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Sonnet xxi. To Cyriac Skinner.
For other things mild Heav'n a time ordains,
And disapproves that care, though wise in show,
That with superfluous burden loads the day,
And when God sends a cheerful hour, refrains.
Sonnet xxi. To Cyriac Skinner.
Yet I argue not
Against Heav'n's hand or will, nor bate a jot
Of heart or hope; but still bear up and steer
Right onward.
Sonnet xxii. To Cyriac Skinner.
Of which all Europe rings from side to side.
Sonnet xxii. To Cyriac Skinner.
But oh! as to embrace me she inclin'd,
I wak'd, she fled, and day brought back my night.
On his Deceased Wife.
[253]
Have hung
My dank and dropping weeds
To the stern god of sea.
Translation of Horace. Book i. Ode 5.
For such kind of borrowing as this, if it be not bettered by the borrower, among good authors is accounted Plagiarè.
Iconoclastes. xxiii.
Truth is as impossible to be soiled by any outward touch as the sunbeam.[253:1]
Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce.
A poet soaring in the high reason of his fancies, with his garland and singing robes about him.
The Reason of Church Government. Introduction, Book ii.
By labour and intent study (which I take to be my portion in this life), joined with the strong propensity of nature, I might perhaps leave something so written to after times as they should not willingly let it die.
The Reason of Church Government. Introduction, Book ii.
Beholding the bright countenance of truth in the quiet and still air of delightful studies.
The Reason of Church Government. Introduction, Book ii.
He who would not be frustrate of his hope to write well hereafter in laudable things ought himself to be a true poem.
Apology for Smectymnuus.
His words, like so many nimble and airy servitors, trip about him at command.
Apology for Smectymnuus.
Litigious terms, fat contentions, and flowing fees.
Tractate of Education.
I shall detain you no longer in the demonstration of what we should not do, but straight conduct ye to a hillside, where I will point ye out the right path of a virtuous and noble education; laborious indeed at the first ascent, but else so smooth, so green, so full of goodly prospect and melodious sounds on every side that the harp of Orpheus was not more charming.
Tractate of Education.
[254]
Enflamed with the study of learning and the admiration of virtue; stirred up with high hopes of living to be brave men and worthy patriots, dear to God, and famous to all ages.
Tractate of Education.
Ornate rhetorick taught out of the rule of Plato. . . . To which poetry would be made subsequent, or indeed rather precedent, as being less suttle and fine, but more simple, sensuous, and passionate.
Tractate of Education.
In those vernal seasons of the year, when the air is calm and pleasant, it were an injury and sullenness against Nature not to go out and see her riches, and partake in her rejoicing with heaven and earth.
Tractate of Education.
Attic tragedies of stateliest and most regal argument.
Tractate of Education.
As good almost kill a man as kill a good book: who kills a man kills a reasonable creature, God's image; but he who destroys a good book kills reason itself.
Areopagitica.
A good book is the precious life-blood of a master-spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life.
Areopagitica.
Seasoned life of man preserved and stored up in books.
Areopagitica.
I cannot praise a fugitive and cloistered virtue, unexercised and unbreathed, that never sallies out and sees her adversary, but slinks out of the race where that immortal garland is to be run for, not without dust and heat.
Areopagitica.
Who shall silence all the airs and madrigals that whisper softness in chambers?
Areopagitica.
Methinks I see in my mind a noble and puissant nation rousing herself like a strong man after sleep, and shaking her invincible locks; methinks I see her as [255]an eagle mewing her mighty youth, and kindling her undazzled eyes at the full midday beam.
Areopagitica.
Though all the winds of doctrine were let loose to play upon the earth, so Truth be in the field, we do ingloriously, by licensing and prohibiting, to misdoubt her strength. Let her and Falsehood grapple: who ever knew Truth put to the worse in a free and open encounter?[255:1]
Areopagitica.
Men of most renowned virtue have sometimes by transgressing most truly kept the law.
Tetrachordon.
By this time, like one who had set out on his way by night, and travelled through a region of smooth or idle dreams, our history now arrives on the confines, where daylight and truth meet us with a clear dawn, representing to our view, though at a far distance, true colours and shapes.
The History of England. Book i.
Such bickerings to recount, met often in these our writers, what more worth is it than to chronicle the wars of kites or crows flocking and fighting in the air?
The History of England. Book iv.
[223:1] But vindicate the ways of God to man.—Pope: Essay on Man, epistle i. line 16.
[224:1] See Book iv. line 75.
[224:2] Stream'd like a meteor to the troubled air.—Gray: The Bard, i. 2, line 6.
[226:1] Aristophanes turns Socrates into ridicule . . . as making the worse appear the better reason.—Diogenes Laertius: Socrates, v.
[226:2] Our hope is loss, our hope but sad despair.—Shakespeare: Henry VI. part iii. act ii. sc. 3.
[227:1] Rubente dextera.—Horace: Ode i. 2, 2.
