[Night Thoughts continued. Night i. Line 393. Procrastination is the thief of time. At thirty, man suspects himself a fool; Night i. Line 417. All men think all men mortal but themselves. Night i. Line 424 He mourns the dead who lives as they desire. Night ii. Line 24. Night ii. Line 51. And what its worth, ask death-beds; they can tell. Thy purpose firm is equal to the deed: "I've lost a day"-the prince who nobly cried, Had been an emperor without his crown. Night ii. Line 99. Ah! how unjust to nature, and himself, Night ii. Line 112. Night ii. Line 180. The spirit walks of every day deceased. Time flies, death urges, knells call, heaven invites, Hell threatens. Night ii. Line 292. 'Tis greatly wise to talk with our past hours, And ask them what report they bore to heaven. Night ii. Line 376. Night Thoughts continued.] Thoughts shut up want air, And spoil, like bales unopen'd to the sun. Night ii. Line 466. How blessings brighten as they take their flight! Night ii. Line 602. The chamber where the good man meets his fate Is privileged beyond the common walk Of virtuous life, quite in the verge of heaven. Night ii. Line 633. A death-bed's a detector of the heart. Woes cluster; rare are solitary woes; They love a train, they tread each other's heel.1 Night iii. Line 63. Beautiful as sweet! And young as beautiful! and soft as young! Lovely in death the beauteous ruin lay; Night iii. Line 104. Heaven's Sovereign saves all beings but himself That hideous sight, a naked human heart. Night iii. Line 226. 1 One woe doth tread upon another's heel, - Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act iv. Sc. 7. Thus woe succeeds a woe, as wave a wave. Herrick, Hesperides, Sorrows Succeed. [Night Thoughts continued. The knell, the shroud, the mattock, and the grave, The deep damp vault, the darkness, and the worm. Night iv. Line 10. Man makes a death which nature never made. Night iv. Line 15. Wishing, of all employments, is the worst. Man wants but little, nor that little long.1 Night iv. Line 71. Night iv. Line 118. A God all mercy is a God unjust. Night iv. Line 233. 'T is impious in a good man to be sad. Night iv. Line 676. Night iv. Line 788. A Christian is the highest style of man. Men may live fools, but fools they cannot die. Night iv. Line 843. By night an atheist half believes a God. Night v. Line 177. Early, bright, transient, chaste, as morning dew, She sparkled, was exhal'd, and went to heaven.3 Night v. Line 600. 1 Cf. Goldsmith, p. 348. 2 A Christian is God Almighty's gentleman. Hare, Guesses at Truth. His tribe were God Almighty's gentlemen. Dryden, Absalom and Achitophel, Pt. i. L. 645. 8 He was exhal'd; his great Creator drew His spirit, as the sun the morning dew. Dryden, On the Death of a very Young Gentleman. Night Thoughts continued.] We see time's furrows on another's brow, Night v. Line 627. Like our shadows, Our wishes lengthen as our sun declines.1 Night v. Line 661. While man is growing, life is in decrease; Night v. Line 717. That life is long which answers life's great end. The man of wisdom is the man of years. Night v. Line 773. Night v. Line 775. Night v. Line 1011. Death loves a shining mark, a signal blow. Pygmies are pygmies still, though perched 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 vi. Line 309. And all may do what has by man been done. 1 Behold him setting in his western skies, Dryden, Absalom and Achitophel, Line 268. 2 Death borders upon our birth, and our cradle stands in the grave. Bishop Hall, Epistles, Dec. iii. Epist. ii. A man of pleasure is a man of pains. [Night Thoughts continued. The man that blushes is not quite a brute. Night vii. Line 496. Prayer ardent opens heaven. Night viii. Line 721. Night viii. Line 793. Night viii. Line 1045. Final Ruin fiercely drives Night ix. Line 167. To frown at pleasure, and to smile in pain. Her ploughshare o'er creation.1 'T is elder Scripture, writ by God's own hand: Scripture authentic! uncorrupt by man. The love of praise, howe'er concealed by art, Reigns more or less, and glows in ev'ry heart. Satire i. Line 51. Some, for renown, on scraps of learning dote, And think they grow immortal as they quote. Satire i. Line 89. 1 Cf. Burns, p. 386. 2 In brief, all things are artificial; for Nature is the art Sir Thomas Browne, Relig. Med., Pt. i. Sect. xvi. |