"O fairest of creation! last and best Of all God's works! creature in whom excelled Whatever can to sight or thought be formed, Holy, divine, good, amiable, or sweet! How art thou lost, how on a sudden lost, Defaced, deflowered, and now to Death devote?"

"In her face excuse Came prologue, and apology too prompt."

"So dear I love him, that with him all deaths I could endure, without him live no life."

"Her rash hand in evil hour Forth reaching to the fruit, she plucked, she eat: Earth felt the wound, and Nature from her seat, Sighing through all her works, gave signs of woe That all was lost."

"God so commanded, and left that command Sole daughter of his voice; the rest, we live Law to ourselves, our reason is our law."

"Hope elevates, and joy Brightens his crest."

"So gloz'd the tempter."

"As one who long in populous city pent, Where houses thick and sewers annoy the air."

"Go in thy native innocence, rely On what thou hast of virtue; summon all! For God towards thee hath done his part, do thine."

"At shut of evening flowers."

"For solitude sometimes is best society, And short retirement urges sweet return."

"Smiles from reason flow, To brute deny'd, and are of love the food."

"The work under our labour grows, Luxurious by restraint."

"Revenge, at first though sweet, Bitter ere long back on itself recoils."

"The serpent subtlest beast of all the field."

"Unless an age too late, or cold Climate, or years, damp my intended wing."

"Not sedulous by Nature to indite Warrs, hitherto the onely Argument Heroic deem'd, chief maistrie to dissect With long and tedious havoc fabl'd Knights In Battels feign'd; the better fortitude Of Patience and Heroic Martyrdom Unsung"

"Pleas'd me, long choosing and beginning late."

"My unpremeditated verse."

"With a smile that glow'd Celestial rosy red, love's proper hue."

"Those graceful acts, Those thousand decencies that daily flow From all her words and actions."

"Ofttimes nothing profits more Than self-esteem, grounded on just and right Well managed."

"Accuse not Nature: she hath done her part; Do thou but thine."

"So absolute she seems And in herself complete, so well to know Her own, that what she wills to do or say, Seems wisest, virtuousest, discreetest, best."

"The sum of earthly bliss."

"She what was honour knew, And with obsequious majesty approv'd My pleaded reason. To the nuptial bower I led her blushing like the morn; all heaven And happy constellations on that hour Shed their selectest influence; the earth Gave sign of gratulation, and each hill; Joyous the birds; fresh gales and gentle airs Whisper'd it to the woods, and from their wings Flung rose, flung odours from the spicy shrub."

"Her virtue and the conscience of her worth, That would be wooed, and not unsought be won."

"Grace was in all her steps, heaven in her eye, In every gesture dignity and love."

"Among unequals what society Can sort, what harmony, or true delight?"

"And feel that I am happier than I know."

"Liquid lapse of murmuring streams."

"To know That which before us lies in daily life Is the prime wisdom."

"Be lowly wise: Think only what concerns thee and thy being."

"Her silent course advance With inoffensive pace, that spinning sleeps On her soft axle."

"With centric and eccentric scribbled o'er, Cycle and epicycle, orb in orb."

"And touch'd by her fair tendance, gladlier grew."

"And grace that won who saw to wish her stay."

"There swift return Diurnal, merely to officiate light Round this opacous earth, this punctual spot."

"The angel ended, and in Adam's ear So charming left his voice that he awhile Thought him still speaking, still stood fixed to hear."

"A broad and ample road, whose dust is gold, And pavement stars,—as stars to thee appear Seen in the galaxy, that milky way Which nightly as a circling zone thou seest Powder'd with stars."