The Poetical Works of Alexander Pope, Esq: To which is Prefixed the Life of the Author

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Crissy & Markley, 1851 - English poetry - 484 pages

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Page 11 - Damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer, And without sneering, teach the rest to sneer; Willing to wound, and yet afraid to strike, Just hint a fault, and hesitate dislike...
Page 240 - KNOW then thyself, presume not God to scan, The proper study of mankind is Man. Placed on this isthmus of a middle state, A being darkly wise, and rudely great; With too much knowledge for the sceptic side, With too much weakness for the stoic's pride, He hangs between; in doubt to act or rest; In doubt to deem himself a god, or beast; In doubt his mind or body to prefer...
Page 231 - Awake, my ST JOHN ! leave all meaner things To low ambition, and the pride of Kings. Let us (since Life can little more supply Than just to look about us and to die) Expatiate free o'er all this scene of Man ; A mighty maze! but not without a plan; A Wild, where weeds and flow'rs promiscuous shoot; Or Garden, tempting with forbidden fruit.
Page 108 - T' inclose the Lock ; now joins it, to divide. Ev'n then, before the fatal engine closed, A wretched sylph too fondly interposed ; Fate urged the shears, and cut the sylph in twain, (But airy substance soon unites again;) The meeting points the sacred hair dissever From the fair head, for ever, and for ever ! Then flash'd the living lightning from her eyes, And screams of horror rend th
Page 237 - See through this air, this ocean, and this earth, All matter quick, and bursting into birth! Above, how high progressive life may go ! Around, how wide ! how deep extend below ! Vast chain of being! which from God began; Natures ethereal, human, angel, man, Beast, bird, fish, insect, what no eye can see, No glass can reach; from infinite to thee; From thee to nothing...
Page 55 - Not chaos-like together crush'd and bruised, But, as the world, harmoniously confused ; Where order in variety we see, And where, though all things differ, all agree.
Page 103 - A brighter wash ; to curl their waving hairs, Assist their blushes, and inspire their airs ; Nay, oft, in dreams, invention we bestow, To change a flounce, or add a furbelow.
Page 264 - Tis but to know how little can be known, To see all others' faults, and feel our own : Condemn'd in business or in arts to drudge, Without a second, or without a judge : Truths would you teach, or save a sinking land ? All fear, none aid you, and few understand.
Page 120 - To wake the soul by tender strokes of art, To raise the genius, and to mend the heart, To make mankind, in conscious virtue bold, Live o'er each scene, and be what they behold...
Page 117 - Rather than so, ah let me still survive, And burn in Cupid's flames — but burn alive. Restore the Lock ! she cries ; and all around, Restore the Lock ! the vaulted roofs rebound.

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