[Page 202]

The ATHEIST and the ACORN.

1 MEthinks this World is oddly made,
2 And ev'ry thing's amiss,
3 A dull presuming Atheist said,
4 As stretch'd he lay beneath a Shade;
5 And instanced in this:
[Page 203]
6 Behold, quoth he, that mighty thing,
7 A Pumpkin, large and round,
8 Is held but by a little String,
9 Which upwards cannot make it spring,
10 Or bear it from the Ground.
11 Whilst on this Oak, a Fruit so small,
12 So disproportion'd, grows;
13 That, who with Sence surveys this All,
14 This universal Casual Ball,
15 Its ill Contrivance knows.
16 My better Judgment wou'd have hung
17 That Weight upon a Tree,
18 And left this Mast, thus slightly strung,
19 'Mongst things which on the Surface sprung,
20 And small and feeble be.
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21 No more the Caviller cou'd say,
22 Nor farther Faults descry;
23 For, as he upwards gazing lay,
24 An Acorn, loosen'd from the Stay,
25 Fell down upon his Eye.
26 Th' offended Part with Tears ran o'er,
27 As punish'd for the Sin:
28 Fool! had that Bough a Pumpkin bore,
29 Thy Whimseys must have work'd no more,
30 Nor Scull had kept them in.

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Title (in Source Edition): The ATHEIST and the ACORN.
Themes: religion
Genres: fable
References: DMI 23850

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Source edition

Winchilsea, Anne Kingsmill Finch, Countess of, 1661-1720. Miscellany poems, on several occasions: Written by the Right Honble Anne, Countess of Winchilsea. London: printed for J. B. and sold by Benj. Tooke, William Taylor, and James Round, 1713, pp. 202-204. [8],390p. ; 8⁰. (ESTC T94539; Foxon pp. 274-5; OTA K076314.000) (Page images digitized from a copy in the Bodleian Library [Buxton 100].)

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The text has been typographically modernized, but without any silent modernization of spelling, capitalization, or punctuation. The source of the text is given and all editorial interventions have been recorded in textual notes. Based on the electronic text originally produced by the TCP project, this ECPA text has been edited to conform to the recommendations found in Level 5 of the Best Practices for TEI in Libraries version 4.0.0.

Other works by Anne Finch (née Kingsmill), countess of Winchilsea