He spins the slight, self-pleasing thread anew; Destroy his fib or sophistry, in vain, The creature 's at his dirty work again, Throned in the centre of his thin designs, Proud of a vast extent of flimsy lines.
He who, still wanting, though he lives on theft, Steals much, spends little, yet has nothing left.
What future bliss He gives thee not to know, But gives that hope to be thy blessing now.
All nature is but art, unknown to thee, All chance, direction which thou canst not see.
"T is education forms the common mind; Just as the twig is bent the tree's inclined. Manners with fortunes, humors turn with climes, Tenets with books, and principles with times. Who shall decide when doctors disagree?
And then mistook reverse of wrong for right. That secret rare between the extremes to move, Of mad good-nature and of mean self-love. Ye little stars, hide your diminished rays. Who builds a church to God, and not to fame, Will never mark the marble with his name.
'Tis strange the music should his cares employ To gain those riches he can ne'er enjoy.
Something there is more needful than expense, And something previous e'en to taste, In all let Nature never be forgot, But treat the goddess like a modest fair, Not over-dress nor leave her wholly bare; Let not each beauty everywhere be spied, Where half the skill is decently to hide. Light quirks of music, broken and uneven, Make the soul dance upon a jig to heaven.
'Tis use alone that sanctifies expense, And splendor borrows all her rays from sense.
To rest the cushion and soft dean invite, Who never mentions hell to ears polite.
And knows where faith, law, morals, all began, All end, in love of God and love of man.
But health consists with temperance alone, And peace, O Virtue! peace is all thine own. Fortune her gifts may variously dispose, And these be happy called, unhappy those; But Heaven's just balance equal will appear, When those are placed in hope, and these in fear. "But sometimes virtue starves, while vice is fed"; "What then, is the reward of virtue, - bread? That vice may merit, 't is the price of toil, The knave deserves it when he tills the soil." What nothing earthly gives or can destroy, — The soul's calm sunshine, and the heartfelt joy. Honor and shame from no condition rise; Act well your part, there all the honor lies.
Who wickedly is wise, or madly brave, Is but the more a fool, the more a knave.
Who noble ends by noble means obtains, Or, failing, smiles in exile or in chains, Like good Aurelius let him reign, or bleed Like Socrates, that man is great indeed. What's fame? A fancied life in others' breath. One self-approving hour whole years outweighs Of stupid starers and of loud huzzas.
As heaven's blest beam turns vinegar more sour.
Lust through some certain strainers well refined Is gentle love, and charms all womankind.
Vice is a monster of such hideous mien That to be hated needs but to be seen; Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face, We first endure, then pity, then embrace.
Behold the child, by Nature's kindly law, Pleased with a rattle, tickled with a straw; Some livelier plaything gives his youth delight, A little louder, but as empty quite.
sunny wealth In radiant ripples bathad the graceful throat
Of the sweet mouth a smile seemed wandering ever;
While in the depths of azure Beneath the drooping lashes, slept a world Of sloquent meaning, passionate yet pure Dreamy → subdued — but oh, how beautiful!
At a touch sweet Pleasure melteth, Like to bubbles when rain pelteth;
Then let wingéd Fancy wander
Through the thought still spread beyond her: Open wide the mind's cage-door,
She 'll dart forth, and cloudward soar.
O sweet Fancy ! let her loose; Summer's joys are spoilt by use, And the enjoying of the spring Fades as does its blossoming; Autumn's red-lipped fruitage too, Blushing through the mist and dew, Cloys with tasting: What do then? Sit thee by the ingle, when The sear fagot blazes bright, Spirit of a winter's night;
When the soundless earth is muffled, And the caked snow is shuffled From the plough-boy's heavy shoon; When the Night doth meet the Noon In a dark conspiracy
To banish Even from her sky. Sit thee there, and send abroad With a mind self-overawed
Fancy, high-commissioned; - send her! She has vassals to attend her; She will bring, in spite of frost, Beauties that the earth hath lost; She will bring thee, all together, All delights of summer weather; All the buds and bells of May From dewy sward or thorny spray 1 All the heaped autumn's wealth, With a still, mysterious stealth; She will mix these pleasures up Like three fit wines in a cup, And thou shalt quaff it; thou shalt hear Distant harvest-carols clear;
Rustle of the reapéd corn;
Sweet birds antheming the morn; And in the same moment - hark!
