part ii
. line 449._
[219-2] Adamas de rupe præstantissimus (A most excellent diamond from the rock).
A chip of the old block.--PRIOR: _Life of Burke._
[219-3] The aspiring youth that fired the Ephesian dome Outlives in fame the pious fool that raised it.
CIBBER: _Richard III. act iii. sc. 1._
EDMUND WALLER. 1605-1687.
The yielding marble of her snowy breast.
_On a Lady passing through a Crowd of People._
That eagle's fate and mine are one, Which on the shaft that made him die Espied a feather of his own, Wherewith he wont to soar so high.[219-4]
_To a Lady singing a Song of his Composing._
A narrow compass! and yet there Dwelt all that 's good, and all that 's fair; Give me but what this riband bound, Take all the rest the sun goes round.
_On a Girdle._
For all we know Of what the blessed do above Is, that they sing, and that they love.
_While I listen to thy Voice._
Poets that lasting marble seek Must come in Latin or in Greek.
_Of English Verse._
Under the tropic is our language spoke, And part of Flanders hath receiv'd our yoke.
_Upon the Death of the Lord Protector._
Go, lovely rose! Tell her that wastes her time and me That now she knows, When I resemble her to thee, How sweet and fair she seems to be.
_Go, Lovely Rose._
How small a part of time they share That are so wondrous sweet and fair!
_Go, Lovely Rose._
Illustrious acts high raptures do infuse, And every conqueror creates a muse.
_Panegyric on Cromwell._
In such green palaces the first kings reign'd, Slept in their shades, and angels entertain'd; With such old counsellors they did advise, And by frequenting sacred groves grew wise.
_On St. James's Park._
And keeps the palace of the soul.[221-1]
_Of Tea._
Poets lose half the praise they should have got, Could it be known what they discreetly blot.
_Upon Roscommon's Translation of Horace, De Arte Poetica._
Could we forbear dispute and practise love, We should agree as angels do above.
_Divine Love. Canto iii._
The soul's dark cottage, batter'd and decay'd, Lets in new light through chinks that Time has made.[221-2] Stronger by weakness, wiser men become As they draw near to their eternal home: Leaving the old, both worlds at once they view That stand upon the threshold of the new.
_On the Divine Poems._
FOOTNOTES:
[219-4] So in the Libyan fable it is told That once an eagle, stricken with a dart, Said, when he saw the fashion of the shaft, "With our own feathers, not by others' hands, Are we now smitten."
ÆSCHYLUS: _Fragm. 123_ (Plumptre's Translation).
So the struck eagle, stretch'd upon the plain, No more through rolling clouds to soar again, View'd his own feather on the fatal dart, And wing'd the shaft that quiver'd in his heart.
BYRON: _English Bards and Scotch Reviewers, line 826._
Like a young eagle, who has lent his plume To fledge the shaft by which he meets his doom, See their own feathers pluck'd to wing the dart Which rank corruption destines for their heart.
THOMAS MOORE: _Corruption._
[221-1] The dome of thought, the palace of the soul.--BYRON: _Childe Harold, canto ii. stanza 6._
[221-2] See Daniel, page 39.
To vanish in the chinks that Time has made.--ROGERS: _Pæstum._
THOMAS FULLER. 1608-1661.
Drawing near her death, she sent most pious thoughts as harbingers to heaven; and her soul saw a glimpse of happiness through the chinks of her sickness-broken body.
_Life of Monica._
He was one of a lean body and visage, as if his eager soul, biting for anger at the clog of his body, desired to fret a passage through it.[221-3]
_Life of the Duke of Alva._
She commandeth her husband, in any equal matter, by constant obeying him.
_Holy and Profane State. The Good Wife._
He knows little who will tell his wife all he knows.
_Holy and Profane State. The Good Husband._
One that will not plead that cause wherein his tongue must be confuted by his conscience.
_Holy and Profane State. The Good Advocate._
A little skill in antiquity inclines a man to Popery; but depth in that study brings him about again to our religion.[222-1]
_Holy and Profane State. The True Church Antiquary._
But our captain counts the image of God--nevertheless his image--cut in ebony as if done in ivory, and in the blackest Moors he sees the representation of the King of Heaven.
_Holy and Profane State. The Good Sea-Captain._
To smell to a turf of fresh earth is wholesome for the body; no less are thoughts of mortality cordial to the soul.
_Holy and Profane State. The Virtuous Lady._
The lion is not so fierce as painted.[222-2]
_Holy and Profane State. Of Preferment._
Their heads sometimes so little that there is no room for wit; sometimes so long that there is no wit for so much room.
_Holy and Profane State. Of Natural Fools._
The Pyramids themselves, doting with age, have forgotten the names of their founders.
_Holy and Profane State. Of Tombs._
Learning hath gained most by those books by which the printers have lost.
_Holy and Profane State. Of Books._
They that marry ancient people, merely in expectation to bury them, hang themselves in hope that one will come and cut the halter.
_Holy and Profane State. Of Marriage._
Fame sometimes hath created something of nothing.
_Holy and Profane State. Fame._
Often the cockloft is empty in those whom Nature hath built many stories high.[222-3]
_Andronicus. Sect. vi. Par. 18, 1._
FOOTNOTES:
[221-3] A fiery soul, which, working out its way, Fretted the pygmy-body to decay, And o'er-inform'd the tenement of clay.
DRYDEN: _Absalom and Achitophel,