[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. Night iv. Line 71. Man wants but little, nor that little long.1 Night iv. Line 118. A God all mercy is a God unjust. 'Tis impious in a good man to be sad. Night iv. Line 233. 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.2 Night v. Line 600. We see time's furrows on another's brow, And death intrench'd, preparing his assault; How few themselves in that just mirror see! Night v. Line 627. 1 Man wants but little here below, Nor wants that little long. Goldsmith, The Hermit, St. 8. 2 See Dryden, On the Death of a very Young Gentleman. Night Thoughts continued.] Like our shadows, Our wishes lengthen as our sun declines.1 While man is growing, life is in decrease; That life is long which answers life's great end. The man of wisdom is the man of years. Night v. Line 775. Death loves a shining mark, a signal blow. Night v. Line 1011. Pygmies are pygmies still, though perched on Alps; And pyramids are pyramids in vales. Each man makes his own stature, builds himself: And all may do what has by man been done. Night vi. Line 606. The man that blushes is not quite a brute. Night vii. Line 496. Too low they build who build beneath the stars. Prayer ardent opens heaven. Night viii. Line 215. Night viii. Line 721. 1 See Dryden, Absalom and Achitophel, Part i. L. 268. "Death borders upon our birth, and our cradle stands in the grave. Bishop Hall, Epistles, Dec. iii. Epist. ii. - 3 Compare Quarles, Divine Poems, 469, ante p. 162. [Night Thoughts continued. Night viii. Line 793. A man of pleasure is a man of pains. To frown at pleasure, and to smile in pain. Night viii. Line 1045. Final Ruin fiercely drives Her ploughshare o'er creation.1 Night ix. Line 167. 'Tis 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. None think the great unhappy, but the great.3 Satire i. Line 238. 1 Stern Ruin's ploughshare drives elate Full on thy bloom. Burns, To a Mountain Daisy. 2 In brief, all things are artificial; for Nature is the art of God.-Sir Thomas Browne, Relig. Med., Pt. i. Sect. xvi. 3 Compare Rowe, The Fair Penitent, Prologue. Love of Fame continued.] Where nature's end of language is declined, Satire ii. Line 207. Be wise with speed; A fool at forty is a fool indeed. Satire ii. Line 282. Think naught a trifle, though it small appear; Small sands the mountain, moments make the year, And trifles life. Satire vi. Line 208. One to destroy is murder by the law; How commentators each dark passage shun, 1 Speech was given to the ordinary sort of men, whereby to communicate their mind; but to wise men, whereby to conceal it. - Robert South, Sermon, April 30th, 1676. Speech was made to open man to man, and not to hide him; to promote commerce, and not betray it. Lloyd's State Worthies (1665). Ed. Whitworth, Vol. 1. p. 503. The true use of speech is not so much to express our wants as to conceal them. - Goldsmith, The Bee, No. iii. Oct. 20, 1759. Ils n'emploient les paroles que pour déguiser leurs pensées. Voltaire, Dialogue, xiv., Le Chapon et la Poularde, 1763. 2 See Proverbial Expressions. Their feet through faithless leather met the dirt, And oftener changed their principles than shirt. Epistle to Mr. Pope. Line 277. Accept a miracle, instead of wit, See two dull lines with Stanhope's pencil writ. Lines Written with the Diamond Pencil of Lord Chesterfield. Time elaborately thrown away. The Last Day. Book i. There buds the promise of celestial worth. Ibid. Book iii. In records that defy the tooth of time. The Statesman's Creed. Great let me call him, for he conquered me. Souls made of fire, and children of the sun, Ibid. Act. v. Sc. 2. The blood will follow where the knife is driven, The flesh will quiver where the pincers tear. Ibid. Act v. Sc. 2. BARTON BOOTH. 1681-1733 True as the needle to the pole, Or as the dial to the sun.2 Song. 1 From Mitford's Life of Young. See also Spence's Anecdotes, p. 378. 2 Compare Butler, Hudibras, Pt. iii. C. 2, L. 175. |