"THE SOUL GROWS CLOTTED BY CONTAGION."-MILTON.
HAT needs my Shakspeare for his honoured bones,
The labour of an age in pilèd stones?
Or that his hallowed reliques should be hid
Under a star-y-pointing pyramid?
Dear son of Memory, great heir of Fame!
What need'st thou such weak witness of thy name?
Thou, in our wonder and astonishment,
Hast built thyself a live-long monument.
For whilst, to the shame of slow-endeavouring Art,
Thy easy numbers flow; and that each heart
Hath, from the leaves of thy unvalued * book,
Those Delphic+ lines with deep impression took;
Then thou, our fancy of itself bereaving,
Dost make us marble with too much conceiving;
And, so sepulchred, in such pomp dost lie,
That kings for such a tomb would wish to die.
[JOHN MILTON. Written in 1630.]
"LICENSE THEY MEAN WHEN THEY CRY LIBERTY; FOR WHO LOVES THAT MUST FIRST BE WISE AND GOOD."-MILTON.
"HENCE, VAIN, DELUDING JOYS! THE BROOD OF FOLLY WITHOUT FATHER BRED!"-JOHN MILTON.
JOW the bright morning star, day's harbinger,
Comes dancing from the east, and leads with her
The flow'ry May, who from her green lap throws
The yellow cowslip and the pale primrose.
Hail, beauteous May, that doth inspire
Mirth and youth and warm desire!
* That is invaluable. Shakspeare uses the word "unvalued" with the
same meaning.
↑ Delphic-oracular. Delphi, in Greece, was the seat of a famous oracle of Apollo.
REFRESHMENT AFTER TOIL, EASE AFTER PAIN."-MILTON.
"MANY ARE THE SAYINGS OF THE WISE, EXTOLLING PATIENCE AS THE TRUEST FORTITUDE."-MILTON.
"LET THERE BE LIGHT! AND LIGHT WAS OVER ALL."-MILTON.
Woods and groves are of thy dressing,
Hill and dale doth boast thy blessing.
Thus we salute thee with our early song,
And welcome thee, and wish thee long.
[JOHN MILTON. From his "Poems on Several Occasions."]
"HOW CHARMING IS DIVINE PHILOSOPHY!"- -MILTON.
"TO KNOW, THAT WHICH ABOUT US LIES IN DAILY LIFE, IS THE PRIME WISDOM."-MILTON.
"IN THE SOUL ARE MANY LESSER FACULTIES, THAT SERVE REASON AS CHIEF."-JOHN MILTON.
'WHERE THE HEART JOINS NOT, OUTWARD ACTS DEFILE NOT."-MILTON.
SATAN'S ADDRESS TO THE SUN.
JAME is the spur that the clear spirit doth raise
(That last infirmity of noble minds)
To scorn delights and live laborious days:
But the fair guerdon when we hope to find,
And think to burst out into sudden blaze,
Comes the blind Fury with the abhorred shears,
And slits the thin-spun life. "But not the praise,"
Phoebus replied, and touched my trembling ears;
"Fame is no plant that grows on mortal soil,
Nor in the glistering foil
Set off to the world, nor in broad rumour lies;
But lives and spreads aloft by those pure eyes,
And perfect witness of all-judging Jove;
As he pronounces lastly on each deed,
Of so much fame in heaven expect thy meed."
[JOHN MILTON. From his monody entitled "Lycidas." Shelley's 'Adonais," Tennyson's "In Memoriam," Milton's "Lycidas," and Matthew Arnold's "Thyrsis," are the four noblest elegiac poems in any language.]
"APT THE MIND, OR FANCY, IS TO ROVE UNCHECKED, AND OF HER ROVING IS NO END."-MILTON.
SATAN'S ADDRESS TO THE SUN.
THOU, that with surpassing glory crowned
Look'st from thy sole dominion like the God
Of this new world; at whose sight all the stars
Hide their diminished heads; to thee I call,
But with no friendly voice; and add thy name,
O Sun, to tell thee how I hate thy beams,
That bring to my remembrance from what state
I fell, how glorious once-above thy sphere;
"EVIL NEWS RIDES POST, WHILE GOOD NEWS BAITS."-MILTON.
"ZEAL AND DUTY ARE NOT SLOW, BUT ON OCCASION'S FORELOCK WATCHFUL WAIT."-JOHN MILTON.
"THEY WHO ADVANCE GOD'S GLORY, NOT THEIR OWN,
SATAN'S ADDRESS TO THE SUN.
"MILLIONS OF SPIRITUAL CREATURES WALK THE EARTH, UNSEEN, BOTH WHEN WE WAKE AND WHEN WE SLEEP."
Till pride and worse ambition threw me down,
Warring in heaven against heaven's matchless king.
Ah, wherefore? He deserved no such return
From me, whom he created what I was
In that bright eminence, and with his good
Upbraided none, nor was his service hard.
What could be less than to afford him praise,
The easiest recompense, and pay him thanks?
THEM HE HIMSELF TO GLORY WILL ADVANCE."-MILTON.
"EACH ACT IS RIGHTLIEST DONE, NOT WHEN IT MUST, BUT WHEN IT MAY BE BEST."-MILTON.
ALL THINGS ARE BEST FULFILLED IN THEIR DUE TIME."-MILTON.
SATAN'S ADDRESS TO THE SUN.
How due!—yet all his good proved ill in me,
And wrought but malice; lifted up so high,
I 'sdained subjection, and thought one step higher
Would set me highest, and in a moment quit
The debt immense of endless gratitude,
So burdensome still paying, still to owe :
Forgetful what from him I still received;
And understood not that a grateful mind
By owing owes not, but still pays, at once
Indebted and discharged: what burden then?
Oh, had his powerful destiny ordained
Me some inferior angel, I had stood
Then happy; no unbounded hope had raised
Ambition! Yet why not?-some other power
As great might have aspired, and me, though mean,
Drawn to his part; but other powers as great
Fell not, but stand unshaken, from within
As from without, to all temptations armed.
Hadst thou the same free will and power to stand?
Thou hadst whom hast thou, then, or what to accuse,
But Heaven's free love dealt equally to all?
Be then his love accurst; since love or hate,
To me alike, it deals eternal woe:
Nay, cursed be thou; since against his thy will
Chose freely what it now so justly rues.
Me miserable!—which way shall I fly
Infinite wrath and infinite despair?
Which way I fly is hell; myself am hell;
And in the lowest deep a lower deep,
Still threatening to devour, me opens wide;
To which the hell I suffer seems a heaven.
Oh, then at last relent; is there no place
Left for repentance, none for pardon left?
None left but by submission; and that word
"MANY BOOKS, WISE MEN HAVE SAID, ARE WEARISOME."-MILTON.
"(ABDID) FAITHFUL FOUND AMONG THE FAITHLESS-FAITHFUL ONLY HE."-JOHN MILTON.
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