O vain to seek delight in earthly thing!
But most in courts where proud ambition towers.

SHENSTONE.

Drawn into arms, and proof of mortal fight,

Of all the passions which possess the soul,
None so disturb vain mortals' minds
As vain ambition, which so blinds
The light of them, that nothing can control
Nor curb their thoughts who will aspire.
EARL OF STIRLING: Darius.
Well I deserved Evadne's scorn to prove,
That to ambition sacrificed my love.

WALLER.

Alas! ambition makes my little less,
Embitt'ring the possess'd: why wish for more?
Wishing of all employments is the worst;
Philosophy's reverse, and health's decay!
YOUNG: Night Thoughts.

ANCESTRY.

Heralds stickle, who got who-
So many hundred years ago.

BUTLER: Hudibras.
He that to ancient wreaths can bring no more
From his own worth, dies bankrupt on the score.
JOHN CLEAVELAND.
'Twas no false heraldry when madness drew
Her pedigree from those who too much knew.
SIR J. DENHAM.

Were virtue by descent, a noble name
Could never villanize his father's fame;
But, as the first, the last of all the line
Would, like the sun, ev'n in descending, shine.
DRYDEN.

Vain are their hopes who fancy to inherit,
Though plodding heralds through each branch
By trees of pedigree, or fame or merit;

may trace

Old captains and dictators of their race.

DRYDEN.

Long galleries of ancestors Challenge nor wonder or esteem from me: "Virtue alone is true nobility."

DRYDEN.

Do then as your progenitors have done,
And by their virtues prove yourself their son.

DRYDEN.

Thus, born alike, from virtue first began
The diff'rence that distinguish'd man from man:

Through proud ambition and heart-swelling He claim'd no title from descent of blood;

hate.

SPENSER.

But that which made him noble, made him good.
DRYDEN.

How fading are the joys we dote upon!
Like apparitions seen and gone;

Are the most exquisite and strong;

Like angels' visits, short and bright,

Divide the night, and lift our thoughts to heaven. | Mortality's too weak to bear them long.

All bright as an angel new dropp'd from the sky.

A countenance more in sorrow than in anger.
SHAKSPEARE.

Scarce can I speak, my choler is so great:
Oh! I could hew up rocks, and fight with flint.
SHAKSPEARE.

It engenders choler; planteth anger;
And better 'twere that both of us did fast,
Since, of ourselves, ourselves are choleric,
Than feed it with such over-roasted flesh.
SHAKSPEARE.

Full many mischiefs follow cruel wrath,
Abhorred bloodshed, and tumultuous strife,
Unmanly murder, and unthrifty scath.

SPENSER: Faerie Queene.

39

DRAYTON.

Nymphs of Mulla, which, with careful heed,
The silver scaly trouts did tend full well.

With silken worms.

He, like a patient angler, ere he strook,
Would let them play awhile upon the hook.

DRYDEN.

Casting nets were spread in shallow brooks,
Drags in the deep, and baits were hung on hooks.
DRYDEN.

Nor drain I ponds the golden carp to take,
Nor troll for pikes, dispeoplers of the lake.

GAY.

In genial spring, beneath the quiv'ring shade,
Where cooling vapours breathe along the mead,
The patient fisher takes his silent stand,
Intent, his angle trembling in his hand:

SPENSER.

Should you lure

From his dark haunt beneath the tangled roots
Of pendent trees the monarch of the brook,
Behoves you then to ply your finest art.

THOMSON.

The ladies angling in the crystal lake,
Feast on the waters with the prey they take.
WALLER.

Let me live harmlessly, and near the brink

Of Trent or Avon have a dwelling place;

With looks unmoved, he hopes the scaly breed, Where I may see my quill or cork down sink

And eyes the dancing cork and bending reed.

POPE: Windsor Forest.

With eager bite of pearch, or bleak, or dace.

IZAAK WALTON.