Thērologia, The parly of beasts, or, Morphandra, queen of the inchanted iland wherein men were found, who being transmuted to beasts, though proffer'd to be dis-inchanted, and to becom men again, yet, in regard of the crying sins and rebellious humors of the times, they prefer the life of a brute animal before that of a rational creture ... : with reflexes upon the present state of most countries in Christendom : divided into a XI sections / by Jam. Howell, Esq.

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Poema Tempestivum.

TRees spake before, now the same strength of Art Makes Beasts to cunn the Alphabet by heart, And cutt their Breaths to sounds Articulat, Discoursive congruous accents to prolate, For Speech is Breath, breath Air let in and out, But 'tis the Mind that brings the work about; Such a rare Charter the World's Architect Vouchsaf'd to give the Human Intellect To create Words, for 'tis Mankind alone Can Language frame, and syllabize the Tone.

But here Beasts speak, they mone, chide, and complain, And at the Barr of Justice Men arraign; Such are our crying sins, that Beasts resent Our miseries, and wretched case lament: Nor let it seem a wonder, because now Wonders and Monsters so familiar grow, This is an Age of Wonders, every Clime Abounds with Prodigies, Ther is no Crime, Not a notorious Villany or Fact, No foul Infandous Thing, or ugly Act That ever Adam's sons did perpetrate,

But we have flagrant Instances of late.

For Sacrilege, and horrid Blasphemies, Base Lies, created Fears, and Perjuries, For Scripture-pride, Extorsion, Avarice, (The root of all our Ills, and leading Vice) For public Fraud, false Lights, & fatuous Fires, Fanatic Fancies clad in Faith's attire; For Murther, and the crying sin of Blood, The like but One was never since the Flood. In summ, We may for these and thousands more Vye Villanies with any Age before; Which shews the World is Hecticall, and near Its Gran and Fatal Climacteric year; The whole Creation mourns, and doth deplore The ruthfull state of Human kind; Therfore If Men can not be warn'd when Men do Teach, Then let them hearken here what Beasts do Preach.

In Formas mutata novas Mens dicere gestit Corpora, & in primas iterum transversa Figuras. Diî faveant coeptis—

J.H.