Priam's castle-walls had sunk, Troy in dust and ashes lay, And each Greek, with triumph drunk, Richly laden with his prey, Sat upon his ship's high prow, On the Hellespontic strand,...
Whither was it that my spirit wended When from thee my fleeting shadow moved? Is not now each earthly conflict ended? Say, have I not lived, have I not loved?
Two are the pathways by which mankind can to virtue mount upward; If thou should find the one barred, open the other will lie. 'Tis by exertion the happy obtain her, the suffering by patience....
A youth, impelled by a burning thirst for knowledge To roam to Sais, in fair Egypt's land, The priesthood's secret learning to explore, Had passed through many a grade with eager haste,...
Man of virtue has need;-into life with boldness he plunges, Entering with fortune more sure into the hazardous strife; But to woman one virtue suffices; it is ever shining...
Thou, by whom, freed from rules constrained and wrong, On truth and nature once again we're placed, Who, in the cradle e'en a hero strong, Stiffest the serpents round our genius laced,...
Many are good and wise; yet all for one only reckon, For 'tis conception, alas, rules them, and not a fond heart. Sad is the sway of conception, from thousandfold varying figures,...
Nature in charms is exhaustless, in beauty ever reviving; And, like Nature, fair art is inexhaustible too. Hail, thou honored old man! for both in thy heart thou preservest...
Once wisdom dwelt in tomes of ponderous size, While friendship from a pocketbook would talk; But now that knowledge in small compass lies, And floats in almanacs, as light as cork,...