James Beattie Quotes
1735–1803 Scotland
- Scotland
- Educators
- Essayists
- Philosophers
- Poets
Also known as: James Beattie (poet)
Random James Beattie quote
30 quotes
No jealousy their dawn of love o'ercast,
Nor blasted were their wedded days with strife;
Each season looked delightful as it past,
To the fond husband and the faithful wife.
The Minstrel (1771)
Every man of learning wishes, that his son may be learned; and that not so much from a view to pecuniary advantage, as from a desire to have him supplied with the means of useful instruction and liberal amusement.
By the glare of false science betray’d,
That leads to bewilder, and dazzles to blind.
Ah! when shall it dawn on the night of the grave!
See truth, love, and mercy in triumph descending,
And nature all glowing in Eden's first bloom!
On the cold cheek of death smiles and roses are blending,
And beauty immortal awakes from the tomb.
Mine be the breezy hill that skirts the down,
Where a green grassy turf is all I crave,
With here and there a violet bestrewn,
Fast by a brook or fountain’s murmuring wave;
And many an evening sun shine sweetly on my grave!
The Minstrel; or, The Progress of Genius (1771)
"O pity, great Father of light," then I cried,
" Thy creature who fain would not wander from Thee!
Lo, humbled in dust, I relinquish my pride;
From doubt and from darkness Thou only canst free."
But when shall spring visit the mouldering urn?
Oh when shall it dawn on the night of the grave?
At the close of the day when the hamlet is still,
And mortals the sweets of forgetfulness prove,
When naught but the torrent is heard on the hill,
And naught but the nightingale’s song in the grove.
Laws, as we read in ancient sages,
Have been like cobwebs in all ages:
Cobwebs for little flies are spread,
And laws for little folks are made;
But if an insect of renown,
Hornet or beetle, wasp or drone,
Be caught in quest of sport or plunder,
The flimsy fetter flies in sunder.
The Wolf and Shepherds (1776)