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09c. 1666 AD
When I consider life, ’tis all a cheat; Yet, fooled with hope, men favour the deceit Trust on, and think to-morrow will repay— To-morrow’s falser than the former day; Lies worse and, while it says we shall be blessed With some new joys, cuts off what we possesst. Strange cozenage! none would live past years again, Yet all hope pleasure in what yet remain; And, from the dregs of life, think to receive What the first sprightly running would not give, I’m tired with waiting for this chymic gold, Which fools us young, and beggars us when old.
John Dryden / quote
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17c. 1666 AD
At his first aptness the maternal love Those rudiments of wisdom did improve; The tender age was pliant to command; Like wax it yielded to the forming hand: True to the artificer, the laboured mind With ease was pious, generous, just, and kind; Soft for impression, from the first prepared, Till virtue, with long exercise, grew hard; With every act confirmed and made at last, So durable as not to be effaced, It turned to habit; and from vices free, Goodness resolved into necessity.
John Dryden / quote
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18c. 1666 AD
All faiths beside, or did by arms ascend; Or sense indulged has made mankind their friend: This only doctrine does our lusts oppose; Unfed by nature’s soil in which it grows; Cross to our interests, curbing sense and sin; Oppressed without and undermined within, It thrives through pain, its own tormentors tires; And with a stubborn patience still aspires. To what can reason such effects assign, Transcending nature, but to laws divine, Which in that sacred volume are contained, Sufficient, clear, and for that use ordained?
John Dryden / quote
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