“Why ridicule the act, the feeling blame,
Which from the spider would the fly reclaim;
Since from the reptile, in gradation due,
'Twould link the world in sympathy to you?
Let not this bold assertion ease thy mind,
"This all is nature, and by heav'n design'd:"
Would you not bless the arm, if stretch'd to save
Your individual carcass from the grave?
From the fierce tiger's unrelenting claw,
Or rav'nous wolf; though Nature gave the law?”

"To the Thoughtless", p. 307
The Modern Antique; Or, The Muse in the Costume of Queen Anne (1813)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Why ridicule the act, the feeling blame, Which from the spider would the fly reclaim; Since from the reptile, in grad…" by Isaac Gompertz?
Isaac Gompertz photo
Isaac Gompertz 3
1774–1856

Related quotes

Jane Roberts photo
Thomas Jefferson photo

“Let those flatter who fear; it is not an American art. To give praise which is not due might be well from the venal, but would ill beseem those who are asserting the rights of human nature.”

Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America

1770s, A Summary View of the Rights of British America (1774)
Context: Let those flatter who fear; it is not an American art. To give praise which is not due might be well from the venal, but would ill beseem those who are asserting the rights of human nature. They know, and will therefore say, that kings are the servants, not the proprietors of the people.

Max Scheler photo
Susan Cooper photo

“Will saw the cruelty now as the fierce inevitability of nature. It was not from malice that the Light and the servants of the Light would ever hound the Dark, but from the nature of things.”

Susan Cooper (1935) English fantasy writer

Source: The Dark Is Rising (1965-1977), The Dark Is Rising (1973), Chapter 12 “The Hunt Rides” (pp. 224-225)

George MacDonald photo

“Some thinkers would feel sorely hampered if at liberty to use no forms but such as existed in nature, or to invent nothing save in accordance with the laws of the world of the senses; but it must not therefore be imagined that they desire escape from the region of law.”

George MacDonald (1824–1905) Scottish journalist, novelist

The Fantastic Imagination (1893)
Context: Some thinkers would feel sorely hampered if at liberty to use no forms but such as existed in nature, or to invent nothing save in accordance with the laws of the world of the senses; but it must not therefore be imagined that they desire escape from the region of law. Nothing lawless can show the least reason why it should exist, or could at best have more than an appearance of life.

Marcus Aurelius photo
Thomas Jefferson photo
Neale Donald Walsch photo
Sarah McLachlan photo
Otis Redding photo

“These arms of mine,
They are lonely.
Lonely and feeling blue.
These arms of mine,
They are yearning.
Yearning from wanting you.
And if you would let them hold you,
Oh how grateful I will be.”

Otis Redding (1941–1967) American singer, songwriter and record producer

These Arms of Mine.
Song lyrics, Pain in My Heart (1964)

Related topics