I sung of Chaos and Eternal Night, Taught by the heav’nly Muse to venture down The dark descent, and up to reascend...
Is it true, O Christ in heaven, that the highest suffer the most? That the strongest wander furthest and most hopelessly are lost? That the mark of rank in nature is capacity for pain? That the anguish of the singer makes the sweetness of the strain?
For so I created them free and free they must remain.
Freely they stood who stood, and fell who fell.
Our cure, to be no more; sad cure!
They also serve who only stand and wait.
Love-quarrels oft in pleasing concord end.
Who kills a man kills a reasonable creature, God’s image, but thee who destroys a good book, kills reason its self.
The superior man acquaints himself with many sayings of antiquity and many deeds of the past, in order to strengthen his character thereby.
For what can war, but endless war, still breed?
When complaints are freely heard, deeply considered and speedily reformed, then is the utmost bound of civil liberty attained that wise men look for.
And to the faithful: death, the gate of life.
He that has light within his own clear breast May sit in the centre, and enjoy bright day: But he that hides a dark soul and foul thoughts Benighted walks under the mid-day sun; Himself his own dungeon.
Wealth and honours, which most men pursue, easily change masters; they desert to the side which excels in virtue, industry, and endurance of toil, and they abandon the slothful.
Farewell Hope, and with Hope farewell Fear.
He left it in thy power, ordaind thy will By nature free, not over-rul’d by Fate Inextricable, or strict necessity;.
What in me is dark Illumine, what is low raise and support, That to the height of this great argument I may assert eternal Providence, And justify the ways of God to men. 1 Paradise Lost. Book i. Line 22.
O sun, to tell thee how I hate thy beams That bring to my remembrance from what state I fell, how glorious once above thy sphere.
Our state cannot be severed, we are one, One flesh; to lose thee were to lose myself.
Still paying, still to owe. Eternal woe!