John Dryden

John Dryden
John Drydenwas an English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who was made England's first Poet Laureate in 1668...
file finish fool fools-and-foolishness god help school true
True fops help nature's work, and go to school - to file and finish God Almighty's fool
philosophy school years
Is it not evident, in these last hundred years (when the Study of Philosophy has been the business of all the Virtuosi in Christendome) that almost a new Nature has been revealed to us? that more errours of the School have been detected, more useful Experiments in Philosophy have been made, more Noble Secrets in Opticks, Medicine, Anatomy, Astronomy, discover'd, than in all those credulous and doting Ages from Aristotle to us? So true it is that nothing spreads more fast than Science, when rightly and generally cultivated.
chose discourse nearest rugged verse
And this unpolished rugged verse I chose / As fittest for discourse and nearest prose.
though warm
And virtue, though in rags, will keep me warm
poor ten thousand torture word
And torture one poor word ten thousand ways.
child thus
And thus the child imposes on the man.
image scattered wide
And, wide as his command, / Scattered his Maker's image through the land.
age genius includes particular studies universal
Every age has a kind of universal genius, which includes those that live in it to some particular studies
glorious sons treason
During his office, treason was no crime. / The sons of Belial had a glorious time.
bless dying gave hand
Dying bless the hand that gave the blow.
below dive errors pearls search surface
Errors like straws upon the surface flow: Who would search for pearls must dive below
below dive errors pearls search surface
Errors like straws upon the surface flow: Who would search for pearls must dive below
dive pearls search surface
Errors, like straws, upon the surface flow; he who would search for pearls must dive below.
far numerous talk thoughts-and-thinking
Far more numerous are those as such; who think to little and talk to much.