Date: 1743

"In subtle Sophistry's laborious forge / Wit hammers out a reason new, that stoops / To sordid scenes, and greets them with applause."

— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)

Date: 1743

"Pleasure and Pride, by nature mortal foes, / At war eternal which in man shall reign, / By Wit's address, patch up a fatal peace, / And hand in hand lead on the rank debauch, / From rank refined to delicate and gay."

— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)

Date: 1743

"But let not these inexpiable strains / Condemn the Muse that knows her dignity; / Nor meanly stops at Time, but holds the world--/ As 'tis, in Nature's ample field, a point--/ A point in her esteem; from whence to start, / And run the round of universal space, / To visit being universal there, ...

— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)

Date: 1743

"Think'st thou, Lorenzo , to find pastimes here? / No guilty passion blown into a flame, / No foible flatter'd, dignity disgraced, / No fairy field of fiction, all on flower, / No rainbow colours here, or silken tale."

— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)

Date: 1743

"Darkness has more divinity for me: / It strikes thought inward; it drives back the soul / To settle on herself, our point supreme! / There lies our theatre; there sits our judge."

— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)

Date: 1743

"Darkness the curtain drops o'er life's dull scene; / 'Tis the kind hand of Providence stretch'd out / 'Twixt man and vanity; 'tis Reason's reign, / And Virtue's too; these tutelary shades / Are man's asylum from the tainted throng."

— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)

Date: 1743

"Nor is it strange; light, motion, concourse, noise, / All scatter us abroad; Thought, outward-bound, / Neglectful of our home-affairs, flies off / In fume and dissipation, quits her charge, / And leaves the breast unguarded to the foe."

— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)

Date: 1743

"Night is fair Virtue's immemorial friend; / The conscious Moon, through every distant age,/ Has held a lamp to Wisdom, and let fall / On Contemplation's eye her purging ray."

— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)

Date: 1743

"All the live-long night, / Rigid in thought, and motionless, he stands; / Nor quits his theme or posture till the sun / (Rude drunkard! rising rosy from the main) / Disturbs his nobler intellectual beam, / And gives him to the tumult of the world."

— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)

Date: 1743

"The world excluded, every passion hush'd, / And open'd a calm intercourse with Heaven, / Here the soul sits in council; ponders past, / Predestines future action; sees, not feels, / Tumultuous life, and reasons with the storm; / All her lies answers, and thinks down her charms."

— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)