"And seize the pleasures of the present day;"
"Live while you live," the sacred preacher cries,
"And give to God each moment as it flies."
"Lord, in my views let both united be;
I live in _pleasure_, when I live to _Thee_."
_"Dum vivimus vivamus." (Motto of his Family Arms.)_
P. DODDRIDGE.

A man's ingress into the world is naked and bare,
His progress through the world is trouble and care;
And lastly, his egress out of the world, is nobody knows where.
If we do well here, we shall do well there;
I can tell you no more if I preach a whole year.
_Eccentricities, Vol. I_. J. EDWIN.

A little rule, a little sway,
A sunbeam in a winter's day,
Is all the proud and mighty have
Between the cradle and the grave.
_Grongar Hill_. J. DYER.

So may'st thou live, till like ripe fruit thou drop
Into thy mother's lap
_Paradise Lost, Bk. XI_. MILTON.

Sound, sound the clarion, fill the fife!
To all the sensual world proclaim,
One crowded hour of glorious life
Is worth an age without a name.
_Old Mortality: Chapter Head_. SIR W. SCOTT.

Let us (since life can little more supply
Than just to look about us, and to die)
Expatiate free o'er all this scene of man;
A mighty maze! but not without a plan.
_Essay on Man, Epistle I_. A. POPE.

The world's a theatre, the earth a stage
Which God and nature do with actors fill.
_Apology for Actors_. T. HEYWOOD.

To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life is but a walking shadow; a poor player.
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
_Macbeth, Act v. Sc. 5_ SHAKESPEARE.

The web of our life is of a mingled
Yarn, good and ill together.
_All's Well that Ends Well, Act iv. Sc. 3_. SHAKESPEARE.

And what's a life?--a weary pilgrimage,
Whose glory in one day doth fill the stage
With childhood, manhood, and decrepit age.
_What is Life_? P. QUARLES.

An elegant sufficiency, content,
Retirement, rural quiet, friendship, books,
Ease and alternate labor, useful life,
Progressive virtue, and approving Heaven!
_The Seasons: Spring_. J. THOMSON.

On life's vast ocean diversely we sail,
Reason the card, but pass