“Presume to lay their hand upon the ark
Of her magnificent and awful cause.”
Source: The Task (1785), Book II, The Timepiece, Line 231.
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William Cowper 174
(1731–1800) English poet and hymnodist 1731–1800Related quotes

By Still Waters (1906)

Georgia vs. Brailsford http://www.friesian.com/jury.htm (1794)
1790s

"The Conjunction of Jupiter and Venus" in Poems (1841)
Context: I would make
Reason my guide, but she should sometimes sit
Patiently by the way-side, while I traced
The mazes of the pleasant wilderness
Around me. She should be my counsellor,
But not my tyrant. For the spirit needs
Impulses from a deeper source than hers,
And there are motions, in the mind of man,
That she must look upon with awe. I bow
Reverently to her dictates, but not less
Hold to the fair illusions of old time —
lllusions that shed brightness over life,
And glory over nature.

The Golden Legend http://www.gutenberg.org/files/10490/10490-h/10490-h.htm, Pt. IV, The Cloisters (1872).
The Honeymoon (1805), Act ii. Sc. 1.
Black God's Kiss (1934); p. 23
Short fiction, Jirel of Joiry (1969)