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There goes the parson, oh illustrious spark! And there, scarce less illustrious, goes the clerk.

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
Clerk
Clerks
Scarce
Spark
Sparks
Preaching
Goes
Parson
Less
Illustrious

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He that has seen both sides of fifty has lived to little purpose if he has no other views of the world than he had when he was much younger.
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They best can judge a poet's worth, Who oft themselves have known The pangs of a poetic birth By labours of their own.
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Sin let loose speaks punishment at hand.
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Philologists, who chase A painting syllable through time and space Start it at home, and hunt it in the dark, To Gaul, to Greece, and into Noah's Ark.
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Heaven speed the canvas, gallantly unfurl'd, To furnish and accommodate a world, To give the Pole the produce of the sun, And knit the unsocial climates into one.
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Knowledge and wisdom, far from being one, Have oft-times no connection. Knowledge dwells In heads replete with thoughts of other men Wisdom in minds attentive to their own.
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All affectation 'tis my perfect scorn Object of my implacable disgust.
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Where thou art gone, adieus and farewells are a sound unknown.
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Necessity invented stools, Convenience next suggested elbow-chairs, And luxury the accomplish'd Sofa last.
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How fleet is a glance of the mind! Compared with the speed of its flight, The tempest itself lags behind, And the swift-winged arrows of light.
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He is the freeman whom the truth makes free, And all are slaves besides.
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God never meant that man should scale the Heavens By strides of human wisdom. In his works, Though wondrous, he commands us in his word To seek him rather where his mercy shines.
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The only amaranthine flower on earth is virtue the only lasting treasure, truth.
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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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The Frenchman, easy, debonair, and brisk, Give him his lass, his fiddle, and his frisk, Is always happy, reign whoever may, And laughs the sense of mis'ry far away.
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Pleasure admitted in undue degree, enslaves the will, nor leaves the judgment free.
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Admirals extolled for standing still, or doing nothing with a deal of skill.
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And in that hour, The seeds of cruelty, that since have swell'd To such gigantic and enormous growth, Were sown in human nature's fruitful soil. Hence date the persecution and the pain That man inflicts on all inferior kinds, Regardless of their plaints.
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Transforms old print To zigzag manuscript, and cheats the eyes Of gallery critics by a thousand arts.
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