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an element more merciless than they. But fearless they pursue, nor can the flood quench their dire thirst: alas! they thirst for blood. So t'wards a ship the oar-finn'd gallies ply, which wanting sea to ride, or wind to fly, stands but to fall reveng'd on those that dare tempt the last fury of extreme despair.

So fares the stag; among th' enraged hounds repels their force, and wounds returns for wounds: and as a hero, whom his baser foes

in troops surround, now these assails, now those, tho' prodigal of life, disdains to die

by common hands; but if he can descry some nobler foe approach, to him he calls, and begs his fate, and then contented falls. So when the King a mortal shaft lets fly from his unerring hand, then glad to die, proud of the wound, to it resigns his blood, and stains the crystal with a purple flood. This a more innocent and happy chase than when of old, but in the self-same place, fair Liberty pursu'd †, and meant a prey to lawless power, here turn'd, and stood at bay; when in that remedy all hope was plac'd

which was, or should have been at least, the last. Here was that Charter seal'd wherein the crown all marks of arbitrary power lays down; tyrant and slave, those names of hate and fear, the happier style of king and subject bear: happy when both to the same centre move, when kings give liberty and subjects love. Therefore not long in force this Charter stood; wanting that seal, it must be seal'd in blood. The subjects arm'd, the more their princes gave, +Runny-mead, where the Magna Charta was first sealed.

th' advantage only took the more to crave; till kings, by giving, give themselves away, and ev'n that power that should deny betray. "Who gives constrain'd, but his own fear reviles, not thank'd, but scorn'd; nor are they gifts, but spoils."

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Thus kings, by grasping more than they could hold, first made their subjects by oppression bold; and popular sway, by forcing kings to give more than was fit for subjects to receive, ran to the same extremes; and one excess made both, by striving to be greater, less. When a calm river, rais'd with sudden rains, or snows dissolv'd, o'erflows th' adjoining plains, the husbandmen with high-rais'd banks secure their greedy hopes, and this he can endure; but if with bays and dams they strive to force his channel to a new or narrow course, no longer then within his banks he dwells, first to a torrent, then a deluge, swells; stronger and fiercer by restraint, he roars, and knows no bound, but makes his pow'r his shores

FRIENDSHIP AND SINGLE LIFE.

Love! in what poison is thy dart
dipp'd when it makes a bleeding heart?
none know but they who feel the smart.
It is not thou but we are blind,
and our corporeal eyes (we find)
dazzle the optics of our mind.
Love to our citadel resorts;
through those deceitful sallyports
our sentinels betray our forts.

What subtle witchcraft man constrains to change his pleasure into pains, ! and all his freedom into chains?

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May not a prison, or a grave, like wedlock, honour's title have? that word makes free-born man a slave. How happy he that loves not lives! him neither hope nor fear deceives to Fortune who no hostage gives. How unconcern'd in things to come! if here uneasy, finds at Rome, at Paris, or Madrid, his home.

: Secure from low and private ends, his life, his zeal, his wealth attends his prince, his country, and his friends. Danger and honour are his joy; but a fond wife or wanton boy may all those gen'rous thoughts destroy. Then he lays by the public care, thinks of providing for an heir; learns how to get, and how to spare. Nor sire, nor foe, nor fate, nor night, the Trojan hero did affright, who bravely twice renew'd the fight: tho' still his foes in number grew, thicker their darts and arrows flew, yet left alone no fear he knew.

But Death in all her forms appears from ev'ry thing he sees and hears for whom he leads and whom he bears.* His father and son.

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Love, making all things else his foes, like a fierce torrent overflows whatever doth his course oppose. This was the cause, the poets sung, thy mother from the sea was sprung; but they were mad to make thee young. Her father, not her son art thou; from our desires our actions grow; and from the cause th' effect must flow. Love is as old as place or time; 't was he the fatal tree did climb, grandsire of father Adam's crime. Well may'st thou keep this world in awe; religion, wisdom, honour, law,

the tyrant in his triumph draw.

'T is he commands the powers above;
Phoebus resigns his darts, and Jove
his thunder, to the god of Love.

To him doth his feign'd mother yield;
nor Mars (her champion) his flaming shield
guards him, when Cupid takes the field.

He clips Hope's wings, whose airy bliss. much higher than fruition is,

but less than nothing, if it miss.

When matches love alone projects,'
the cause transcending the effects,
that wildfire's quench'd in cold neglects:

whilst those conjunctions prove the best
where Love's of blindness dispossest
by perspectives of interest.

Tho' Sol❜mon with a thousand wives
to get a wise successor strives, 37′′ ka
but one (and hé a fool) survives..
Old Rome of children took no care;

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they with their friends their beds did share, secure t'adopt a hopeful heir.

Love drowsy days and stormy nights
makes, and breaks friendship, whose delights
feed, but not glut, our appetites.

Well-chosen friendship, the most noble
of virtues, all our joys makes double,
and into halves divides our trouble.
But when th' unlucky knot we tie,
care, av'rice, fear, and jealousy,
make friendship languish till it die.

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The wolf, the lion, and the bear,
when they their prey in pieces tear,
to quarrel with themselves forbear:
yet tim❜rous deer and harmless sheep,
when love into their veins doth creep,
that law of Nature cease to keep.
Who then can blame the am'rous boy,
who, the fair Helen to enjoy,
to quench his own set fire on Troy?
Such is the world's prepost'rous fate,
amongst all creatures mortal hate
Love (tho' immortal) doth create.
But Love may beasts excuse, for they
their actions not by reason sway,
but their brute appetites obey.

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