ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS 133
Lift Up Tour Heart
T EAVE me, O Love, which reachest but to dust |
JL* And thou, my mind, aspire to higher things j
Grow rich in that which never taketh rust;
Whatever fades, but fading pleasure brings.
Draw in thy beams, and humble all thy might
To that sweet yoke where lasting freedoms be ;
Which breaks the clouds, and opens forth the light
That doth both shine and give us sight to see.
O take fast hold ; let that light be thy guide
In this small course which birth draws out of death*
And think how ill becometh him to slide
Who seeketh heaven and comes of heavenly breath.
Then farewell, World ; thy uttermost I see :
Eternal Love, maintain thy life in me.
Sir Philip Sidney
The Tale Which Holdeth Children from their Play
Now therein of all Sciences (I speak still of humane, and according
to the humane conceits) is our poet the monarch. For he doth
not only show the way, but giveth so sweet a prospect into the way as
will entice any man to enter into it.
Nay, he doth, as if your journey should lie through a fair Vine-
yard, at the first give you a cluster of Grapes, that, fuU of that taste,
you may long to pass further.
He beginneth not with obscure definitions, which must blur the
margent with interpretations, and load the memory with doubt-
fulness ; but he cometh to you with words set in delightful pro-
portion, either accompanied with, or prepared for, the well-enchant-
ing skill of Musick j and with a tale forsooth he cometh unto you ;
with a tale which holdeth children from play, and old men from the
chimney-corner.
And, pretending no more, doth intend the winning of the mind
from wickedness to virtue : even as the child is often brought to take
most wholesome things by hiding them in such other as have a
pleasant taste ; which, if one should begin to tell them the nature of
aloes or rhubarb they should receive, would sooner take their physick
at their ears than at their mouth.
So it is in men (most of which are childish in the best things, till
they be cradled hi their graves); glad they will be to hear the tales of
Hercules, Achilles, Cyrus, and Aeneas ; and, hearing them, must
needs hear the right description of wisdom, valour, and justice;
which, if they had been barely, that is to say philosophically, set out
they would swear they be brought to school again.
Sir Philip Sidney