Prose Works of Abraham Cowley ; Including His Essays in Prose and VerseW. Pickering, 1826 - 238 pages |
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Page xxix
... light . They should not consist of fulsome compli- ments , or tedious politics , or elaborate elegancies , or general fancies ; but they should have a native clear- ness and shortness , a domestical plainness , and a peculiar kind of ...
... light . They should not consist of fulsome compli- ments , or tedious politics , or elaborate elegancies , or general fancies ; but they should have a native clear- ness and shortness , a domestical plainness , and a peculiar kind of ...
Page xxxvii
... light might have been expected , from a mind that was endued with the primitive meekness and innocence . And besides , such a work , coming from one that was no divine , might have been very useful for this age ; wherein it is one of ...
... light might have been expected , from a mind that was endued with the primitive meekness and innocence . And besides , such a work , coming from one that was no divine , might have been very useful for this age ; wherein it is one of ...
Page 4
... light and view of the world ; not as a thing that I approved of in itself , but as a less evil , which I chose rather than to stay till it were done for me by somebody else , either surreptitiously before , or avowedly after , my death ...
... light and view of the world ; not as a thing that I approved of in itself , but as a less evil , which I chose rather than to stay till it were done for me by somebody else , either surreptitiously before , or avowedly after , my death ...
Page 62
... light scale makes up with arms the weight . 2 . Who of his nation loves to be the first , Though at the rate of being worst . Who would be rather a great monster , than A well - proportion'd man . The son of earth with hundred hands ...
... light scale makes up with arms the weight . 2 . Who of his nation loves to be the first , Though at the rate of being worst . Who would be rather a great monster , than A well - proportion'd man . The son of earth with hundred hands ...
Page 73
... light , but cast away even the very snuff of it ? As if a man should murder a whole family , and then possess himself of the house , because it is better that he , than that only rats , should live there . Jesus God ! ( said I , and at ...
... light , but cast away even the very snuff of it ? As if a man should murder a whole family , and then possess himself of the house , because it is better that he , than that only rats , should live there . Jesus God ! ( said I , and at ...
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Common terms and phrases
ABRAHAM COWLEY ambition ancient avarice beasts beauty better bold Catullus Cicero Columella command confess courage court Cowley Cromwell death delight discourse divine dost earth envy Epicurus excellent fear fortune friends garden Georgics give gods happy history of animals honour Horace human humble Incitatus industry innocent justice of peace kind king labour less liberty live Lord Lord Strafford Lucretius luxury mankind manner master men's ment methinks mind nation nature never noble OLIVER CROMWELL Ovid person Pindar pity pleasures poetry poets pounds pretend princes professors rich rience Sapere aude scarce Senecio servants shew slave sleep sort thee things thou thought tion tree true truth tyrant usurpation Varro verse Virgil virtue virtuous whilst whole wicked wise wonder writings
Popular passages
Page 224 - To-morrow you will live, you always cry; In what far country does this morrow lie, That 'tis so mighty long ere it arrive? Beyond the Indies does this morrow live? Tis so far-fetched, this morrow, that I fear Twill be both very old and very dear. To-morrow I will live, the fool does say; To-day itselfs too late, the wise lived yesterday.
Page 222 - Begin, be bold, and venture to be wise : He who defers this work from day to day, Does on a river's bank expecting stay Till the whole stream which stopp'd him should be gone, Which runs, and, as it runs, for ever will run on.
Page 205 - And they said : Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven, and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.
Page 229 - Thus would I double my life's fading space, For he that runs it well, twice runs his race. And in this true delight, These unbought sports, that happy state, I would not fear nor wish my fate, But boldly say each night, To-morrow let my sun his beams display, Or in clouds hide them; I have lived to-day.
Page 134 - ... let me careless and unthoughtful lying, Hear the soft winds above me flying With all their wanton boughs dispute, And the more tuneful birds to both replying, Nor be myself too mute. A silver stream shall roll his waters near, Gilt with the sunbeams here and there, On whose enamelled bank I 'll walk, And see how prettily they smile, and hear How prettily they talk.
Page 179 - O'er all the vegetable world command ? And the wild giants of the wood receive What law he's pleased to give ? He bids the' ill-natured crab produce The gentler apple's winy juice; The golden fruit, that worthy is Of Galatea's purple kiss : He does the savage hawthorn teach To bear the medlar and the pear: He bids the rustic plum to rear A noble trunk, and be a peach.
Page 83 - Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood: their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction are in their paths.
Page 178 - Where does the wisdom and the power divine In a more bright and sweet reflection shine ? Where do we finer strokes and colours see Of the Creator's real poetry, Than when we with attention look Upon the third day's volume of the book ? If we could open and intend our eye, We all, like Moses, should espy Ev'n in a bush the radiant Deity.
Page 176 - Allows the meanest gard'ner's board. The wanton taste no fish or fowl can choose, For which the grape or melon she would lose ; Though all th...
Page 58 - ... to usurp three kingdoms without any shadow of the least pretensions, and to govern them as unjustly as he got them ? to set himself up as an idol (which we know, as St. Paul says, in itself is nothing), and make the very streets of London like the valley of Hinnon, by burning the bowels of men as a sacrifice to his Molochship...