"He felt the inspiring heat, the absent god return."
The verses which follow are full of him, and, with the exception of the single word underwent, are in his luckiest manner:—
"One loose, one sally of a hero's soul,
Does all the military art control.
While timorous wit goes round, or fords the shore,
He shoots the gulf, and is already o'er,
And, when the enthusiastic fit is spent,
Looks back amazed at what he underwent."[65]
Pithy sentences and phrases always drop from Dryden's pen as if unawares, whether in prose or verse. I string together a few at random:—
"The greatest argument for love is love."
"Few know the use of life before 't is past."
"Time gives himself and is not valued."
"Death in itself is nothing; but we fear
To be we know not what, we know not where."
"Love either finds equality or makes it;
Like death, he knows no difference in degrees."
"That's empire, that which I can give away."