The World

Love built a stately house: where Fortune came:
And spinning phansies, she was heard to say,
That her fine cobwebs did support the frame,
Whereas they were supported by the same:
But Wisdome quickly swept them all away.
Then Pleasure came, who liking not the fashion.
Began to make Balcones, Terraces,
Till she had weakned all by alteration:
But rev'rend laws, and many a proclamation
Reformed all at length with menaces.
Then enter'd Sinne, and with that Sycomore,
Whose leaves first sheltred man from drought and dew,
Working and winding silly evermore,
The inward walls and Sommers cleft and tore:
But Grace shor'd these, and cut that as it grew.
Then Sinne combined with Death in a firm band,
To rase the building to the very floore:
Which they effected, none could them withstand;
But Love and Grace by the hand,
And built a braver Palace than before.