Thy shaft flew thrice, and thrice my peace was slain;
And thrice, ere thrice yon moon had filled her horn.
_Night thoughts. Night i. Line 212._
Be wise to-day; 't is madness to defer.[306-3]
_Night thoughts. Night i. Line 390._
Procrastination is the thief of time.
_Night Thoughts. Night i. Line 393._
At thirty, man suspects himself a fool;
Knows it at forty, and reforms his plan.
_Night thoughts. Night i. Line 417._
All men think all men mortal but themselves.
_Night thoughts. Night i. Line 424._
He mourns the dead who lives as they desire.
_Night thoughts. Night ii. Line 24._
And what its worth, ask death-beds; they can tell.
_Night thoughts. Night ii. Line 51._
Thy purpose firm is equal to the deed:
Who does the best his circumstance allows
Does well, acts nobly; angels could no more.
_Night thoughts. Night ii. Line 90._
"I 've lost a day!"--the prince who nobly cried,
Had been an emperor without his crown.[307-1]
_Night thoughts. Night ii. Line 99._
Ah, how unjust to Nature and himself
Is thoughtless, thankless, inconsistent man!
_Night thoughts. Night ii. Line 112._
The spirit walks of every day deceased.
_Night thoughts. Night ii. Line 180._
Time flies, death urges, knells call, Heaven invites,
Hell threatens.
_Night thoughts. Night ii. Line 292._
Whose yesterdays look backwards with a smile.
_Night thoughts. Night ii. Line 334._
'T is greatly wise to talk with our past hours,
And ask them what report they bore to heaven.
_Night thoughts. Night ii. Line 376._
Thoughts shut up want air,
And spoil, like bales unopen'd to the sun.
_Night thoughts. Night ii. Line 466._
How blessings brighten as they take their flight!
_Night thoughts. Night ii. Line 602._
The chamber where the good man meets his fate
Is privileg'd beyond the common walk
Of virtuous life, quite in the verge of heaven.
_Night thoughts. Night ii. Line 633._
A death-bed 's a detector of the heart.
_Night thoughts. Night ii. Line 641._
Woes cluster. Rare are solitary woes;
They love a train, they tread each other's heel.[308-1]
_Night Thoughts. Night iii. Line 63._
Beautiful as sweet,
And young as beautiful, and soft as young,
And gay as soft, and innocent as gay!
_Night Thoughts. Night iii. Line 81._
Lovely in death the beauteous ruin lay;
And if in death still lovely, lovelier there;
Far lovelier! pity swells the tide of love.[308-2]
_Night Thoughts. Night iii. Line 104._
Heaven's Sovereign saves all beings but himself
That hideous sight,--a naked human heart.
_Night Thoughts. Night iii. Line 226._
The knell, the shroud, the mattock, and the grave,
The deep damp vault, the darkness and the worm.
_Night Thoughts. Night iv. Line 10._
Man makes a death which Nature never made.
_Night Thoughts. Night iv. Line 15._
And feels a thousand deaths in fearing one.
_Night Thoughts. Night iv. Line 17._
Wishing, of all employments, is the worst.
_Night Thoughts. Night iv. Line 71._
Man wants but little, nor that little long.[308-3]
_Night Thoughts. Night iv. Line 118._
A God all mercy is a God unjust.
_Night Thoughts. Night iv. Line 233._
'T is impious in a good man to be sad.
_Night Thoughts. Night iv. Line 676._
A Christian is the highest style of man.[308-4]
_Night Thoughts. Night iv. Line 788._
Men may live fools, but fools they cannot die.
_Night Thoughts. Night iv. Line 843._
By night an atheist half believes a God.
_Night Thoughts. Night v. Line 177._
Early, bright, transient, chaste as morning dew,
She sparkled, was exhal'd and went to heaven.[308-5]
_Night Thoughts. Night v. Line 600._
We see time's furrows on another's brow,
And death intrench'd, preparing his assault;
How few themselves in that just mirror see!
_Night Thoughts. Night v. Line 627._
Like our shadows,
Our wishes lengthen as our sun declines.[309-1]
_Night Thoughts. Night v. Line 661._
While man is growing, life is in decrease;
And cradles rock us nearer to the tomb.
Our birth is nothing but our death begun.[309-2]
_Night Thoughts. Night v. Line 717._
That life is long which answers life's great end.
