The Challenge. Nahum Tate Alexander Huber Editor Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
Broad Street Oxford OX1 3BG UK
Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive
Taylor Institution Library St Giles' Oxford OX1 3NA UK info@eighteenthcenturypoetry.org https://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/
Oxford This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Tate, Nahum, c. 1652-1715. Poems by N. Tate. London Printed by T.M. for Benj. Tooke ... 1677 pp. 122-123. [15],133p.

This e-text is part of the Works section of the Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive (ECPA).

XML created for the Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive (ECPA).

Typography, spelling, capitalization, and punctuation have been cautiously modernized. The source of the text is given and all significant editorial interventions have been recorded in textual notes. This 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.

Library of Congress Name Authority File (LCNAF) text-indent: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; text-align: center; text-align: right; text-align: left; display: inline font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;
The Challenge . YE Sages that pretend In Science to Transcend The dull illit'rate Crowd , You that of Ignorance impeach , ( Ere your Pretences be allow'd ) Define that Prudence which you Teach ; I fear 'tis much above your Learning's Reach . Prudence has no fixt Being , but depends On Person , Time , and Chance , And every petty Circumstance : Actions directed to the Self-same ends , May prudent th' one , the other peccant be ; For what would prove Discreet in Thee Perhaps were wild Extravagance in Me . The Ants are Wise , that from their Summer Hoard Supply their Winter Board ; And doubtless full as wise as They The Grashoppers that Play And Revell all their Harvest Days away ; For 'twere in Them a Sensless Drudgery To Toil for a Supply In Winter's Dearth , that must ere Winter , Die .