Ambition's monstrous stomach does increase
By eating, and it fears to starve unless
It still may feed, and all it sees devour.
Playhouse to Let. SIR W. DAVENANT.
But see how oft ambition's aims are crossed,
And chiefs contend 'til all the prize is lost!
Rape of the Lock, Canto V. A. POPE.
O, sons of earth! attempt ye still to rise,
By mountains piled on mountains to the skies?
Heaven still with laughter the vain toil surveys,
And buries madmen in the heaps they raise.
Essay on Man, Epistle IV. A. POPE.
The very substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow
of a dream.
Hamlet, Act ii. Sc. 2. SHAKESPEARE.
Why then doth flesh, a bubble-glass of breath,
Hunt after honour and advancement vain,
And rear a trophy for devouring death?
Ruins of Time. E. SPENSER.
Oh, sons of earth! attempt ye still to rise
By mountains piled on mountains to the skies?
Heaven still with laughter the vain toil surveys,
And buries madmen in the heaps they raise.
Essay on Man. A. POPE.
ANGEL.
In this dim world of clouding cares,
We rarely know, till 'wildered eyes
See white wings lessening up the skies,
The Angels with us unawares.
Ballad of Babe Christabel. G. MASSEY.
Around our pillows golden ladders rise,
And up and down the skies,
With wingèd sandals shod,
The angels come, and go, the Messengers of God!
Nor, though they fade from us, do they depart—
It is the childly heart:
We walk as heretofore,
Adown their shining ranks, but see them nevermore.
Hymn to the Beautiful. R.H. STODDARD.
For God will deign
To visit oft the dwellings of just men
Delighted, and with frequent intercourse
Thither will send his wingèd messengers
On errands of supernal grace.
Paradise Lost, Bk. VII. MILTON.