_Night Thoughts. Night v. Line 773._
The man of wisdom is the man of years.
_Night Thoughts. Night v. Line 775._
Death loves a shining mark, a signal blow.[309-3]
_Night Thoughts. Night v. Line 1011._
Pygmies are pygmies still, though percht on Alps;
And pyramids are pyramids in vales.
Each man makes his own stature, builds himself.
Virtue alone outbuilds the Pyramids;
Her monuments shall last when Egypt's fall.
_Night Thoughts. Night vi. Line 309._
And all may do what has by man been done.
_Night Thoughts. Night vi. Line 606._
The man that blushes is not quite a brute.
_Night Thoughts. Night vii. Line 496._
Too low they build, who build beneath the stars.
_Night Thoughts. Night viii. Line 215._
Prayer ardent opens heaven.
_Night Thoughts. Night viii. Line 721._
A man of pleasure is a man of pains.
_Night Thoughts. Night viii. Line 793._
To frown at pleasure, and to smile in pain.
_Night Thoughts. Night viii. Line 1045._
Final Ruin fiercely drives
Her ploughshare o'er creation.[309-4]
_Night Thoughts. Night ix. Line 167._
'T is elder Scripture, writ by God's own hand,--
Scripture authentic! uncorrupt by man.
_Night Thoughts. Night ix. Line 644._
An undevout astronomer is mad.
_Night Thoughts. Night ix. Line 771._
The course of Nature is the art of God.[310-1]
_Night Thoughts. Night ix. Line 1267._
The love of praise, howe'er conceal'd by art,
Reigns more or less, and glows in ev'ry heart.
_Love of Fame. Satire i. Line 51._
Some for renown, on scraps of learning dote,
And think they grow immortal as they quote.
_Love of Fame. Satire i. Line 89._
Titles are marks of honest men, and wise;
The fool or knave that wears a title lies.
_Love of Fame. Satire i. Line 145._
They that on glorious ancestors enlarge,
Produce their debt instead of their discharge.
_Love of Fame. Satire i. Line 147._
None think the great unhappy but the great.[310-2]
_Love of Fame. Satire i. Line 238._
Unlearned men of books assume the care,
As eunuchs are the guardians of the fair.
_Love of Fame. Satire ii. Line 83._
The booby father craves a booby son,
And by Heaven's blessing thinks himself undone.
_Love of Fame. Satire ii. Line 165._
Where Nature's end of language is declin'd,
And men talk only to conceal the mind.[310-3]
_Love of Fame. Satire ii. Line 207._
Be wise with speed;
A fool at forty is a fool indeed.
_Love of Fame. Satire ii. Line 282._
And waste their music on the savage race.[311-1]
_Love of Fame. Satire v. Line 228._
For her own breakfast she 'll project a scheme,
Nor take her tea without a stratagem.
_Love of Fame. Satire vi. Line 190._
Think naught a trifle, though it small appear;
Small sands the mountain, moments make the year,
And trifles life.
_Love of Fame. Satire vi. Line 208._
One to destroy is murder by the law,
And gibbets keep the lifted hand in awe;
To murder thousands takes a specious name,
War's glorious art, and gives immortal fame.
_Love of Fame. Satire vii. Line 55._
How commentators each dark passage shun,
And hold their farthing candle to the sun.
_Love of Fame. Satire vii. Line 97._
The man that makes a character makes foes.
_To Mr. Pope. Epistle i. Line 28._
Their feet through faithless leather met the dirt,
And oftener chang'd their principles than shirt.
_To Mr. Pope. Epistle i. Line 277._
Accept a miracle instead of wit,--
See two dull lines with Stanhope's pencil writ.
_Lines written with the Diamond Pencil of Lord Chesterfield._
Time elaborately thrown away.
_The Last Day. Book i._
There buds the promise of celestial worth.
_The Last Day. Book iii._
In records that defy the tooth of time.
_The Statesman's Creed._
Great let me call him, for he conquered me.
_The Revenge. Act i. Sc. 1._
Souls made of fire, and children of the sun,
With whom revenge is virtue.
_The Revenge. Act v. Sc. 2._
The blood will follow where the knife is driven,
The flesh will quiver where the pincers tear.
_The Revenge. Act v. Sc. 2._
And friend received with thumps upon the back.[312-1]
_Universal Passion._
FOOTNOTES:
[306-3] See Congreve, page 295.
