Let observation, with extensive view,
Survey mankind from China to Peru;
Remark each anxious toil, each eager strife,
And watch the busy scenes of crowded life.
_The Vanity of Human Wishes_. DR. S. JOHNSON.
It matters not how long we live, but how.
_Festus, Sc. Wood and Water_. P.J. BAILEY.
Nor love thy life, nor hate; but what thou liv'st
Live well; how long or short permit to heaven.
_Paradise Lost, Bk, XI_. MILTON.
All is concentred in a life intense,
Where not a beam, nor air, nor leaf is lost,
But hath a part of being.
_Childe Harold, Canto III_. LORD BYRON.
Life for delays and doubts no time does give,
None ever yet made haste enough to live.
_Martial, Liber II_. A. COWLEY.
Learn to live well, that thou may'st die so too;
To live and die is all we have to do.
_Of Prudence_. SIR J. DENHAM.
"Live, while you live," the epicure would say,
"And seize the pleasures of the present day;"
"Live while you live," the sacred preacher cries,
"And give to God each moment as it flies."
"Lord, in my views let both united be;
I live in _pleasure_, when I live to _Thee_."
_"Dum vivimus vivamus." (Motto of his Family Arms.)_
P. DODDRIDGE.
A man's ingress into the world is naked and bare,
His progress through the world is trouble and care;
And lastly, his egress out of the world, is nobody knows where.
If we do well here, we shall do well there;
I can tell you no more if I preach a whole year.
_Eccentricities, Vol. I_. J. EDWIN.
A little rule, a little sway,
A sunbeam in a winter's day,
Is all the proud and mighty have
Between the cradle and the grave.
_Grongar Hill_. J. DYER.
So may'st thou live, till like ripe fruit thou drop
Into thy mother's lap
_Paradise Lost, Bk. XI_. MILTON.
Sound, sound the clarion, fill the fife!
To all the sensual world proclaim,
One crowded hour of glorious life
Is worth an age without a name.
_Old Mortality: Chapter Head_. SIR W. SCOTT.
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.
_Essay on Man, Epistle I_. A. POPE.
The world's a theatre, the earth a stage
Which God and nature do with actors fill.
_Apology for Actors_. T. HEYWOOD.
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life is but a walking shadow; a poor player.
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
_Macbeth, Act v. Sc. 5_ SHAKESPEARE.
The web of our life is of a mingled
Yarn, good and ill together.
_All's Well that Ends Well, Act iv. Sc. 3_. SHAKESPEARE.
And what's a life?--a weary pilgrimage,
Whose glory in one day doth fill the stage
With childhood, manhood, and decrepit age.
_What is Life_? P. QUARLES.
An elegant sufficiency, content,
Retirement, rural quiet, friendship, books,
Ease and alternate labor, useful life,
Progressive virtue, and approving Heaven!
_The Seasons: Spring_. J. THOMSON.
On life's vast ocean diversely we sail,
Reason the card, but passion is the gale.
_Essay on Man, Epistle II_. A. POPE.
I cannot tell what you and other men
Think of this life; but, for my single self,
I had as lief not be as live to be
In awe of such a thing as I myself.
_Julius Cæsar, Act i. Sc. 2_. SHAKESPEARE.
Why, what should be the fear?
I do not set my life at a pin's fee.
_Hamlet, Act i. Sc. 4_. SHAKESPEARE.
"Life is not lost," said she, "for which is bought
Endlesse renowne."
_Faërie Queene, Bk. III. Canto XI_. E. SPENSER.
Our life is scarce the twinkle of a star
In God's eternal day.
_Autumnal Vespers_. B. TAYLOR.
There taught us how to live; and (oh, too high
The price for knowledge!) taught us how to die.
_On the Death of Addison_. T. TICKELL.
Our life contains a thousand springs,
And dies if one be gone.
Strange! that a harp of thousand strings
Should keep in tune so long.
_Hymns and Spiritual Songs_. DR. I. WATTS.