[230:1] Compare great things with small.—Virgil: Eclogues, i. 24; Georgics, iv. 176. Cowley: The Motto. Dryden: Ovid, Metamorphoses, book i. line 727. Tickell: Poem on Hunting. Pope: Windsor Forest.
[231:1] Ye little stars! hide your diminished rays.—Pope: Moral Essays, epistle iii. line 282.
[232:1] See Herrick, page 203.
[232:2] Necessity is the argument of tyrants, it is the creed of slaves.—William Pitt: Speech on the India Bill, November, 1783.
[234:1] When unadorned, adorned the most.—Thomson: Autumn, line 204.
[238:1] "But most of all respect thyself."—A precept of the Pythagoreans.
[239:1] Stern daughter of the voice of God.—Wordsworth: Ode to Duty.
[240:1] Summum nec metuas diem, nec optes (Neither fear nor wish for your last day).—Martial: lib. x. epigram 47, line 13.
[241:1] The child is father of the man.—Wordsworth: My Heart Leaps up.
[245:1] See Shakespeare, page 56.
[247:1] Erant quibus appetentior famæ videretur, quando etiam sapientibus cupido gloriæ novissima exuitur (Some might consider him as too fond of fame, for the desire of glory clings even to the best of men longer than any other passion) [said of Helvidius Priscus].—Tacitus: Historia, iv. 6.
[249:1] Wisdom married to immortal verse.—Wordsworth: The Excursion, book vii.
[251:1] See Chaucer, page 6.
[253:1] See Bacon, page 169.
[255:1] Error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it.—Jefferson: Inaugural Address.
EDWARD HYDE CLARENDON. 1608-1674.He [Hampden] had a head to contrive, a tongue to persuade, and a hand to execute any mischief.[255:2]
History of the Rebellion. Vol. iii. Book vii. § 84.
[255:2] In every deed of mischief he had a heart to resolve, a head to contrive, and a hand to execute.—Gibbon: Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chap. xlviii.
Heart to conceive, the understanding to direct, or the hand to execute.—From Junius, letter xxxvii. Feb. 14, 1770.
[256]
SIR JOHN SUCKLING. 1609-1641.Her feet beneath her petticoat
Like little mice stole in and out,[256:1]
As if they feared the light;
But oh, she dances such a way!
No sun upon an Easter-day
Is half so fine a sight.
Ballad upon a Wedding.
Her lips were red, and one was thin;
Compared with that was next her chin,—
Some bee had stung it newly.
Ballad upon a Wedding.
Why so pale and wan, fond lover?
Prithee, why so pale?
Will, when looking well can't move her,
Looking ill prevail?
Prithee, why so pale?
Song.
'T is expectation makes a blessing dear;
Heaven were not heaven if we knew what it were.
Against Fruition.
She is pretty to walk with,
And witty to talk with,
And pleasant, too, to think on.
Brennoralt. Act ii.
Her face is like the milky way i' the sky,—
A meeting of gentle lights without a name.
Brennoralt. Act iii.
But as when an authentic watch is shown,
Each man winds up and rectifies his own,
So in our very judgments.[256:2]
Aglaura. Epilogue.
The prince of darkness is a gentleman.[256:3]
The Goblins.
[257]
Nick of time.
The Goblins.
"High characters," cries one, and he would see
Things that ne'er were, nor are, nor e'er will be.[257:1]
The Goblins. Epilogue.
[256:1] See Herrick, page 202.
[256:2]
'T is with our judgments as our watches,—none
Go just alike, yet each believes his own.
Pope: Essay on Criticism, part i. line 9.
[256:3] See Shakespeare, page 147.
[257:1]
Whoever thinks a faultless piece to see,
Thinks what ne'er was, nor is, nor e'er shall be.
Pope: Essay on Criticism, part ii. line 53.
There 's no such thing in Nature, and you 'll draw
A faultless monster which the world ne'er saw.
Sheffield: Essay on Poetry.
MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 1612-1650.He either fears his fate too much,
Or his deserts are small,
That dares not put it to the touch
To gain or lose it all.[257:2]
My Dear and only Love.
I 'll make thee glorious by my pen,
And famous by my sword.[257:3]
My Dear and only Love.
[257:2]
That puts it not unto the touch
To win or lose it all.
Napier: Montrose and the Covenanters, vol. ii. p. 566.
[257:3]
I 'll make thee famous by my pen,
And glorious by my sword.
Scott: Legend of Montrose, chap. xv.
SIR JOHN DENHAM. 1615-1668.Though with those streams he no resemblance hold,
Whose foam is amber and their gravel gold;
His genuine and less guilty wealth t' explore,
Search not his bottom, but survey his shore.
Cooper's Hill. Line 165.
Oh, could I flow like thee, and make thy stream
My great example, as it is my theme!
Though deep, yet clear; though gentle, yet not dull;
Strong without rage; without o'erflowing, full.
Cooper's Hill. Line 189.
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