[307-1] Suetonius says of the Emperor Titus: "Once at supper,
reflecting that he had done nothing for any that day, he broke out
into that memorable and justly admired saying, 'My friends, I have
lost a day!'"--SUETONIUS: _Lives of the Twelve Cæsars_.
(Translation by Alexander Thomson.)
[308-1] See Shakespeare, page 143.
[308-2] See Beaumont and Fletcher, page 198. Dryden, page 272.
[308-3]
Man wants but little here below,
Nor wants that little long.
GOLDSMITH: _The Hermit, stanza 8._
[308-4] See Dryden, page 268.
[308-5] See Dryden, page 270.
[309-1] See Dryden, page 268.
[309-2] See Bishop Hall, page 182.
[309-3] See Quarles, page 203.
[309-4]
Stern Ruin's ploughshare drives elate
Full on thy bloom.
BURNS: _To a Mountain Daisy._
[310-1] See Sir Thomas Browne, page 218.
[310-2] See Nicholas Rowe, page 301.
[310-3] Speech was made to open man to man, and not to hide him;
to promote commerce, and not betray it.--LLOYD: _State Worthies_
(1665; edited by Whitworth), _vol. i. p. 503._
Speech was given to the ordinary sort of men whereby to
communicate their mind; but to wise men, whereby to conceal
it.--ROBERT SOUTH: _Sermon, April 30, 1676._
The true use of speech is not so much to express our wants as to
conceal them.--GOLDSMITH: _The Bee, No. 3._ (Oct. 20, 1759.)
Ils ne se servent de la pensée que pour autoriser leurs
injustices, et emploient les paroles que pour déguiser leurs
pensées (Men use thought only to justify their wrong doings, and
employ speech only to conceal their thoughts).--VOLTAIRE:
_Dialogue xiv. Le Chapon et la Poularde_ (1766).
When Harel wished to put a joke or witticism into circulation, he
was in the habit of connecting it with some celebrated name, on
the chance of reclaiming it if it took. Thus he assigned to
Talleyrand, in the "Nain Jaune," the phrase, "Speech was given to
man to disguise his thoughts."--FOURNIER: _L'Esprit dans
l'Histoire._
[311-1] And waste their sweetness on the desert air.--GRAY:
_Elegy, stanza 14._ CHURCHILL: _Gotham, book ii. line 20._
[312-1]
The man that hails you Tom or Jack,
And proves, by thumping on your back.
COWPER: _On Friendship._
BISHOP BERKELEY. 1684-1753.
Westward the course of empire takes its way;[312-2]
The four first acts already past,
A fifth shall close the drama with the day:
Time's noblest offspring is the last.
_On the Prospect of Planting Arts and Learning in America._
Our youth we can have but to-day,
We may always find time to grow old.
_Can Love be controlled by Advice?_[312-3]
[Tar water] is of a nature so mild and benign and proportioned to
the human constitution, as to warm without heating, to cheer but
not inebriate.[312-4]
_Siris. Par. 217._
FOOTNOTES:
[312-2] See Daniel, page 39.
Westward the star of empire takes its way.--JOHN QUINCY ADAMS:
_Oration at Plymouth, 1802._
[312-3] AIKEN: _Vocal Poetry_ (London, 1810).
[312-4]
Cups
That cheer but not inebriate.
COWPER: _The Task, book iv._
JANE BRERETON. 1685-1740.
The picture placed the busts between
Adds to the thought much strength;
Wisdom and Wit are little seen,
But Folly 's at full length.
_On Beau Nash's Picture at full length between the Busts of Sir Isaac
Newton and Mr. Pope._[312-5]
FOOTNOTES:
[312-5] DYCE: _Specimens of British Poetesses._ (This epigram is
generally ascribed to Chesterfield. See Campbell, "English Poets,"
_note_, p. 521.)
AARON HILL. 1685-1750.
First, then, a woman will or won't, depend on 't;
If she will do 't, she will; and there 's an end on 't.
But if she won't, since safe and sound your trust is,
Fear is affront, and jealousy injustice.[313-1]
_Zara. Epilogue._
Tender-handed stroke a nettle,
And it stings you for your pains;
Grasp it like a man of mettle,
And it soft as silk remains.
'T is the same with common natures:
Use 'em kindly, they rebel;
But be rough as nutmeg-graters,
And the rogues obey you well.
