Thrice happy he, that ne’er was born to try
Her frowns or smiles: or being born, did lie
In his sad nurse’s arms an hour or two, and die.
Emb. 4. Book I.
Tho’ the considering mortality on the gloomy side, is not productive of much happiness, yet there are certain dispositions which feel some gratification in it—Quarles was one of these. He seizes all opportunities of abusing the world; and it must be confessed he has here done it in “choice and elegant terms.”
Sometimes he is more outrageous in his abuse.
Let wit, and all her studied plots effect
The best they can;
Let smiling fortune prosper and perfect
What wit began;