JOHN MILTON.
Nor second he, that rode sublime
Upon the seraph-wings of ecstasy,
The secrets of the abyss to spy.
He passed the flaming bounds of place and time,
The living throne, the sapphire blaze,
Where angels tremble while they gaze,
He saw; but, blasted with excess of light,
Closed his eyes in endless night.
Progress of Poesy. T. GRAY.
OLIVER CROMWELL.
His grandeur he derived from Heaven alone;
For he was great, ere fortune made him so:
And wars, like mists that rise against the sun,
Made him but greater seem, not greater grow.
Oliver Cromwell. J. DRYDEN.
Or, ravished with the whistling of a name,
See Cromwell, damned to everlasting fame!
Essay on Man, Epistle IV. A. POPE.
KING CHARLES II.
Here lies our sovereign lord the king,
Whose word no man relies on;
He never says a foolish thing,
Nor ever does a wise one.
Written on the Bedchamber Door of Charles II. EARL OF ROCHESTER.
MARTIN LUTHER.
The solitary monk who shook the world
From pagan slumber, when the gospel trump
Thundered its challenge from his dauntless lips
In peals of truth.
Luther. R. MONTGOMERY.