From the Greek by Richard Garnett
’TWIXT good and ill my wavering fortune see
Swayed in capricious instability,
Most like the moon, whose ceaseless wax and wane
Cannot two nights the self-same form retain;
Viewless at first, then a dim streak revealed,
Then slow augmenting to an argent shield;
And when at length to fair perfection brought...
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From “An Essay on Man,” Epistle IV.
HONOR and shame from no condition rise;
Act well your part, there all the honor lies.
Fortune in men has some small difference made,
One flaunts in rags, one flutters in brocade;
The cobbler aproned, and the parson gowned,
The friar hooded, and the monarch crowned.
“What differ more (you cry) than... -
From the Italian by William Wetmore Story
IN facile natures fancies quickly grow,
But such quick fancies have but little root.
Soon the narcissus flowers and dies, but slow
The tree whose blossoms shall mature to fruit.
Grace is a moment’s happy feeling, Power
A life’s slow growth; and we for many an hour
Must strain and toil, and wait... -
THE Wisest of the wise
Listen to pretty lies,
And love to hear them told;
Doubt not that Solomon
Listened to many a one,—
Some in his youth, and more when he grew old.I never sat among
The choir of Wisdom’s song,
But pretty lies loved I
As much... -
“On a l’âge de son cœur.”
—A. d’HOUDETOT.A LITTLE more toward the light.
Me miserum. Here ’s one that ’s white,
And one that ’s turning;
Adieu to song and “salad days.”
My Muse, let ’s go at once to Jay’s
And order mourning.We must reform our rhymes, my dear,
Renounce the gay for the severe,—... -
From “As You Like It,” Act II. Sc. 2.
ADAM.—Let me be your servant;
Though I look old, yet am I strong and lusty:
For in my youth I never did apply
Hot and rebellious liquors in my blood;
Nor did not with unbashful forehead woo
The means of weakness and debility.
Therefore my age is as a lusty winter,
Frosty, but kindly: let me... -
From “The Borough”
BUT now our Quacks are gamesters, and they play
With craft and skill to ruin and betray;
With monstrous promise they delude the mind,
And thrive on all that tortures human-kind.
Void of all honor, avaricious, rash,
The daring tribe compound their boasted trash,—
Tincture or syrup, lotion, drop or pill;
All... -
The Tree of deepest root is found
Least willing still to quit the ground;
’T was therefore said by ancient sages,
That love of life increased with years
So much, that in our latter stages,
When pains grow sharp and sickness rages,
The greatest love of life appears.
This great affection to believe,
Which all confess, but few... -
From “Verses upon His Divine Poesy”
THE SEAS are quiet when the winds give o’er;
So calm are we when passions are no more.
For then we know how vain it was to boast
Of fleeting things, too certain to be lost.
Clouds of affection from our younger eyes
Conceal that emptiness which age descries.The soul’s dark cottage, battered and decayed...
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From “Moral Essays,” Epistle I.
SEARCH thou the ruling passion; there, alone,
The wild are constant, and the cunning known;
The fool consistent and the false sincere;
Priests, princes, women, no dissemblers here.* * * * *
In this the lust, in that the avarice,
Were means, not ends; ambition was the vice...