_Verses written on a window in Scotland._
FOOTNOTES:
[313-1] The following lines are copied from the pillar erected on
the mount in the Dane John Field, Canterbury:--
Where is the man who has the power and skill
To stem the torrent of a woman's will?
For if she will, she will, you may depend on 't;
And if she won't, she won't; so there 's an end on 't.
_The Examiner, May 31, 1829._
THOMAS TICKELL. 1686-1740.
Just men, by whom impartial laws were given;
And saints who taught and led the way to heaven.
_On the Death of Mr. Addison. Line 41._
Nor e'er was to the bowers of bliss conveyed
A fairer spirit or more welcome shade.
_On the Death of Mr. Addison. Line 45._
There taught us how to live; and (oh, too high
The price for knowledge!) taught us how to die.[313-2]
_On the Death of Mr. Addison. Line 81._
The sweetest garland to the sweetest maid.
_To a Lady with a Present of Flowers._
I hear a voice you cannot hear,
Which says I must not stay;
I see a hand you cannot see,
Which beckons me away.
_Colin and Lucy._
FOOTNOTES:
[313-2] He who should teach men to die, would at the same time
teach them to live.--MONTAIGNE: _Essays, book i. chap. ix._
I have taught you, my dear flock, for above thirty years how to
live; and I will show you in a very short time how to
die.--SANDYS: _Anglorum Speculum, p. 903._
Teach him how to live,
And, oh still harder lesson! how to die.
PORTEUS: _Death, line 316._
He taught them how to live and how to die.--SOMERVILLE: _In Memory
of the Rev. Mr. Moore._
SAMUEL MADDEN. 1687-1765.
Some write their wrongs in marble: he more just,
Stoop'd down serene and wrote them in the dust,--
Trod under foot, the sport of every wind,
Swept from the earth and blotted from his mind.
There, secret in the grave, he bade them lie,
And grieved they could not 'scape the Almighty eye.
_Boulter's Monument._
Words are men's daughters, but God's sons are things.[314-1]
_Boulter's Monument._
FOOTNOTES:
[314-1] See Herbert, page 206.
ALEXANDER POPE. 1688-1744.
Awake, my St. John! leave all meaner things
To low ambition and the pride of kings.
Let us (since life can little more supply
Than just to look about us, and to die)
Expatiate free o'er all this scene of man;
A mighty maze! but not without a plan.[314-2]
_Essay on Man. Epistle i. Line 1._
Together let us beat this ample field,
Try what the open, what the covert yield.
_Essay on Man. Epistle i. Line 9._
Eye Nature's walks, shoot folly as it flies,
And catch the manners living as they rise;
Laugh where we must, be candid where we can,
But vindicate the ways of God to man.[315-1]
_Essay on Man. Epistle i. Line 13._
Say first, of God above or man below,
What can we reason but from what we know?
_Essay on Man. Epistle i. Line 17._
'T is but a part we see, and not a whole.
_Essay on Man. Epistle i. Line 60._
Heaven from all creatures hides the book of Fate,
All but the page prescrib'd, their present state.
_Essay on Man. Epistle i. Line 77._
Pleased to the last, he crops the flowery food,
And licks the hand just raised to shed his blood.
_Essay on Man. Epistle i. Line 83._
Who sees with equal eye, as God of all,
A hero perish or a sparrow fall,
Atoms or systems into ruin hurl'd,
And now a bubble burst, and now a world.
_Essay on Man. Epistle i. Line 87._
Hope springs eternal in the human breast:
Man never is, but always to be blest.[315-2]
The soul, uneasy and confined from home,
Rests and expatiates in a life to come.
_Essay on Man. Epistle i. Line 95._
Lo, the poor Indian! whose untutor'd mind
Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind;
His soul proud Science never taught to stray
Far as the solar walk or milky way.
_Essay on Man. Epistle i. Line 99._
But thinks, admitted to that equal sky,
His faithful dog shall bear him company.
_Essay on Man. Epistle i. Line 111._
In pride, in reasoning pride, our error lies;
All quit their sphere, and rush into the skies.
Pride still is aiming at the blest abodes:
Men would be angels, angels would be gods.
Aspiring to be gods, if angels fell,
Aspiring to be angels, men rebel.
_Essay on Man. Epistle i. Line 123._
Seas roll to waft me, suns to light me rise;
My footstool earth, my canopy the skies.[316-1]
_Essay on Man. Epistle i. Line 139._
Why has not man a microscopic eye?
For this plain reason,--man is not a fly.
_Essay on Man. Epistle i. Line 193._
Die of a rose in aromatic pain.
_Essay on Man. Epistle i. Line 200._
The spider's touch, how exquisitely fine!
Feels at each thread, and lives along the line.[316-2]
_Essay on Man. Epistle i. Line 217._
Remembrance and reflection how allied!
What thin partitions sense from thought divide![316-3]
_Essay on Man. Epistle i. Line 225._
All are but parts of one stupendous whole,
Whose body Nature is, and God the soul.
_Essay on Man. Epistle i. Line 267._
Warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze,
Glows in the stars, and blossoms in the trees.
_Essay on Man. Epistle i. Line 271._
As full, as perfect, in vile man that mourns
As the rapt seraph that adores and burns:
To Him no high, no low, no great, no small;[316-4]
He fills, he bounds, connects, and equals all!
_Essay on Man. Epistle i. Line 277._
All nature is but art, unknown to thee;
All chance, direction, which thou canst not see;
All discord, harmony not understood;
All partial evil, universal good;
And spite of pride, in erring reason's spite,
One truth is clear, Whatever is, is right.[316-5]
_Essay on Man. Epistle i. Line 289._
Know then thyself, presume not God to scan;
The proper study of mankind is man.[317-1]
_Essay on Man. Epistle ii. Line 1._
Chaos of thought and passion, all confused;
Still by himself abused or disabused;
Created half to rise, and half to fall;
Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all;
Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurled,--
The glory, jest, and riddle of the world.[317-2]
_Essay on Man. Epistle ii. Line 13._
Fix'd like a plant on his peculiar spot,
To draw nutrition, propagate, and rot.
_Essay on Man. Epistle ii. Line 63._
In lazy apathy let stoics boast
Their virtue fix'd: 't is fix'd as in a frost;
Contracted all, retiring to the breast;
But strength of mind is exercise, not rest.
_Essay on Man. Epistle ii. Line 101._
On life's vast ocean diversely we sail,
Reason the card, but passion is the gale.
_Essay on Man. Epistle ii. Line 107._
And hence one master-passion in the breast,
Like Aaron's serpent, swallows up the rest.
_Essay on Man. Epistle ii. Line 131._
The young disease, that must subdue at length,
Grows with his growth, and strengthens with his strength.
_Essay on Man. Epistle ii. Line 135._
Extremes in nature equal ends produce;
In man they join to some mysterious use.
_Essay on Man. Epistle ii. Line 205._
Vice is a monster of so frightful mien,
As to be hated needs but to be seen;[317-3]
Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face,
We first endure, then pity, then embrace.
_Essay on Man. Epistle ii. Line 217._
Ask where 's the North? At York 't is on the Tweed;
In Scotland at the Orcades; and there,
At Greenland, Zembla, or the Lord knows where.
_Essay on Man. Epistle ii. Line 222._
Virtuous and vicious every man must be,--
Few in the extreme, but all in the degree.
_Essay on Man. Epistle ii. Line 231._
Hope travels through, nor quits us when we die.
Behold the child, by Nature's kindly law,
Pleased with a rattle, tickled with a straw;
Some livelier plaything gives his youth delight,
A little louder, but as empty quite;
Scarfs, garters, gold, amuse his riper stage,
And beads and prayer-books are the toys of age.
Pleased with this bauble still, as that before,
Till tired he sleeps, and life's poor play is o'er.
_Essay on Man. Epistle ii. Line 274._
While man exclaims, "See all things for my use!"
"See man for mine!" replies a pamper'd goose.[318-1]
_Essay on Man. Epistle iii. Line 45._
Learn of the little nautilus to sail,
Spread the thin oar, and catch the driving gale.
_Essay on Man. Epistle iii. Line 177._
The enormous faith of many made for one.
_Essay on Man. Epistle iii. Line 242._
For forms of government let fools contest;
Whate'er is best administer'd is best.
For modes of faith let graceless zealots fight;
His can't be wrong whose life is in the right.[318-2]
In faith and hope the world will disagree,
But all mankind's concern is charity.
_Essay on Man. Epistle iii. Line 303._
O happiness! our being's end and aim!
Good, pleasure, ease, content! whate'er thy name:
That something still which prompts the eternal sigh,
For which we bear to live, or dare to die.
