Prose Works of Abraham Cowley ; Including His Essays in Prose and Verse

Front Cover
W. Pickering, 1826 - 238 pages

From inside the book

Selected pages

Contents


Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

Popular passages

Page 228 - This only grant me, that my means may lie Too low for envy, for contempt too high. Some honour I would have, Not from great deeds, but good alone. The unknown are better than ill known. Rumour can ope the grave; Acquaintance I would have, but when it depends Not on the number, but the choice of friends.
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 233 - ... me from a mistress which I have loved so long, and have now at last married, though she neither has brought me a rich portion, nor lived yet so quietly with me as I hoped from her. - Nee vos, dulcissima mundi Nomina, vos Musae, libertas, otia, libri, Hortique sylvesque anima remanente relinquam.
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 133 - Here 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.
Page 211 - Man, whom the same humble place, (Th' hereditary Cottage of his Race) From his first rising infancy has known, And by degrees sees gently bending down, With natural propension to that Earth Which both preserv'd his Life, and gave him birth.
Page 18 - And I shall be ambitious of no other fruit from this weak and imperfect attempt of mine, but the opening of a way to the courage and industry of some other persons, who may be better able to perform it thoroughly and successfully.
Page 216 - God destroyed his life, and gave the fruits of it to another. Thus God takes away sometimes the man from his riches, and no less frequently riches from the man : what hope can there be of such a marriage, where both parties are so fickle and uncertain ? by what bonds can such a couple be kept long together...
Page 236 - There fire's an element, as cheap and free, Almost a,s any of the other three. Stay you then here, and live among the great, Attend their sports, and at their tables eat. When all the bounties here of men you score, The place's bounty there, shall give me more.
Page 193 - Ye strive for more, as if ye liked it not. Go, level hills, and fill up seas, Spare nought that may your wanton fancy please; But, trust me, when you have done all this, Much will be missing still, and much will be amiss.

Bibliographic information