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AMYNTAS.
Contrast it, and convert it to your pleasure.
Who never suffers, never can enjoy;
He only dozes on a bed of down;
Pleasure's acutest point can hardly wake him.
But he whose frame, originally fine,
Is wrought still finer by adversity,
In better days, feels all their genial sun-shine;
His path is strewed with amaranths, and roses;
Elysium's glory opens on his eyes;
His ears are ravished with celestial musick:
What to the wallowing hog of Epicurus
Is bare convenience, is to him enjoyment:
No particle of happiness goes past him.
Live then, and hope; and your reward shall be
Those naked beauties which you lately law.
Who never suffers, never can enjoy;
He only dozes on a bed of down;
Pleasure's acutest point can hardly wake him.
But he whose frame, originally fine,
Is wrought still finer by adversity,
In better days, feels all their genial sun-shine;
His path is strewed with amaranths, and roses;
Elysium's glory opens on his eyes;
His ears are ravished with celestial musick:
What to the wallowing hog of Epicurus
Is bare convenience, is to him enjoyment:
No particle of happiness goes past him.
Live then, and hope; and your reward shall be
Those naked beauties which you lately law.
AMYNTAS.
Why am I galled again with that idea?
Fortune, and love, my unrelenting foes,
Held forth the treasure to my longing view,
Of which they ne'er will grant me the fruition,
Only to render me completely wretched.
Why am I galled again with that idea?
Fortune, and love, my unrelenting foes,
Held forth the treasure to my longing view,
Of which they ne'er will grant me the fruition,
Only to render me completely wretched.
NERINA.
