Her flood of tears Seem like the lofty barn of some rich swain, Which from the thatch drips fast a shower of rain. SWIFT.

In ancient times, the sacred plough employ'd The kings, and awful fathers of mankind;

In May get a weed-hook, a crotch, and a glove, And weed out such weeds as the corn doth not love.

TUSSER.

Plough-Monday next after that the twelftide is past,

tribes

Are but the beings of a summer's day,

Have held the scale of empire, ruled the storm
Of mighty war, then, with unwearied hand,
Disdaining little delicacies, seized
The plough, and greatly independent lived.
THOMSON.

To the harness'd yoke
They lend their shoulder, and begin their toil.
THOMSON.

With superior boon may your rich soil
Exuberant nature's better blessings pour
O'er every land, the naked nations clothe,
And be th' exhaustless granary of a world.
THOMSON.

They rose as vigorous as the sun; Then to the culture of the willing glebe.

last.

TUSSER.

At Midsummer down with the brambles and brakes,

And after abroad with thy forks and thy rakes. TUSSER.

Such land as ye break up for barley to sow, Two earths, at the least, ere ye sow it, bestow. TUSSER.

Sowe peason and beans in the wane of the moon: Who soweth them sooner he soweth too soone. TUSSER.

Friend, harrow in time, by some manner of

means,

Not only thy peason, but also thy beans.

TUSSER.

Plant ye with alders or willowes a plot,
Where yeerely, as needeth, mo poles may be got.
TUSSER.

The north is a noiance to grass of all suits,
The east a destroyer to herbs and all fruits.
TUSSER.

The west as a father all goodness doth bring, The east a forbearer no manner of thing.

TUSSER.

Let servant be ready with mattock in hand
To stub out the bushes that noicth the land.
TUSSER.

In lopping and felling save elder and stake,
Thine hedges, as needeth, to mend or to make.
TUSSER.

One seed for another to make an exchange With fellowly neighbourhood seemeth not strange.

TUSSER.

Land arable, driven, or worn to the proof, With oats you may sow it, the sooner to grass, More soon to be pasture, to bring it to pass. TUSSER.

And he that can rear up a pig in his house, Hath cheaper his bacon, and sweeter his souse. TUSSER.

Of barley the finest and greenest ye find, Leave standing in dallops till time ye do bind.

TUSSER.

From wheat go and rake out the titters or tine, If care be not forth, it will rise again fine.

TUSSER.

Through cunning, with dibble, rake, mattock, and spade,

By line and by level trim garden is made.

TUSSER.

Now down with the grass upon headlands about, That groweth in shadow so rank and so stout.

TUSSER.

Some commons are barren, the nature is such, And some overlayeth the commons too much.

TUSSER.

Grant harvest-lord more by a penny or two, To call on his fellows the better to do.

TUSSER.

Things thus set in order, in quiet and rest, Shall further thy harvest, and pleasure thee best. TUSSER.

Reap well, scatter not, gather clean that is shorn,
Bind fast, shock apace, have an eye to thy corn.
TUSSER.

So likewise a hovel will serve for a room
To stack on the peas, when harvest shall come.
TUSSER.

Who abuseth his cattle and starves them for meat, By carting or ploughing his gain is not great; Where he that with labour can use them aright, Hath gain to his comfort, and cattle in plight. TUSSER.

So corn in fields, and in the garden flowers Revive, and raise themselves with mod'rate showers;

But overcharged with never-ceasing rain,
Become too moist.

WALLER.

Your reign no less assures the ploughman's peace,

Than the warm sun advances his increase.

WALLER.

Such is the mould that the blest tenant feeds On precious fruits, and pays his rent in weeds. WALLER.

Be not with honour's gilded baits beguiled,
Nor think ambition wise, because 'tis brave;
For though we like it, as a forward child,
'Tis so unsound her cradle is her grave.
SIR W. DAVENANT: Gondibert.

Ambition, the disease of virtue, bred
Like surfeits from an undigested fulness,
Meets death in that which is the means of life.
SIR J. DENHAM.

