The bounds of possible things, that I should link Her spacious arms do reach from east to west, My name to that word—traitor?
At last I know thee - and my soul
From all thy arts set free,
Abjures the cold consummate art
Shrin'd as a soul in thee,
And you may see her heart shine through her breast:
Her right hand holds a sun with burning rays, Her left a curious bunch of golden keys; With which heav'n's gates she locketh, and dis plays,
A crystal mirror hanging at her breast, By which men's consciences are search'd and drest:
On her coach-wheels hypocrisy lies rack'd, And squint-ey'd slander, with vain glory back'd; Her bright eyes burn to dust; in which shines fate: An angel ushers her triumphant gait; Whilst with her fingers fans of stars she twists, And with them beats back error, clad in mists: Eternal unity behind her shines;
That fire, and water, earth and air combines. Her voice is like a trumpet, loud and shrill; Which bids all sounds in earth, and heav'n be still. Jonson's Masques.
'Twixt truth and error, there is this diff'rence known, Error is fruitful, truth is only one.
Vice for a time may shine, and virtue sigh; But truth, like heav'n's sun, plainly doth reveal, And scourge or crown, what darkness did conceal. Davenport's City Night-Cap Oh truth,
Thou art, whilst tenant in a noble breast, A crown of crystal in an iv'ry chest!
Davenport's King John and Matilda
Yet all of us hold this for true, No faith is to the wicked due; For truth is precious and divine, Too rich a pearl for carnal swine.
Butler's Hudibres. Truth, like a single point, escapes the sight, And claims attention to perceive it right; But what resembles truth is soon descry'd, Spreads like a surface, and expanded wide.
What mark does truth, what bright distinction | No soul can soar too loftily whose aim
Ask me not why I should love her; — Look upon those soul-full eyes! Look while mirth or feeling move her, And see there how sweetly rise Thoughts gay and gentle from a breast Which is of innocence the nest-
Which, though each joy were from it shred, By truth would still be tenanted!
When fiction rises pleasing to the eye, Men will believe, because they love the lie; But truth herself, if clouded with a frown, Must have some solemn proofs to pass her down. Churchill.
Truth why shall ev'ry wretch of letters Dare to speak truth against his betters! Let ragged virtue stand aloof,
Nor mutter accents of reproof;
Let ragged wit a mute become,
When wealth and power would have her dumb. Churchill.
All truth is precious, if not all divine, And what dilates the pow'rs must needs refine. Cowper.
The sages say, dame truth delights to dwell, Strange mansion! in the bottom of a well. Questions are, then, the windlass and the rope That pull the grave old gentlewoman up. Dr. Wolcot's Peter Pindar. What is truth? -a staff rejected.
It is a weary and a bitter task
I love thee, twilight! for thy gleams impart Their dear, their dying influence to my heart, When o'er the harp of thought thy passing wind Awakens all the music of the mind, And joy and sorrow, as the spirit burns, And hope and memory sweep the chords by turns. Montgomery's World before the Flood. It is the hour when from the boughs The nightingale's high note is heard; It is the hour when lovers' vows Seem sweet in every whisper'd word; And gentle winds, and waters near, Make music to the lonely ear.
Wordsworth. The lady and her lover, left alone,
The rosy flood of twilight's sky admired :— Ave Maria! o'er the earth and sea,
Back from the lip the burning word to keep, And to shut out heaven's air with falsehood's mask, That heavenliest hour of heaven is worthiest thee.
And in the dark urn of the soul to heap Indignant feelings — making e'en of thought A buried treasure.
Mrs. Hemans. Verily there is nothing so false, that a sparkle of truth is not in it.
Tupper's Proverbial Philosophy. When we have hop'd, sought, striven, lost our aim, Then the truth fronts us, beaming out of darkness, Like a white brow through its o'ershadowing hair. Bailey's Festus.
Truth crush'd to earth shall rise again The eternal years of God are hers; But Error, wounded, writhes in pain, And dies among his worshippers.
"T was twilight, for the sunless day went down Over the waste of waters like a veil Which, if withdrawn, would but disclose the frown Of one who hates us.
How fine to view the sun's departing ray Fling back a lingering lovely after-day; The moon of summer glides serenely by, And sheds a light enchantment o'er the sky. These, sweetly mingling, pour upon the sight A pencill'd shadowing, and a dewy light- A softened day, a half-unconscious night. Alas! too finely pure on earth to stay, It faintly spots the hill, and dies away.
I know him tyrannous; and tyrants' fears Decrease not, but grow faster than their years. Shaks. Pericles.
For what is he they follow? truly, gentlemen, A bloody tyrant, and a homicide; One rais'd in blood, and one in blood establish'd; One that made means to come by what he hath, And slaughter'd those that were the means to help him;
A base foul stone, made precious by the foil Of England's chair, where he is falsely set; One that hath ever been God's enemy.
Our brother is imprison'd by your means, Myself disgrac'd, and the nobility Held in contempt; while great promotions Are daily given to ennoble those
That scarce, some two days since, were worth a noble. Shaks. Richard III. And many an old man's sigh, and many a widow's,
And many an orphan's water-standing eye- Men for their sons', wives for their husbands' fate, And orphans for their parents' timeless death, - Shall rue the hour that ever thou wast born.
