Name: An Epistle to Curio
Author: Mark Akenside

Quotes from An Epistle to Curio (Mark Akenside)

Mark Akenside, An Epistle to Curio (1744)

“ That thro' the Pageants of a Patriot's Name,
They pierc'd the Foulness of thy secret Aim;⁠40
Or deem'd thy Arm exalted but to throw
The public Thunder on a private Foe.
But I, whose Soul consented to thy Cause,
Who felt thy Genius stamp its own Applause,
Who saw the Spirits of each glorious Age⁠45
Move in thy Bosom and direct thy Rage;
I scorn'd th' ungenerous Gloss of slavish Minds,
The Owl-ey'd Race, whom Virtue's Lustre blinds.
Spite of the Learned in the Ways of Vice,
And all who prove that each Man has his Price,⁠50
I still believ'd thy End was just and free ”

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Source: Wikisource

Mark Akenside, An Epistle to Curio (1744)

“ Paint all the noblest Trophies of your Guilt,⁠65
The Oaths you perjur'd and the Blood you spilt;
Yet must you one untempted Vileness own,
One dreadful Palm reserv'd for him alone;
With studied Arts his Country's Praise to spurn,
To beg the Infamy he did not earn,⁠70
To challenge Hate when Honour was his Due,
And plead his Crimes where all his Virtue knew.
Do Robes of State the guarded Heart inclose
From each fair Feeling human Nature knows? ”

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Source: Wikisource

Mark Akenside, An Epistle to Curio (1744)

“ Shoot thro' thy Breast and stab the generous Birth,⁠260
Till blind with Smart, from Truth to Frenzy tost,
And all the Tenour of thy Reason lost,
Perhaps thy Anguish drains a real Tear;
While some with Pity, some with Laughter hear.
——Can Art, alas! or Genius guide the Head,⁠265
Where Truth and Freedom from the Heart are fled?
Can lesser Wheels repeat their native Stroke,
When the prime Function of the Soul is broke? ”

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Source: Wikisource

Mark Akenside, An Epistle to Curio (1744)

“ Gay with her Trophies rais'd on Curio's Shame;
Yet some there are who scorn her impious Mirth,
Who know what Conscience and a Heart are worth.
——O Friend and Father of the Human Mind,⁠335
Whose Art for noblest Ends our Frame design'd!
If I, tho' fated to the studious Shade
Which Party-strife nor anxious Pow'r invade,
If I aspire in public Virtue's Cause,
To guide the Muses by sublimer Laws,⁠340
Do thou her own Authority impart,
And give my Numbers Entrance to the Heart. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Mark Akenside, An Epistle to Curio (1744)

“ The Heights surmounted, down the Steep they fly.
There black with Frowns, relentless Time awaits,
And goads their Footsteps to the guilty Gates;
And still he asks them of their unknown Aims,⁠285
Evolves their Secrets and their Guilt proclaims;
And still his Hands despoil them on the Road
Of each vain Wreath by lying Bards bestow'd.
Break their proud Marbles, crush their festal Cars,
And rend the lawless Trophies of their Wars.⁠290
At last the Gates his potent Voice obey;
Fierce to their dark Abode he drives his Prey ”

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Source: Wikisource

Mark Akenside, An Epistle to Curio (1744)

“ Laid all a People's gen'rous Hopes in Dust;
Who taught Ambition firmer Heights of Pow'r,
And sav'd Corruption at her hopeless Hour;⁠20
Does not each Tongue its Execrations owe?
Shall not each Muse a Wreath of Shame bestow? ”

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Source: Wikisource

Mark Akenside, An Epistle to Curio (1744)

“ But at last, unhappily for himself and his Country, the Difficulties into which his ungovernable Passions had plung'd him, gave that artful Man an Opportunity of seducing him to betray the Cause of Liberty at its very Crisis, So that he is justly charg'd by the Roman Historians, as the chief Incendiary of Cæsar's Ambition, and Author of all the public Ruin that ensued. ”

Mark Akenside

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Quotes from An Epistle to Curio (Mark Akenside)

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Mark Akenside

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Quotes from An Epistle to Curio (Mark Akenside)

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Get perspective with Kwize: daily news enlightened by great literature