"T is the early April lark,
Or the rooks, with busy caw, Foraging for sticks and straw. Thou shalt, at one glance, behold The daisy and the marigold; White-plumed lilies, and the first Hedge-grown primrose that hath burst; Shaded hyacinth, alway
Sapphire queen of the mid-May; And every leaf and every flower Pearléd with the self-same shower. Thou shalt see the field-mouse peep Meagre from its celléd sleep; And the snake all winter-thin Cast on sunny bank its skin; Freckled nest-eggs thou shalt see Hatching in the hawthorn-tree, When the hen-bird's wing doth rest Quiet on her mossy nest; Then the hurry and alarm When the beehive casts its swarm; Acorns ripe down-pattering While the autumn breezes sing.
O sweet Fancy! let her loose; Everything is spoilt by use: Where's the cheek that doth not fade, Too much gazed at? Where's the maid
Whose lip mature is ever new? Where's the eye, however blue, Doth not weary? Where's the face One would meet in every place? Where's the voice, however soft, One would hear so very oft? At a touch sweet Pleasure melteth Like to bubbles when rain pelteth. Let then winged Fancy find Thee a mistress to thy mind; Dulcet-eyed as Ceres' daughter, Ere the God of Torment taught her How to frown and how to chide; With a waist and with a side White as Hebe's, when her zone Slipt its golden clasp, and down Fell her kirtle to her feet, While she held the goblet sweet, And Jove grew languid. Break the mesh
Of the Fancy's silken leash; Quickly break her prison-string, And such joys as these she 'll bring: Let the wingéd Fancy roam ! Pleasure never is at home.
Ot mortal offspring can attain the heights Of envied life; though only few possess Patrician treasures or imperial state; Yet nature's care, to all her children just, With richer treasures and an ampler state, Endows at large whatever happy man Will deign to use them. His the city's pomp,
The rural honors his. Whate'er adorns The princely dome, the column and the arch, The breathing marble and the sculptured gold Beyond the proud possessor's narrow claim, His tuneful breast enjoys. For him the Spring Distils her dews, and from the silken gem Its lucid leaves unfolds; for him the hand Of Autumn tinges every fertile branch With blooming gold, and blushes like the morn. Each passing hour sheds tribute from her wings; And still new beauties meet his lonely walk, And loves unfelt attract him. Not a breeze
Flies o'er the meadow, not a cloud imbibes The setting sun's effulgence, not a strain From all the tenants of the warbling shade Ascends, but whence his bosom can partake Fresh pleasure, unreproved. Nor thence partakes Fresh pleasure only; for the attentive mind, By this harmonious action on her powers, Becomes herself harmonious: wont so oft On outward things to meditate the charm Of sacred order, soon she seeks at home To find a kindred order, to exert Within herself this elegance of love, This fair-inspired delight: her tempered powers Refine at length, and every passion wears A chaster, milder, more attractive mien.
A DREAM OF THE UNKNOWN. I DREAMED that as I wandered by the way Bare winter suddenly was changed to spring, And gentle odors led my steps astray,
Mixed with a sound of waters murmuring Along a shelving bank of turf, which lay Under a copse, and hardly dared to fling Its green arms round the bosom of the stream, But kissed it and then fled, as Thou mightest in dream.
grew pied wind-flowers and violets, Daisies, those pearled Arcturi of the earth, The constellated flower that never sets;
Faint ox-lips; tender bluebells, at whose birth The sod scarce heaved; and that tall flower that wets
Its mother's face with heaven-collected tears,
When the low wind, its playmate's voice, it hears. And in the warm hedge grew lush eglantine,
Green cow-bind and the moonlight-colored May, And cherry-blossoms, and white cups, whose wine Was the bright dew yet drained not by the day; And wild roses, and ivy serpentine
With its dark buds and leaves, wandering
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