Aphorisms of Sir Philip Sidney (Volume 1-2); With Remarks (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1807. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... sweet, yet how awful is its sound It is the soft, cooing of the dove at the ark-window: the lonely patriarch of a drowned world, starts from his couch, and listens with a still joy to the herald of heaven, --the messenger of peace on earth, and good-will towards man I life. How pitiable is that vanity which possesseth many, to make a perpetual mansion of this poor baiting-place of man's life Remark. The baser part of man jjiust obscure and almost extinguish the nobler, before he can be content to set up his rest here and resign his heavenly country. This abjectness may be shewn in men who devote themselves to the accumulation of wealth, to the pursuit of idle pleasures, or to the constant excitement and gratification of the senses; all these creatures (and others liki unto them, ) are mere earth-worms, and would be happy to lick the: dust to eternity. Neglecting thought, they can have no imagination; that smiling prophetess whose "promised events cast their shadows before " They see no heaven in the $ky; they acknowledge no providence in good fortune; they feel no earnest of immortality in the deathless affections of the soul.' Weak is the pleasure of the world-encrusted wretch, when compared with the buoyant emotions of him who spurns its dross. He knows whose hand placed him in the world: and as we esteem presents for the sake of the friend that gives them, rather than on account of their own value; and as they acquire new beauty in our eyes, by reminding us of the good-will of the donor; so a%considerale man finds more loveliness in th% world than the inconsiderate does; because all that is in it he looks on as bestowed by his best friend, Almighty God He admires creation, but he does not love the gift better than the giver. What man is there among us, who wo...