John Bartlett (1820–1905). Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. 1919.
Abraham Cowley 1618-1667 John Bartlett
1 | |
What shall I do to be forever known, And make the age to come my own? | |
The Motto. | |
2 | |
His time is forever, everywhere his place. | |
Friendship in Absence. | |
3 | |
We spent them not in toys, in lusts, or wine, But search of deep philosophy, Wit, eloquence, and poetry; Arts which I lov’d, for they, my friend, were thine. | |
On the Death of Mr. William Harvey. | |
4 | |
His faith, perhaps, in some nice tenets might Be wrong; his life, I ’m sure, was in the right. 1 | |
On the Death of Crashaw. | |
5 | |
The thirsty earth soaks up the rain, And drinks, and gapes for drink again; The plants suck in the earth, and are With constant drinking fresh and fair. | |
From Anacreon, ii. Drinking. | |
6 | |
Fill all the glasses there, for why Should every creature drink but I? Why, man of morals, tell me why? | |
From Anacreon, ii. Drinking. | |
7 | |
A mighty pain to love it is, And ’t is a pain that pain to miss; But of all pains, the greatest pain It is to love, but love in vain. | |
From Anacreon, vii. Gold. | |
8 | |
Hope, of all ills that men endure, The only cheap and universal cure. | |
The Mistress. For Hope. | |
9 | |
Th’ adorning thee with so much art Is but a barb’rous skill; ’T is like the pois’ning of a dart, Too apt before to kill. | |
The Waiting Maid. | |
10 | |
Nothing is there to come, and nothing past, But an eternal now does always last. 2 | |
Davideis. Book i. Line 25. | |
11 | |
When Israel was from bondage led, Led by the Almighty’s hand From out of foreign land, The great sea beheld and fled. | |
Davideis. Book i. Line 41. | |
12 | |
An harmless flaming meteor shone for hair, And fell adown his shoulders with loose care. 3 | |
Davideis. Book ii. Line 95. | |
13 | |
The monster London laugh at me. | |
Of Solitude, xi. | |
14 | |
Let but thy wicked men from out thee go, And all the fools that crowd thee so, Even thou, who dost thy millions boast, A village less than Islington wilt grow, A solitude almost. | |
Of Solitude, vii. | |
15 | |
The fairest garden in her looks, And in her mind the wisest books. | |
The Garden, i. | |
16 | |
God the first garden made, and the first city Cain. 4 | |
The Garden, ii. | |
17 | |
Hence, ye profane! I hate ye all, Both the great vulgar and the small. | |
Horace. Book iii. Ode 1. | |
18 | |
Charm’d with the foolish whistling of a name 5 | |
Virgil, Georgics. Book ii. Line 72. | |
19 | |
Words that weep and tears that speak. 6 | |
The Prophet. | |
20 | |
We griev’d, we sigh’d, we wept; we never blush’d before. | |
Discourse concerning the Government of Oliver Cromwell. | |
21 | |
Thus would I double my life’s fading space; For he that runs it well, runs twice his race. 7 | |
Discourse xi. Of Myself. St. xi. |
Note 1. For modes of faith let graceless zealots fight, He can’t be wrong whose life is in the right. Alexander Pope: Essay on Man, epilogue iii. line 303. [back] |
Note 2. One of our poets (which is it?) speaks of an everlasting now.—Robert Southey: The Doctor, chap. xxv. p. 1. [back] |
Note 3. Loose his beard and hoary hair Stream’d like a meteor to the troubled air. Thomas Gray: The Bard, i. 2. [back] |
Note 4. See Bacon, Quotation 32. [back] |
Note 5. Ravish’d with the whistling of a name.—Alexander Pope: Essay on Man, epistle iv. line 281. [back] |
Note 6. Thoughts that breathe, and words that burn.—Thomas Gray: Progress of Poesy, iii. 3, 4. [back] |
Note 7. For he lives twice who can at once employ The present well, and ev’n the past enjoy. Alexander Pope: Imitation of Martial. [back] |