Date: w. 1687 [published 1907]

"Yet potent Nature frankly has bestow'd / Such various gifts amongst the mingl'd Crowd, */ That I believe, the dullest of the kind, / Wou'd he but Husband and Manure his Mind,* / Might find some Exce'llence there, which well-improv'd / At home might make him Pleas'd, in public Lov'd."

— Prior, Matthew (1664-1721)

Date: 1692

"And all was conquer'd but the Patriot's Mind."

— Prior, Matthew (1664-1721)

Date: 1692

"At Distance thro' an artful Glass / To the Mind's Eye Things well appear."

— Prior, Matthew (1664-1721)

Date: 1692

"Fancies and Notions he pursues, / Which ne'er had Being but in Thought: / Each, like the Grecian Artist, woo's / The Image He himself has wrought."

— Prior, Matthew (1664-1721)

Date: c. 1695-8 [published 1907]

"Others in Time a heart may gain / By Treaty or Perswasion, / Their Conquests They by Siege obtain."

— Prior, Matthew (1664-1721)

Date: c. 1695-8 [published 1907]

"You o'er my heart were born to reign / And bravely took it by Invasion."

— Prior, Matthew (1664-1721)

Date: 1700

"August and Open, as the Hero's Mind, / Be her capacious Courts design'd."

— Prior, Matthew (1664-1721)

Date: 1700

The "Great Father's Character" may be found "Visibly stampt upon the Hero's mind."

— Prior, Matthew (1664-1721)

Date: 1704

"Charity, decent, modest, easy, kind, / Softens the high, and rears the abject Mind; / Knows with just Reins, and gentle Hand to guide, / Betwixt vile Shame, and arbitrary Pride."

— