For contemplation he and valour formed; / For softness she and sweet attractive grace, / He for God only, she for God in him: / His fair large front and eye sublime declared / Absolute rule.

This manner of writing wherein knowing myself inferior to myself? I have the use, as I may account it, but of my left hand.

Tis chastity, my brother, chastity; She that has that is clad in complete steel, And, like a quiver'd nymph with arrows keen, May trace huge forests, and unharbour'd heaths, Infamous hills, and sandy perilous wilds; Where, through the sacred rays of chastity, No savage fierce, bandite, or mountaineer, Will dare to soil her virgin purity.

Let none henceforth seek needless cause to approve The faith they owe; when earnestly they seek Such proof, conclude, they then begin to fail.

Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay To mould me man? Did I solicit thee From darkness to promote me?

The spirits perverse with easy intercourse pass to and fro, to tempt or punish mortals.

Who overcomes by force, hath overcome but half his foe.