From the Letter on Italy. For wheresoe'er I turn my ravished eyes, And still I seem to tread on classic ground.* Ode. The spacious firmament on high, And spangled heavens, a shining frame, Their great Original proclaim. Soon as the evening shades prevail, The moon takes up the wondrous tale, And nightly to the listening earth Repeats the story of her birth; While all the stars that round her burn, And all the planets in their turn Confirm the tidings as they roll, And spread the truth from pole to pole. For ever singing, as they shine, The hand that made us is divine. * Malone states that this was the first time the phrase classic ground, since so common, was ever used. JONATHAN SWIFT. 1667-1745. Imitation of Horace. B. ii. Sat. 6. I've often wished that I had clear, Poetry, a Rhapsody. So geographers, in Afric maps, With savage pictures fill their gaps, Place elephants for want of towns. So, naturalists observe, a flea Has smaller fleas that on him prey; And these have smaller still to bite 'em. WILLIAM CONGREVE. 1669-1729. The Mourning Bride. Act i. Sc. 1. Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast, To soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak. By magic numbers and persuasive sound. Act iii. Sc. 1. Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, Act v. Sc. xii. For blessings ever wait on virtuous deeds, Way of the World. Act iii. Sc. 12. If there's delight in love, 't is when I see Love for Love. Act ii. Sc. 1. Ferdinand Mendez Pinto was but a type of thee, thou liar of the first magnitude. NICHOLAS ROWE. 1673-1718. The Fair Penitent. Act ii. Sc. i. Is she not more than painting can express, Act v. Sc. 1. Is this that haughty, gallant, gay Lothario? ALEXANDER POPE. 1688-1744. ESSAY ON MAN. Epistle i. Line 5. Expatiate free o'er all this scene of man; Line 13. Eye nature's walks, shoot folly as it flies,15 Line 88. A hero perish or a sparrow fall. Line 95. Hope springs eternal in the human breast: Line 99. Lo, the poor Indian whose untutored mind Line 200. Die of a rose in aromatic pain? * And justify the ways of God to man. - Par. Lost, B. i. L. 26 Essay on Man -Continued. Line 217.. The spider's touch how exquisitely fine! Line 289. All nature is but art unknown to thee; All chance, direction, which thou canst not see; All partial evil, universal good; And spite of pride, in erring reason's spite, Epistle ii. Line 1. Know then thyself, presume not God to scan; Line 131. And hence one master-passion in the breast, Line 136. The young disease, that must subdue at length, * Much like a subtle spider which doth sit Immortality of the Soul. SIR JOHN DAVIES, (1570-1626.) From Charron (de la Sagesse):-"La vraye science et le vray etude de l'homme c'est l'homme." |