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Without one friend, above all foes, Britannia gives the world repose.

William Cowper

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William Cowper
Age: 68 †
Born: 1731
Born: November 26
Died: 1800
Died: April 25
Hymnwriter
Poet
Poet Lawyer
Translator
Writer
Berkhamsted
Hertfordshire
Without
Giving
Britannia
World
Foes
Foe
Repose
England
Friend
Gives

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The mind, relaxing into needful sport, Should turn to writers of an abler sort, Whose wit well managed, and whose classic style, Give truth a lustre, and make wisdom smile.
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Accomplishments have taken virtue's place, and wisdom falls before exterior grace.
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How! leap into the pit our life to save? To save our life leap all into the grave.
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I pity bashful men, who feel the pain Of fancied scorn and undeserved disdain, And bear the marks upon a blushing face, OF needless shame, and self-impos'd disgrace.
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But war's a game, which, were their subjects wise, Kings should not play at. Nations would do well To extort their truncheons from the puny hands Of heroes, whose infirm and baby minds Are gratified with mischief, and who spoil, Because men suffer it, their toy the world.
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Blind unbelief is sure to err, And scan his work in vain God is his own interpreter, And he will make it plain.
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Man on the dubious waves of error toss'd.
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Learning itself, received into a mind By nature weak, or viciously inclined, Serves but to lead philosophers astray, Where children would with ease discern the way.
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With spots quadrangular of diamond form, ensanguined hearts, clubs typical of strife, and spades, the emblems of untimely graves.
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Absence from whom we love is worse than death, and frustrates hope severer than despair.
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It is a general rule of Judgment, that a mischief should rather be admitted than an inconvenience.
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I will venture to assert, that a just translation of any ancient poet in rhyme is impossible. No human ingenuity can be equal to the task of closing every couplet with sounds homotonous, expressing at the same time the full sense, and only the full sense of his original.
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... she, that will with kittens jest, Should bear a kitten's joke.
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That good diffused may more abundant grow.
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A noisy man is always in the right.
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I crown thee king of intimate delights, Fire-side enjoyments, home-born happiness, And all the comforts that the lowly roof Of undisturb'd retirement, and the hours Of long uninterrupted ev'ning, know.
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