James Thomson Quotes

O fair undress, best dress! it checks no vein,
But every flowing limb in pleasure drowns,
And heightens ease with grace.

Poor is the triumph o’er the timid hare!
Scared from the corn, and now to some lone seat
Retired—

Ah! what avail the largest gifts of Heaven, When drooping health and spirits go amiss?
How tasteless then whatever can be given! Health is the vital principle of bliss,
And exercise, of health.

These as they change, Almighty Father! these
Are but the varied God. The rolling year
Is full of Thee.

For loveliness
Needs not the foreign aid of ornament,
But is when unadorned adorned the most.

So stands the statue that enchants the world,
So bending tries to veil the matchless boast,
The mingled beauties of exulting Greece.

A pleasing land of drowsyhed it was,
Of dreams that wave before the half-shut eye;
And of gay castles in the clouds that pass,
Forever flushing round a summer sky:
There eke the soft delights that witchingly
Instil a wanton sweetness through the breast,
And the calm pleasures always hover'd nigh;
But whate'er smack'd of noyance or unrest
Was far, far off expell'd from this delicious nest.

The negligence of Nature wide and wild,
Where, undisguised by mimic art, she spreads
Unbounded beauty to the roving eye.

The meek-ey'd Morn appears, mother of dews.

Plac'd far amid the melancholy main.

But what most showed the vanity of life
Was to behold the nations all on fire.

But who can paint
Like Nature? Can imagination boast,
Amid its gay creation, hues like hers?

For still the world prevail'd, and its dread laugh,
Which scarce the firm philosopher can scorn.

I care not, Fortune, what you me deny; You cannot rob me of free Nature's grace,
You cannot shut the windows of the sky, Through which Aurora shows her brightening face; You cannot bar my constant feet to trace
The woods and lawns, by living stream, at eve.
Let health my nerves and finer fibres brace,
And I their toys to the great children leave:
Of fancy, reason, virtue, naught can me bereave.

They who are pleased themselves must always please.