Or might I say contrarious, Temper'st thy providence through his short course, The angelic orders, and inferior creatures mute, Irrational and brute? Nor do I name of men the common rout, That wandering loose about, Grow up and perish, as the summer fly, To some great works, thy glory And people's safety, which in part they effect: Yet toward these thus dignified, thou oft Amidst their height of noon, Changest thy countenance, and thy hand, with no regard Of highest favours past From thee on them, or them together of service. MILTON. Samson Agonistes. MARK, how the birds do sing, And woods do ring. All creatures have their joy, and man hath his. Man's joy and pleasure, Rather hereafter, than in present, is. But as birds drink and straight lift up their head, Of better drink He may attain to, after he is dead. But as his joys are double, So is his trouble. He hath two winters, other things but one: proportions capabilities and failings, virtues and vices, enlightenment and error, grandeur and weakness, and after having filled the age in which they lived with the splendour of their actions, and the magnitude of their destiny, they remain personally obscure in the midst of their glory, alternately cursed and worshipped by the world which does not know them. GUIZOT. Cromwell. Both frosts and thoughts do nip, And he of all things fears two deaths alone. Yet even the greatest griefs Could he but take them right and in their ways. Hath found the art To turn his double pains to double praise. GEORGE HERBERT. WHAT a piece of work is man! How noble in reason! how infinite in faculties! in form, and moving, how express and admirable! in action, how like an angel! in apprehension, how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals! Hamlet, Act II. EVERY man, however good he may be, has a yet better man dwelling in him, which is properly himself, but to whom nevertheless he is often unfaithful. It is to this interior and less mutable being, that we should attach ourselves, not to the changeable every day man. VON HUMBOLDT. WOMAN. O WOMAN! in our hours of ease By the light quivering aspen made. SIR W. SCOTT. Marmion, Canto VI. Of human life must spring from woman's breast; Your first small words are taught you from her lips, ་ SHE was a Phantom of delight BYRON. Sardanapalus. When first she gleam'd upon my sight, A lovely apparition, sent To be a moment's ornament; Her eyes as stars of twilight fair; D Like twilight's, too, her dusky hair; I saw her upon nearer view, Her household motions light and free, A countenance in which did meet And now I see with eye serene WELL I understand in the prime end WORDSWORTH. His image who made both, and less expressing The character of that dominion given O'er other creatures; yet when I approach Occasionally; and, to consummate all, Paradise Lost. Book VIII. Is it for that such outward ornament Was lavish'd on their sex, that inward gifts Or value what is best In choice, but oftest to affect the wrong? Or was too much of self-love mix'd, Of constancy no root infix'd, That either they love nothing, or not long? Seeming at first all heavenly under virgin veil, * a thorn Once join'd, the contrary she proves,' With dotage, and his sense depraved To folly and shameful deeds which ruin ends. Embark'd with such a steers-mate at the helm ? One virtuous, rarely found, That in domestic good combines : Happy that house! his way to peace is smooth: * First when Maggy was my care, Meg was meek, and Meg was mild, Whistle o'er the lave o't. An idol may be undeified by many accidental causes. BURNS. Marriage in particular is a kind of counter-apotheosis, or a deification inverted. When a man becomes familiar with his goddess, she quickly sinks into a woman. ADDISON. But virtue, which breaks through all opposition, Most shines, and most is acceptable above.* Therefore God's universal law Gave to the man despotic power Over his female in due awe, Not from that right to part an hour, Smile she or lour: So shall he least confusion draw On his whole life, not sway'd By female usurpation, or dismay'd. MILTON. Samson Agonistes. THOUGH Women first were made for men, How soon had mankind had an end! * Tho' fools spurn Hymen's powers, COTTON. |