_Essay on Man. Epistle iv. Line 1._
Order is Heaven's first law.
_Essay on Man. Epistle iv. Line 49._
Reason's whole pleasure, all the joys of sense,
Lie in three words,--health, peace, and competence.
_Essay on Man. Epistle iv. Line 79._
The soul's calm sunshine and the heartfelt joy.
_Essay on Man. Epistle iv. Line 168._
Honour and shame from no condition rise;
Act well your part, there all the honour lies.
_Essay on Man. Epistle iv. Line 193._
Worth makes the man, and want of it the fellow;
The rest is all but leather or prunello.
_Essay on Man. Epistle iv. Line 203._
What can ennoble sots or slaves or cowards?
Alas! not all the blood of all the Howards.
_Essay on Man. Epistle iv. Line 215._
A wit 's a feather, and a chief a rod;
An honest man 's the noblest work of God.[319-1]
_Essay on Man. Epistle iv. Line 247._
Plays round the head, but comes not to the heart.
One self-approving hour whole years outweighs
Of stupid starers and of loud huzzas;
And more true joy Marcellus exil'd feels
Than Cæsar with a senate at his heels.
In parts superior what advantage lies?
Tell (for you can) what is it to be wise?
'T is but to know how little can be known;
To see all others' faults, and feel our own.
_Essay on Man. Epistle iv. Line 254._
Truths would you teach, or save a sinking land?
All fear, none aid you, and few understand.
_Essay on Man. Epistle iv. Line 261._
If parts allure thee, think how Bacon shin'd,
The wisest, brightest, meanest of mankind!
Or ravish'd with the whistling of a name,[319-2]
See Cromwell, damn'd to everlasting fame![319-3]
_Essay on Man. Epistle iv. Line 281._
Know then this truth (enough for man to know),--
"Virtue alone is happiness below."
_Essay on Man. Epistle iv. Line 309._
Never elated when one man 's oppress'd;
Never dejected while another 's bless'd.
_Essay on Man. Epistle iv. Line 323._
Slave to no sect, who takes no private road,
But looks through Nature up to Nature's God.[320-1]
_Essay on Man. Epistle iv. Line 331._
Form'd by thy converse, happily to steer
From grave to gay, from lively to severe.[320-2]
_Essay on Man. Epistle iv. Line 379._
Say, shall my little bark attendant sail,
Pursue the triumph and partake the gale?
_Essay on Man. Epistle iv. Line 385._
Thou wert my guide, philosopher, and friend.
_Essay on Man. Epistle iv. Line 390._
That virtue only makes our bliss below,[320-3]
And all our knowledge is ourselves to know.
_Essay on Man. Epistle iv. Line 397._
To observations which ourselves we make,
We grow more partial for th' observer's sake.
_Moral Essays. Epistle i. Line 11._
Like following life through creatures you dissect,
You lose it in the moment you detect.
_Moral Essays. Epistle i. Line 20._
In vain sedate reflections we would make
When half our knowledge we must snatch, not take.
_Moral Essays. Epistle i. Line 39._
Not always actions show the man; we find
Who does a kindness is not therefore kind.
_Moral Essays. Epistle i. Line 109._
Who combats bravely is not therefore brave,
He dreads a death-bed like the meanest slave:
Who reasons wisely is not therefore wise,--
His pride in reasoning, not in acting lies.
_Moral Essays. Epistle i. Line 115._
'T is from high life high characters are drawn;
A saint in crape is twice a saint in lawn.
_Moral Essays. Epistle i. Line 135._
'T is education forms the common mind:
Just as the twig is bent the tree 's inclined.
_Moral Essays. Epistle i. Line 149._
Manners with fortunes, humours turn with climes,
Tenets with books, and principles with times.[321-1]
_Moral Essays. Epistle i. Line 172._
"Odious! in woollen! 't would a saint provoke,"
Were the last words that poor Narcissa spoke.
_Moral Essays. Epistle i. Line 246._
And you, brave Cobham! to the latest breath
Shall feel your ruling passion strong in death.
_Moral Essays. Epistle i. Line 262._
Whether the charmer sinner it or saint it,
If folly grow romantic, I must paint it.
_Moral Essays. Epistle ii. Line 15._
Choose a firm cloud before it fall, and in it
Catch, ere she change, the Cynthia of this minute.
_Moral Essays. Epistle ii. Line 19._