As ever in my great Taskmaster's eye. On his being arrived to the Age of Twenty-three. The great Emathian conqueror bid spare The house of Pindarus, when temple and tower Went to the ground. That old man eloquent. When the Assault was intended to the City. To the Lady Margaret Ley. That would have made Quintilian stare and gasp. On the Detraction which followed upon my writing certain Treatises. License they mean when they cry, Liberty! Peace hath her victories No less renown'd than war. Ibid. To the Lord General Cromwell. Ev'n them who kept thy truth so pure of old, Thousands at his bidding speed, And post o'er land and ocean without rest; On his Blindness. What neat repast shall feast us, light and choice, In mirth that after no repenting draws. To Mr. Lawrence. Sonnet xxi. To Cyriac Skinner. For other things mild Heav'n a time ordains, Yet I argue not Against Heav'n's hand or will, nor bate a jot Ibid. Sonnet xxii. Ibid. Of which all Europe rings from side to side. But oh! as to embrace me she inclin'd, Ibid. On his Deceased Wife. Have hung My dank and dropping weeds 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, xxii. Truth is as impossible to be soiled by any outward touch as the sunbeam.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. Ibid. Beholding the bright countenance of truth in the quiet and still air of delightful studies. Ibid. 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. Ibid. 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. 1 See Bacon, page 169. Ibid 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. Ibid. 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. Ibid. Attic tragedies of stateliest and most regal argument. Ibid. 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 masterspirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life. Ibid. Seasoned life of man preserved and stored up in books. Ibid. 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. Ibid. Who shall silence all the airs and madrigals that whisper softness in chambers? Ibid. 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 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?1 Ibid. 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? Book iv. EDWARD HYDE CLARENDON. 1608-1674. He [Hampden] had a head to contrive, a tongue to persuade, and a hand to execute any mischief." History of the Rebellion. Vol. iii. Book vii. § 84. 1 Error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it. - JEFFERSON: Inaugural Address. 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. SIR JOHN SUCKLING. 1609-1641. Her feet beneath her petticoat Ballad upon a Wedding Her lips were red, and one was thin ; Compared with that was next her chin, Why so pale and wan, fond lover? Prithee, why so pale? Will, when looking well can't move her, Prithee, why so pale? "T is expectation makes a blessing dear; Heaven were not heaven if we knew what it were. Ibia. Song. She is pretty to walk with, Against Fruition. And witty to talk with, And pleasant, too, to think on. Brennoralt. Act ii. Her face is like the milky way i' the sky, - But as when an authentic watch is shown, The prince of darkness is a gentleman.3 1 See Herrick, page 202. 2 'Tis with our judgments as our watches, Act iii. Aglaura. Epilogue. -none The Goblins. POPE: Essay on Criticism, part i. line 9. 8 See Shakespeare, page 147. |