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Home  »  Familiar Quotations  »  Isaa Watts 1674-1748 John Bartlett

John Bartlett (1820–1905). Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. 1919.

Isaa Watts 1674-1748 John Bartlett

 
1
    Whene’er I take my walks abroad,
  How many poor I see!
What shall I render to my God
  For all his gifts to me?
          Divine Songs. Song iv.
2
    A flower, when offered in the bud,
  Is no vain sacrifice.
          Divine Songs. Song xii.
3
    And he that does one fault at first
  And lies to hide it, makes it two. 1
          Divine Songs. Song xv.
4
    Let dogs delight to bark and bite,
  For God hath made them so;
Let bears and lions growl and fight,
  For ’t is their nature too.
          Divine Songs. Song xvi.
5
    But, children, you should never let
  Such angry passions rise;
Your little hands were never made
  To tear each other’s eyes.
          Divine Songs. Song xvi.
6
    Birds in their little nests agree;
  And ’t is a shameful sight
When children of one family
  Fall out, and chide, and fight.
          Divine Songs. Song xvii.
7
    How doth the little busy bee
  Improve each shining hour,
And gather honey all the day
  From every opening flower!
          Divine Songs. Song xx.
8
    For Satan finds some mischief still
  For idle hands to do.
          Divine Songs. Song xx.
9
    In books, or work, or healthful play.
          Divine Songs. Song xx.
10
    I have been there, and still would go;
’T is like a little heaven below.
          Divine Songs. Song xxviii.
  
  
  
11
    Hush, my dear, lie still and slumber!
  Holy angels guard thy bed!
Heavenly blessings without number
  Gently falling on thy head.
          A Cradle Hymn.
12
    ’T is the voice of the sluggard; I heard him complain,
“You have wak’d me too soon, I must slumber again.”
          The Sluggard.
13
    Lord, in the morning thou shalt hear
My voice ascending high.
          Psalm v.
14
    From all who dwell below the skies
Let the Creator’s praise arise;
Let the Redeemer’s name be sung
Through every land, by every tongue.
          Psalm cxvii.
15
    Fly, like a youthful hart or roe,
Over the hills where spices grow.
          Hymns and Spiritual Songs. Book i. Hymn 79.
16
    And while the lamp holds out to burn,
The vilest sinner may return.
          Hymns and Spiritual Songs. Book i. Hymn 88.
17
    Strange that a harp of thousand strings
Should keep in tune so long!
          Hymns and Spiritual Songs. Book ii. Hymn 19.
18
    Hark! from the tombs a doleful sound.
          Hymns and Spiritual Songs. Book ii. Hymn 63.
19
    The tall, the wise, the reverend head
Must lie as low as ours.
          Hymns and Spiritual Songs. Book ii. Hymn 63.
20
    When I can read my title clear
  To mansions in the skies,
I ’ll bid farewell to every fear,
  And wipe my weeping eyes.
          Hymns and Spiritual Songs. Book ii. Hymn 65.
21
    There is a land of pure delight,
  Where saints immortal reign;
Infinite day excludes the night,
  And pleasures banish pain.
          Hymns and Spiritual Songs. Book ii. Hymn 66.
22
    So, when a raging fever burns,
We shift from side to side by turns;
And ’t is a poor relief we gain
To change the place, but keep the pain.
          Hymns and Spiritual Songs. Book ii. Hymn 146.
23
    Were I so tall to reach the pole,
  Or grasp the ocean with my span,
I must be measured by my soul:
  The mind ’s the standard of the man. 2
          Horæ Lyricæ, Book ii. False Greatness.
24
    To God the Father, God the Son,
And God the Spirit, Three in One,
Be honour, praise, and glory given
By all on earth, and all in heaven.
          Doxology.
 
Note 1.
See Herbert, Quotation 8. [back]
Note 2.
I do not distinguish by the eye, but by the mind, which is the proper judge of the man.—Seneca: On a Happy Life (L’Estrange’s Abstract), chap. i.

It is the mind that makes the man, and our vigour is in our immortal soul.—Ovid: Metamorphoses, xiii. [back]