Read it through once

“I say that man was made to grow, not stop; That help, he needed once, and needs no more, {425} Having grown but an inch by, is withdrawn: For he hath new needs, and new helps to these. This imports solely, man should mount on each New height in view; the help whereby he mounts, The ladder-rung his foot has left, may fall, {430} Since all things suffer change save God the Truth. Man apprehends Him newly at each stage Whereat earth’s ladder drops, its service done; And nothing shall prove twice what once was proved. You stick a garden-plot with ordered twigs {435} To show inside lie germs of herbs unborn, And check the careless step would spoil their birth; But when herbs wave, the guardian twigs may go, Since should ye doubt of virtues, question kinds, It is no longer for old twigs ye look, {440} Which proved once underneath lay store of seed, But to the herb’s self, by what light ye boast, For what fruit’s signs are. This book’s fruit is plain, Nor miracles need prove it any more. Doth the fruit show? Then miracles bade ‘ware {445} At first of root and stem, saved both till now From trampling ox, rough boar, and wanton goat. What? Was man made a wheelwork to wind up, And be discharged, and straight wound up anew? No!--grown, his growth lasts; taught, he ne’er forgets: {450} May learn a thousand things, not twice the same. This might be pagan teaching: now hear mine.