Aaron Hill (writer)
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Aaron Hill (10 February 1685 – 8 February 1750) was an English dramatist and miscellaneous writer.
Quotes
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Out blaz'd a Newton's soul — and all was light.
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And it stings you for your pains;
Grasp it like a man of mettle,
And it soft as silk remains.
- Yours is the guilt of all, who, judging wrong,
Mistake tuned nonsense for the poet's song!
Provoking dulness!—what a soul has he
Who fancies rhyme, and measure, poetry!—
He thinks, profanely, that this generous art
Stops at the ear—with power to shake the heart.- Advice to the Poets (1731), p. 32
- O'er Nature's laws, God cast the veil of night,
Out blaz'd a Newton's soul — and all was light.- Preserved in Hill's Works (1753), Vol. IV, p. 92, and mentioned as probably derived from Alexander Pope's "Nature and Nature's laws lay hid in night: God said, Let Newton be! — and all was light" in The Epigrammatists: A Selection from the Epigrammatic Literature of Ancient, Mediæval, and Modern Times (1875) by Henry Philip Dodd, p. 329.
- Courage is poorly housed that dwells in numbers; the lion never counts the herd that are about him, nor weighs how many flocks he has to scatter.
- As quoted in The Golden Treasury of Thought: A gathering of quotations from the best ancient and modern authors (1873) edited by John Camden Hotten.
- But me no buts.
- Snake in the Grass, sc. 1.
Tender-handed stroke a nettle,
And it stings you for your pains;
Grasp it like a man of mettle,
And it soft as silk remains.’Tis the same with common natures:
Use ’em kindly, they rebel;
But be rough as nutmeg-graters,
And the rogues obey you well.- Verses Written on a Window in Scotland.
Zara (1735)
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Their virtue due to nature, not to fear.
- You talk no more of that gay nation now,
Where men adore their wives, and woman's power
Draws reverence from a polished people's softness,
Their husbands' equals, and their lovers' queens;
Free without scandal; wise without restraint;
Their virtue due to nature, not to fear.- Selima, Act I, Sc. 1.
- Can my fond heart, on such a feeble proof,
Embrace a faith, abhorred by him I love?
I see too plainly custom forms us all;
Our thoughts, our morals, our most fixed belief,
Are consequences of our place of birth:
Born beyond Ganges, I had been a Pagan;
In France, a Christian; I am here a Saracen:
'Tis but instruction, all! Our parents' hand
Writes on our heart the first faint characters,
Which time, re-tracing, deepens into strength,
That nothing can efface, but death or Heaven.- Zara, Act I, Sc. 1.
- First, then, a woman will or won’t, depend on ’t;
If she will do ’t, she will; and there ’s an end on ’t.
But if she won’t, since safe and sound your trust is,
Fear is affront, and jealousy injustice.- Epilogue (1735). Note: The following lines are copied from the pillar erected on the mount in the Dane John Field, Canterbury:
- Where is the man who has the power and skill
To stem the torrent of a woman’s will?
For if she will, she will, you may depend on ’t;
And if she won’t, she won’t; so there ’s an end on ’t.
The Examiner, (31 May 1829).
- Where is the man who has the power and skill
- Epilogue (1735). Note: The following lines are copied from the pillar erected on the mount in the Dane John Field, Canterbury:
Alzira: A Tragedy (1736)
[edit]- Reason gains all men, by compelling none.
Mercy was always Heaven's distinguished mark:
And he, who bears it not, has no friend there.- Don Alvarez in Act I, Sc. 1; also misquoted as "Reason gains all people by compelling none."
- Youth is ever apt to judge in haste,
And lose the medium in the wild extreme,
Do not repent, but regulate your passion:
Though love is reason, its excess is rage.
Give me, at least, your promise to reflect,
In cool, impartial solitude, and still.
No last decision till we meet again.- Don Alvarez in Act IV, Scene 1.
