The Works of the English Poets: Dryden

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Page 8 - Through the azure deep of air : Yet oft before his infant eyes would run Such forms, as glitter in the Muse's ray With orient hues, unborrow'd of the sun : Yet shall he mount, and keep his distant way Beyond the limits of a vulgar fate ; Beneath the good how far — but far above the great ! ODE VI.
Page 317 - Our frailties help, our vice control, Submit the senses to the soul ; And when rebellious they are grown, Then lay thy hand, and hold them down.
Page 244 - DIM as the borrow'd beams of moon and stars To lonely, weary, wandering travellers, Is Reason to the soul : and as on high, Those rolling fires discover but the sky, Not light us here ; so Reason's glimmering ray Was lent, not to assure our doubtful way, But guide us upward to a better day. And as those nightly tapers disappear, When day's bright lord ascends our hemisphere ; So pale grows Reason at Religion's sight ; So dies, and so dissolves in supernatural light.
Page 127 - Of men, by laws less circumscribed and bound ; They led their wild desires to woods and caves, And thought that all but savages were slaves.
Page 139 - To pass your doubtful title into law: If not; the people have a right supreme To make their kings; for kings are made for them. All empire is no more than pow'r in trust: Which when resum'd, can be no longer just. Succession, for the general good design'd...
Page 152 - If ancient fabrics nod and threat to fall, To patch the flaws and buttress up the wall, Thus far 'tis duty : but here fix the mark ; For all beyond it is to touch our ark. To change foundations, cast the frame anew, Is work for rebels who base ends pursue, At once divine and human laws control, And mend the parts by ruin of the whole.
Page 134 - Heav'n has to all allotted, soon or late, Some lucky revolution of their fate, Whose motions, if we watch and guide with skill, (For...
Page 249 - Whence, but from heaven, could men unskilled in arts, In several ages born, in several parts, Weave such agreeing truths? or how, or why Should all conspire to cheat us with a lie? Unasked their pains, ungrateful their advice, Starving their gain, and martyrdom their price.
Page 146 - His cooks with long disuse their trade forgot ; Cool was his kitchen, though his brains were hot. Such frugal virtue malice may accuse...
Page 128 - Stock, stone, or other homely pedigree, In his defence his servants are as bold As if he had been born of beaten gold. The Jewish Rabbins, though their enemies, In this conclude them honest men and wise ; For 'twas their duty, all the learned think, T" espouse his cause by whom they eat and drink.

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