Great floods have flown
From simple sources, and great seas have dried
When miracles have by the greatest been denied.
It must be so; for miracles are ceased
And therefore we must needs admit the means
How things are perfected.
What is a miracle?—'Tis a reproach,
Tis an implicit satire on mankind;
And while it satisfies, it censures too.
MISCHIEF
What plaguy mischief and mishaps
Do dog him still with after claps!
Let them call it mischief:
When it is past and prospered 'twill be virtue.
When to mischief mortals bend their will,
How soon they find it instruments of ill.
Now let it work: Mischief, thou art afoot,
Take thou what course thou wilt.
To mourn a mischief that is past and gone
Is the next way to draw new mischief on.
O mischief, thou art swift
To enter in the thoughts of desperate men!
MISERS
(See also Avarice)
Hoards after hoards his rising raptures fill;
Yet still he sighs, for hoards are wanting still.
Quserit, et inventis miser abstinet, ac timet uti.
The miser acquires, yet fears to use his gains.
The unsunn'd heaps
Of miser's treasures.
Abiturus illuc priores abierunt,
Quid mente cseca torques spiritum?
Tibi dico, avare.
Since you go where all have gone before, why
do you torment your disgraceful life with
such mean ambitions, O miser?
He sat among his bags, and, with a look
Which hell might be ashamed of, drove the poor
Away unalmsed; and midst abundance died—
Sorest of evils!—died of utter want.
'Tis strange the miser should his cares employ
To gain those riches he can ne'er enjoy;
Is it less strange the prodigal should waste
His wealth to purchase what he ne'er can taste?
Decrepit miser; base, ignoble wretch;
I am descended of a gentler blood.
The miser is as much in want of what he has, as of what he has not.
MISERY
(See also Sorrow, Woe)
The comfort derived from the misery of others is slight.
The worst of misery
Is when a nature framed for noblest things.
Condemns itself in youth to petty joys,
And, sore athirst for air, breathes scanty life
Gasping from out the shallows.