From the Letter on Italy.

For wheresoe'er I turn my ravished eyes,
Gay gilded scenes and shining prospects rise;
Poetic fields encompass me around,

And still I seem to tread on classic ground.*

Ode.

The spacious firmament on high,

With all the blue ethereal sky,

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,
For life, six hundred pounds a year,
A handsome house to lodge a friend,
A river at my garden's end.

Poetry, a Rhapsody.

So geographers, in Afric maps,

With savage pictures fill their gaps,
And o'er unhabitable downs

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.
And so proceed ad infinitum.

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,
Nor hell a fury like a woman scorned.

Act v. Sc. xii.

For blessings ever wait on virtuous deeds,
And though a late, a sure reward succeeds.

Way of the World.

Act iii. Sc. 12.

If there's delight in love, 't is when I see
The heart which others bleed for, bleed for me.

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,
Or youthful poets fancy when they love?

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 ;
A mighty maze! but not without a plan.

Line 13.

Eye nature's walks, shoot folly as it flies,15
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.*

Line 88.

A hero perish or a sparrow fall.

Line 95.

Hope springs eternal in the human breast:

Man never is, but always to be blest.

Line 99.

Lo, the poor

Indian whose untutored mind

Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind.

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!
Feels at each thread, and lives along the line.*

Line 289.

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.

Epistle ii. Line 1.

Know then thyself, presume not God to scan;
The proper study of mankind is man.†

Line 131.

And hence one master-passion in the breast,
Like Aaron's serpent, swallows up the rest.

Line 136.

The young disease, that must subdue at length,
Grows with his growth, and strengthens with his strength.

* Much like a subtle spider which doth sit
In middle of her web, which spreadeth wide;
If ought do touch the utmost thread of it
She feels it instantly on every side.

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."