Nature and duty bind him to obedience:
But these being placed in a lower sphere,
His fierce ambition, like the highest mover,
Has hurried with a strong impulsive motion
Against their proper course.

SIR J. DENHAM. Some through ambition, or through thirst of gold, Have slain their brothers, and their country sold. DRYDEN.

Those who to empire by dark paths aspire,
Still plead a call to what they most desire.
DRYDEN.

One world sufficed not Alexander's mind;
Coop'd up he seem'd, in earth and seas confined.
DRYDEN.

Too truly Tamerlane's successors they;
Each thinks a world too little for his sway.
DRYDEN.

O diadem, thou centre of ambition,
Where all its different lines are reconciled;
As if thou wert the burning glass of glory.

DRYDEN.

No toil, no hardship can restrain

Ambitious man inured to pain;

The more confined, the more he tries, And at forbidden quarry flies.

DRYDEN.

With joy th' ambitious youth his mother heard,
And, eager, for the journey soon prepared;
He longs the world beneath him to survey,
To guide the chariot, and to give the day.
DRYDEN.
Why does Antony dream out his hours,
And tempts not fortune for a noble day?

DRYDEN.
To cure their mad ambition, they were sent
To rule a distant province, each alone:
What could a careful father more have done?
DRYDEN.

Leave to fathom such high points as these,
Nor be ambitious, ere the time, to please;
Unseasonably wise, till age and cares
Have form'd thy soul to manage great affairs.

DRYDEN.

Dare to be great without a guilty crown; View it, and lay the bright temptation down: 'Tis base to seize on all.

DRYDEN.

Both ways deceitful is the wine of power; When new 'tis heady, and when old 'tis sour. WALTER HARTE.

In me, as yet, ambition had no part;

Here may we reign secure; and, in my ch To reign is worth ambition, though in hell MILTO

Bad men boast

Their specious deeds on earth, which glor cites,

Or close ambition varnish'd o'er with zeal. MILT Ambition sigh'd: she found it vain to trus The faithless column, and the crumbling

Po But see, how oft ambitious aims are crost And chiefs contend till all the prize is lost Po

Aspiring to be gods, if angels fell, Aspiring to be angels, men rebel.

Po

The fiery soul abhorr'd in Catiline,
In Decius charms, in Curtius is divine:
The same ambition can destroy or save,
And make a patriot, as it makes a knave.

Po

She points the arduous height where glor And teaches mad ambition to be wise.

Po

In vain for life he to the altar fled; Ambition and revenge have certain speed PRI

Thy cruel and unnatural lust of power Has sunk thy father more than all his yea

Of all the passions which possess the soul,
None so disturb vain mortals' minds
As vain ambition, which so blinds
The light of them, that nothing can control
Nor curb their thoughts who will aspire.
EARL OF STIRLING: Darius.
Well I deserved Evadne's scorn to prove,
That to ambition sacrificed my love.

WALLER.

Alas! ambition makes my little less, Embitt'ring the possess'd: why wish for more? Wishing of all employments is the worst; Philosophy's reverse, and health's decay! YOUNG: Night Thoughts.

ANCESTRY.

Heralds stickle, who got who-
So many hundred years ago.

BUTLER: Hudibras. He that to ancient wreaths can bring no more From his own worth, dies bankrupt on the score. JOHN CLEAVELAND.

'Twas no false heraldry when madness drew Her pedigree from those who too much knew. SIR J. DENHAM.

Were virtue by descent, a noble name
Could never villanize his father's fame;
But, as the first, the last of all the line
Would, like the sun, ev'n in descending, shine.
DRYDEN.

Vain are their hopes who fancy to inherit,
By trees of pedigree, or fame or merit;
Though plodding heralds through each branch

may trace

Old captains and dictators of their race.

DRYDEN.

Long galleries of ancestors Challenge nor wonder or esteem from me: "Virtue alone is true nobility."

DRYDEN.

Do then as your progenitors have done,
And by their virtues prove yourself their son.
DRYDEN.

Thus, born alike, from virtue first began
The diff'rence that distinguish'd man from man:
He claim'd no title from descent of blood;
But that which made him noble, made him good.
DRYDEN.