
Whilst Sun and Moon were blended, and for Stars
We direful Meteors had, the late Heav'ns Scars.
But (blest be God!) we are now once again
Under th' kind Influence of CHARLS his-wain:
And may we ever be so; with a Train
Of lesser Lights, to spring about that main!
Let Harington here fix blind {Milton's / Fortune's} ROTA;
Nor let it stir the breadth of an Iota.
This Land I promise firm: Again if thus.
It must turn round, be he Copernicus;
And so my self I'de rather Stoick plight,
Than Peripatetick, or chief Stagyrite.
Strange Revolutions were, when Strickland's Holland
Did England, Scotland, Ireland slight, as no Land!
Then Tyranny and Rapine led the Van;
And who 'de not act so, was the dang'rous man: