Bid amaranthus all his beauty shed,
And daffodillies fill their cups with tears,
To strew the laureate hearse where Lycid lies.
Immortal amaranth, a flower which once
In Paradise, fast by the Tree of Life,
Began to bloom, but soon for Man's offence,
To heav'n remov'd, where first it grew, there grows,
And flow'rs aloft shading the fount of life.
Amaranths such as crown the maids
That wander through Zamara's shades.
AMARYLLIS
Amaryllis
Where, here and there, on sandy beaches
A milky-bell'd amaryllis blew.
AMBITION
Nor strive to wind ourselves too high
For sinful man beneath the sky.
Prima enim sequentem, honestum est in secundis, tertiisque consistere.
When you are aspiring to the highest place, it is honorable to reach the second or even the third rank.
On what strange stuff Ambition feeds!
By low ambition and the thirst of praise.
On the summit see,
The seals of office glitter in his eyes;
He climbs, he pants, he grasps them! At his heels,
Close at his heels, a demagogue ascends,
And with a dexterous jerk soon twists him down,
And wins them, but to lose them in his turn.
Il gran rifiuto.
The great refusal.
Dante—Inferno. Canto III. LX.
But wild Ambition loves to slide, not stand,
And Fortune'sjce prefers to Virtue's land.
They please, are pleas'd, they give to get esteem
Till, seeming blest, they grow to what they seem.
For all may have,
If they dare try, a glorious life, or grave.
Sublimi feriam sidera vertice.
I strike the stars with my sublime head.
Nil mortalibus arduum est:
Cœlum ipsum petimus stultitia.
Nothing is too high for the daring of mortals: we would storm heaven itself in our folly.
Vestigia nulla retrorsum.
No steps backward.
I see, but cannot reach, the height
That lies forever in the light.
Most people would succeed in small things if they were not troubled with great ambitions.
The shades of night were falling fast,
As through an Alpine village passed
A youth, who bore, 'mid snow and ice
A banner with the strange device,
Excelsior!
Ambition has no rest!
He was utterly without ambition [Chas. II.].
He detested business, and would sooner have
abdicated his crown than have undergone the
trouble of really directing the administration.
The man who seeks one thing in life, and but one,
May hope to achieve it before life be done;
But he who seeks all things, wherever he goes,
Only reaps from the hopes which around him he sows
A harvest of barren regrets.
Here may we reign secure, and in my choice
To reign is worth ambition, though in Hell.
Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven.
But what will not ambition and revenge
Descend to? who aspires must down as low
As high he soar'd, obnoxious first or last
To basest things.
If at great things thou would'st arrive,
Get riches first, get wealth, and treasure heap,
Not difficult, if thou hearken to me;
Riches are mine, fortune is in my hand,
They whom I favor thrive in wealth amain,
While virtue, valor, wisdom, sit in want.
