Balder the Beautiful (1877)
Context: “O Balder, he who fashion’d us,
And bade us live and move,
Shall weave for Death’s sad heavenly hair
Immortal flowers of love.
“Ah! never fail’d my servant Death,
Whene’er I named his name,—
But at my bidding he hath flown
As swift as frost or flame.
“Yea, as a sleuth-hound tracks a man,
And finds his form, and springs,
So hath he hunted down the gods
As well as human things!
“Yet only thro’ the strength of Death
A god shall fall or rise —
A thousand lie on the cold snows,
Stone still, with marble eyes.
“But whosoe’er shall conquer Death,
Tho’ mortal man he be,
Shall in his season rise again,
And live, with thee, and me!
“And whosoe’er loves mortals most
Shall conquer Death the best,
Yea, whosoe’er grows beautiful
Shall grow divinely blest.”
The white Christ raised his shining face
To that still bright’ning sky.
“Only the beautiful shall abide,
Only the base shall die!”
“Robber of Man, who now shall give thee ayd?”
Fab. VI: The Battel of the Frog and Mouse, line 136
The Fables of Aesop (2nd ed. 1668)
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John Ogilby 121
Scottish academic 1600–1676Related quotes
Makrina, in Emperor and Galilean (1873), Final lines.
The Danites: and Other Choice Selections from the Writings of Joaquin Miller (1877), p. 52.
The Liberty of Man, Woman and Child (1877)
Context: Standing in the presence of the Unknown, all have the same right to think, and all are equally interested in the great questions of origin and destiny. All I claim, all I plead for, is liberty of thought and expression. That is all. I do not pretend to tell what is absolutely true, but what I think is true. I do not pretend to tell all the truth.
I do not claim that I have floated level with the heights of thought, or that I have descended to the very depths of things. I simply claim that what ideas I have, I have a right to express; and that any man who denies that right to me is an intellectual thief and robber. That is all.
The Earthly Paradise (1868-70), The Lady of the Land
Context: What man art thou that thus hast wandered here,
And found this lonely chamber where I dwell?
Beware, beware! for I have many a spell;
If greed of power and gold have led thee on,
Not lightly shall this untold wealth be won.
But if thou com'st here knowing of my tale,
In hope to bear away my body fair,
Stout must thine heart be, nor shall that avail
If thou a wicked soul in thee dost bear;
So once again I bid thee to beware,
Because no base man things like this may see,
And live thereafter long and happily.
DNa inscription http://www.livius.org/aa-ac/achaemenians/DNa.html
“Neither you nor any man alive shall do this unpunished: no, you shall give recompense to me with your life-blood.”
Nec pol homo quisquam faciet inpune animatus
hoc nec tu; nam mi calido dabis sanguine poenas.
As quoted by Macrobius in Saturnalia; Book VI, Chapter I
Compare: Tu tamen interea calido mihi sanguine poenas persolves amborum, Virgil, Aeneid, Book IX, line 422