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Tis true, the world in every states Dominion,
Is now of this, and then of that opinion;
For none alive (which on the Earth do dwell)
Can shew what 'twas, or yet for certain tell,
But by conjecture (likeliest) to be guest,
The ground and sum of all mens judgements best,
Reveald by study in the arts divine,
To all the sisters, learned muses nine,
That Cains most feareful punishment and marke,
For raking up his brother in the darke:
Was that his skin was all to blacknesse turn'd,
Like to a coale within the fire half burnd.
95.
Ah cursed Caine the scourge of all thy race, Now thou hast got a blacke and murdering face, For God above (in justice) hath ordaind, Thy offspring all should to this day be stained, Unto the griefe and terror of their soules, For laying Habel in cold dusty moulds, No other cause the world could ever tell, To make them looke as if they came from Hell, Amongst the devils at every step to start, The fatal place where thou (vile wretch) now art.
96.
Some have alledg'd out of their brains and wit, The sun himselfe to be the cause of it, That in the hot and torrid burning Zone, Under the line there Phaeton alone Must drive his cart and team a little higher, Or else again the world would be on fire, The heate extreme their bodyes doth inflame, Their flesh it parches, and their stomackes tame, Their blood it dries, their humors all adust, As if their skin were overgrowne with rust
If this be true, how is it that there bee
In Africa, America to see
Under the line both people white and faire,
As many men that now in Europe are,
There borne and bred by courteous natures lawes,
A pregnant signe that cannot be the cause.
97.
Againe, the Sun with labour great and paine, If that the line but once he doth attaine Though to the earth he seemeth somewhat nigher Yet in his sphearehe's mounted farremore higher, More temperate there, the people live and well, Than do the men under the Tropicks dwell, And twice a yeere he useth there to burne, When once a yeere (i* th' Tropicks) serves his turne.
98.
And other men have other reasons found To shew the cause which to like purpose sound : There be that say, the dryness of the soil, May be the cause that doth their bodies soil, To make them look worse than a Colliers Elfe, Much like the Devil and cursed Cain himselfe, From top to toe, from head unto the foot, As if with grease they were besmeard and soot. .
