LIFE.
Let observation, with extensive view,
Survey mankind from China to Peru;
Remark each anxious toil, each eager strife,
And watch the busy scenes of crowded life.
The Vanity of Human Wishes. DR. S. JOHNSON.
It matters not how long we live, but how.
Festus, Sc. Wood and Water. P.J. BAILEY.
Nor love thy life, nor hate; but what thou liv'st
Live well; how long or short permit to heaven.
Paradise Lost, Bk, XI. MILTON.
All is concentred in a life intense,
Where not a beam, nor air, nor leaf is lost,
But hath a part of being.
Childe Harold, Canto III. LORD BYRON.
Life for delays and doubts no time does give,
None ever yet made haste enough to live.
Martial, Liber II. A. COWLEY.
Learn to live well, that thou may'st die so too;
To live and die is all we have to do.
Of Prudence. SIR J. DENHAM.
"Live, while you live," the epicure would say,
"And seize the pleasures of the present day;"
"Live while you live," the sacred preacher cries,
"And give to God each moment as it flies."
"Lord, in my views let both united be;
I live in pleasure, when I live to Thee."
"Dum vivimus vivamus." (Motto of his Family Arms.)
P. DODDRIDGE.
A man's ingress into the world is naked and bare,
His progress through the world is trouble and care;
And lastly, his egress out of the world, is nobody knows where.
If we do well here, we shall do well there;
I can tell you no more if I preach a whole year.
Eccentricities, Vol. I. J. EDWIN.
A little rule, a little sway,
A sunbeam in a winter's day,
Is all the proud and mighty have
Between the cradle and the grave.
Grongar Hill. J. DYER.
So may'st thou live, till like ripe fruit thou drop
Into thy mother's lap
Paradise Lost, Bk. XI. MILTON.
Sound, sound the clarion, fill the fife!
To all the sensual world proclaim,
One crowded hour of glorious life
Is worth an age without a name.
Old Mortality: Chapter Head. SIR W. SCOTT.
Let us (since life can little more supply
Than just to look about us, and to die)
Expatiate free o'er all this scene of man;
A mighty maze! but not without a plan.
Essay on Man, Epistle I. A. POPE.
The world's a theatre, the earth a stage
Which God and nature do with actors fill.
Apology for Actors. T. HEYWOOD.
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life is but a walking shadow; a poor player.
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
Macbeth, Act v. Sc. 5 SHAKESPEARE.
The web of our life is of a mingled
Yarn, good and ill together.
All's Well that Ends Well, Act iv. Sc. 3. SHAKESPEARE.
And what's a life?—a weary pilgrimage,
Whose glory in one day doth fill the stage
With childhood, manhood, and decrepit age.
What is Life? P. QUARLES.
An elegant sufficiency, content,
Retirement, rural quiet, friendship, books,
Ease and alternate labor, useful life,
Progressive virtue, and approving Heaven!
The Seasons: Spring. J. THOMSON.
On life's vast ocean diversely we sail,
Reason the card, but passion is the gale.
Essay on Man, Epistle II. A. POPE.
I cannot tell what you and other men
Think of this life; but, for my single self,
I had as lief not be as live to be
In awe of such a thing as I myself.
Julius Cæsar, Act i. Sc. 2. SHAKESPEARE.
Why, what should be the fear?
I do not set my life at a pin's fee.
Hamlet, Act i. Sc. 4. SHAKESPEARE.
"Life is not lost," said she, "for which is bought
Endlesse renowne."
Faërie Queene, Bk. III. Canto XI. E. SPENSER.
Our life is scarce the twinkle of a star
In God's eternal day.
Autumnal Vespers. B. TAYLOR.
There taught us how to live; and (oh, too high
The price for knowledge!) taught us how to die.
On the Death of Addison. T. TICKELL.
Our life contains a thousand springs,
And dies if one be gone.
Strange! that a harp of thousand strings
Should keep in tune so long.
Hymns and Spiritual Songs. DR. I. WATTS.