Quickly fired, as in beginners In Love's school, and yet no sinners. 'Twere too long to speak of all; What we harmony do call In a body should be there. Well he should his clothes, too, wear, Drest, you still for man should take him, Or were set up in a brake. Valiant he should be as fire, Showing danger more than ire. Bounteous as the clouds to earth, And as honest as his birth; All his actions to be such, As to do no thing too much : Nor do wrongs, nor wrongs receive, Such a man, with every part, I could give my very heart; — BEN JONSON. 15. A PROPER WOMAN. He that loves a rosy cheek But a smooth and steadfast mind, ONCE, in the flight of ages past, There lived a man: - and WHO was HE? Mortal! howe'er thy lot be cast, That man resembled thee. Unknown the region of his birth, That joy and grief, and hope and fear, The bounding pulse, the languid limb, He loved, but whom he loved, the grave - Hath lost in its unconscious womb: Oh, she was fair! — but nought could save Her beauty from the tomb. He saw whatever thou hast seen; The rolling seasons, day and night, To him exist in vain. The clouds and sunbeams o'er his eye Have left in yonder silent sky No vestige where they flew. The annals of the human race, Their ruins since the world began, Of HIM afford no other trace Than this, THERE LIVED A MAN! -JAMES MONTGOMERY. 17. THE PERFECT LIFE. It is not growing like a tree In bulk, doth make Man better be; Or standing long an oak, three hundred year, To fall a log at last, dry, bald, and sere: A lily of a day Is fairer far in May, Although it fall and die that night — It was the plant and flower of Light. In small proportions we just beauties see; -BEN JONSON. 18. THE CONTENTED MIND. I WEIGH not fortune's frown or smile; I quake not at the thunder's crack; I see ambition never pleased; I see some Tantals starved in store; I feign not friendship, where I hate; This, this is all my choice, my cheer- -JOSHUA SYLVESTER. 19. A WISH. THIS only grant me, that my means may lie Not from great deeds, but good alone. Acquaintance I would have, but when 't depends |