No toil, no hardship can restrain

Ambitious man inured to pain;

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

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

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;

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

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.

ANGELS.

The good he scorn'd

Stalk'd off reluctant, like an ill-used ghost,
Not to return; or, if it did, in visits
Like those of angels, short and far between.
ROBERT BLAIR: The Grave.

If a man would be invariable,

He must be like a rock, or stone, or tree;
For ev'n the perfect angels were not stable,
But had a fall more desperate than we.

SIR J. DAVIES.
Then unbeguile thyself, and know with me,
That angels, though on earth employ'd they be,
Are still in heaven.

JOHN DONNE.

MILTON.

How fading are the joys we dote upon! Like apparitions seen and gone;

Oft in bands, While they keep watch, or nightly rounding walk, With heavenly touch of instrumental sounds In full harmonious number join'd, their songs Divide the night, and lift our thoughts to heaven.

MILTON.

Angels, by imperial summons call'd,
Forthwith from all the ends of heav'n appear'd,
Under their hierarchs in orders bright.

But those which soonest take their flight Are the most exquisite and strong;

Like angels' visits, short and bright, Mortality's too weak to bear them long. JOHN NORRIS: The Parting.

Thy beauty appears,

In its graces and airs,

All bright as an angel new dropp'd from the sky.