JOHN BUNYAN.

1628-1688.

Apology for his Book.
And so I penned

It down, until at last it came to be,

For length and breadth, the bigness which you see.

Some said, "John, print it," others said, "Not so," Some said, "It might do good," others said, "No."

Pilgrim's Progress.

The Slough of Despond.

EARL OF ROCHESTER.

1647-1680.

Written on the Bedchamber Door of Charles II.

Here lies our sovereign lord the king,
Whose word no man relies on ;

He never says a foolish thing,

Nor ever does a wise one.

Artemisa in the Town to Chloe in the Country.

And ever since the conquest have been fools.

SHEFFIELD, DUKE OF BUCKINGHAMSHIRE.

1649-1721.

Essay on Poetry.

Of all those arts in which the wise excel,
Nature's chief masterpiece is writing well.

There's no such thing in nature, and you 'll draw
A faultless monster which the world ne'er saw.

Read Homer once, and you can read no more,
For all books else appear so mean, so poor;
Verse will seem prose; but still persist to read,
And Homer will be all the books you need.

THOMAS OTWAY.

1651-1685.

Venice Preserved. Act i. Sc. 1.

O woman! lovely woman! Nature made thee
To temper man; we had been brutes without you.
Angels are painted fair to look like you.

JOHN NORRIS.

1657-1711.

The Parting.

How fading are the joys we dote upon!

Like apparitions seen and gone;

But those which soonest take their flight Are the most exquisite and strong;

Like angel's visits, short and bright, Mortality's too weak to bear them long.

When Greeks joined Greeks, then was the tug of war.

TOM BROWN.

1704.

Dialogues of the Dead.

I do not love thee, Doctor Fell,
The reason why I cannot tell;
But this alone I know full well,
I do not love thee, Doctor Fell.*

"Non amo te, Sabidi, nec possum dicere quare;

Hoc tantum possum dicere, non amo te."

Martial, Ep. I. xxxiii.

THOMAS SOUTHERN.

1659-1746.

Oroonoka.

Act ii. Sc. 1.

Pity's akin to love.

DANIEL DEFOE.

1661-1731.

The True-Born Englishman.

Part i.. Line 1.

Wherever God erects a house of prayer,*
The Devil always builds a chapel there;
And 't will be found upon examination,
The latter has the largest congregation.

LOUIS THEOBALD.

1744.

The Double Falsehood.

None but himself can be his parallel.

* No sooner is a Temple built to God, but the Devil builds a Chapel hard by. Jacula Prudentum. GEORGE Herbert.

Where God hath a Temple the Devil will have a Chapel.

Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy. Pt. 3. Sec. iv. M. 1. Subs. 1.

MATTHEW PRIOR.

1664-1721.

An English Padlock.

Be to her virtues very kind;

Be to her faults a little blind.

Henry and Emma.

That air and harmony of shape express,
Fine by degrees, and beautifully less.

The Thief and the Cordelier.

Now fitted the halter, now traversed the cart,
And often took leave; but was loth to depart.

Epilogue to Lucius.

And the gray mare will prove the better horse.*

Imitations of Horace.

Of two evils I have chose the least.

Epitaph on Himself.

Here lies what once was Matthew Prior;

The son of Adam and of Eve:

Can Bourbon or Nassau claim higher?

*The graye mare will be the better horse. The Marriage of Wit and Science, 1569. See also Hudibras, Part ii. Canto ii. line 698. Mr. Macaulay thinks that this proverb originated in the preference generally given to the gray mares of Flanders over the finest coach-horses of England. History of England, Vol. I. Ch. 3.