Shaks. Henry VI. Part III. Till now you have gone on, and fill'd the time With all licentious measure, making your wills The scope of justice; till now myself, and such As slept within the shadow of your power, Have wander'd with our travers'd arms, and breath'd
Have fear, or love, in greatness no impression? Since people who did raise you to the crown, Are ladders standing still to let you down. Lord Brooke's Mustapha. Tyrants seldom die
Of a dry death; it waiteth at their gate, Drest in the colour of their robes of state. Alleyn's Henry VIL
A tyrant's blood doth wash the hand that spills it. Cartwright's Siegs
'Twixt kings and tyrants there's this diff'rence | Justice is lame, as well as blind, amongst us: The laws, corrupted to their ends that make them, Serve but for instruments of some new tyranny, That every day starts up t' enslave us deeper. Otway's Venice Preserved.
Kings seek their subjects' good, tyrants their own. Herrick.
All the ambitious for the throne would fight, For where none has the title, all have right: Thus whilst we cast a bloody tyrant down By blood, we raise another to the crown. Earl of Orrery's Tryphon.
While glorious murderers Destroy mankind, to form a tyranny, We'll destroy tyranny, to form mankind. Crown's Darius.
Tyranny, that savage, brutal power, Which not protects, but still devours mankind.
So spake the fiend, and with necessity, The tyrant's plea, excus'd his devilish deeds. Milton's Paradise Lost. When force invades the gift of nature, life, The eldest law of nature bids defend: And if, in that defence, a tyrant fall, His death's his crime, not ours.
If I'm a traitor, think, and blush, thou tyrant, Whose injuries betray'd me into treason, Effac'd my loyalty, unhing'd my faith, And hurry'd me from hopes of heav'n to hell! All these, and all my yet unfinish'd crimes, When I shall rise to plead before the skies, I charge on thee, to make thy damning sure. Dryden's Don Sebastian.
Tyrant! it irks me so to call my prince; But just resentment, and hard usage join'd Th' unwilling word; and grating as it is, Take it, for 't is thy due.
Dryden's Don Sebastian.
Yes, a most notorious villain; To see the sufferings of my fellow-creatures, And own myself a man: to see our senators Cheat the deluded people with a show Of liberty, which yet they ne'er must taste of. They say, by them our hands are free from fetters; Yet whom they please they lay in basest bonds; Bring whom they please to infamy and sorrow; Drive us like wrecks down the rough tide of power,
Whilst no hold 's left to save us from destruction: All that bear this are villains, and I one, Not to rouse up at the great call of nature, And check the growth of these domestic spoilers, That make us slaves, and tell us 't is our charter. Otway's Venice Preserved.
Unheard, the injur'd orphans now complain; The widow's cries address the throne in vain. Causes unjudg'd disgrace the loaded file, And sleeping laws the king's neglect revile. Prior's Soloman.
That foe to justice, corner of all law; That beast, which thinks mankind are born for
And made by heaven to be a monster's prey; That heaviest curse of groaning nations, tyranny. Rowe's Lady Jane Grey.
What, alas! is arbitrary rule? He's far the greater and the happier monarch Whose power is bounded by coercive laws, Since, while they limit, they preserve his empire. Trap's Abramule.
I am told, thou call'st thyself a king. Know, if thou art one, that the poor have rights: And power, in all its pride, is less than justice. Hill's Merope.
Yet I must tell thee, it would better suit A fierce despotic chief of barbarous slaves, Than the calm dignity of one who sits In the grave senate of a free republic, To talk so high, and as it were to thrust Plebeians from the native rights of man. Thomson's Coriolanus.
When those whom heav'n distinguishes o'er millions,
Profusely gives them honours, riches, power, Whate'er th' expanded heart can wish; when they, Accepting the reward, neglect the duty, Or, worse, pervert those gifts to deeds of ruin; Is there a wretch they rule so mean as they! Guilty at once, of sacrilege to heaven, And of perfidious robbery to man.
Mallet and Thomson's Alfred.
Inglorious bondage! human nature groans, Beneath a vassalage so vile and cruel, And its vast body bleeds through every vein.
Blair's Grave. Power is a curse when in a tyrant's hands, But in a bigot tyrant's-treble curse.
Tho' the structure of a tyrant's throne Rise on the necks of half the suffering world; Fear trembles in the cement: Prayers and tears, And secret curses sap its mouldering base, And steal the pillars of allegiance from it; Then let a single arm but dare the sway, Headlong it turns, and drives upon destruction. Brooke's Gustavus Vasa.
Not claim hereditary, not the trust Of frank election;
Not even the high anointing hand of heav'n Can authorize oppression; give a law For lawless power; wed faith to violation; On reason build misrule, or justly bind Allegiance to injustice. - Tyranny
Absolves all faith; and who invades our rights, Howe'er his own commence, can never be But an usurper.
Goaded by ambition's sting The hero sunk into the king!
Brooke's Gustavus Vasa. Then he fell-so perish all
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