RESPICE FINEM My soul, sit thou a patient looker-on; 1635. FAME Francis Quarles. HER house is all of echo made And as her brows the clouds invade, Ben Jonson. "HOW NEAR TO GOOD IS WHAT IS FAIR" How near to good is what is fair! Which we no sooner see, But with the lines and outward air We wish to see it still, and prove What ways we may deserve; We court, we praise, we more than love: 1616. A BURNT SHIP Ben Jonson, OUT of a fired ship, which by no way 1633. ON MILTON John Donne. THREE poets, in three distant ages born, | 1688./ John Dryden. ON A CERTAIN LADY AT COURT I KNOW a thing that 's most uncommon; (Envy, be silent and attend!) I know a reasonable woman, Handsome and witty, yet a friend: Not warp'd by passion, awed by rumour; Not grave through pride, nor gay through folly; An equal mixture of good-humour And sensible soft melancholy.' "Has she no faults then (Envy says), Sir?" Yes, she has one, I must aver: When all the world conspires to praise her, 1727. Alexander Pope. 12 "WHEN LOVELY WOMAN STOOPS TO FOLLY" WHEN lovely woman stoops to folly The only art her guilt to cover, 1766. Oliver Goldsmith. LINES WRITTEN ON A BANK NOTE WAE worth thy power, thou cursed leaf! For lack o' thee I 've lost my lass, For lack o' thee I leave this much-lov'd shore, 1814. Robert Burns. "MY HEART LEAPS UP WHEN I BEHOLD" My heart leaps up when I behold So was it when my life began; So be it when I shall grow old, Or let me die! The Child is father of the Man; 1802. 1807. THE GOOD GREAT MAN "How seldom, friend! a good great man inherits Honour and wealth, with all his worth and pains! It seems a story from the world of spirits 5 For shame, dear friend, renounce this idle strain! What wouldst thou have a good great man obtain? Place, titles, salary, a gilded chain, Or throne of corses which his sword had slain? Greatness and goodness are not means, but ends. 10 Hath he not always treasures, always friends,— The good great man?. Three treasures,-love, and light, And calm thoughts, regular as infant's breath; And three firm friends, more sure than day and night, Himself, his Maker, and the angel Death. 15 1802. 1858. Samuel Taylor Coleridge. HEARTS-EASE THERE is a flower I wish to wear, most rare; Bring it; and bring enough for two. Walter Savage Lander |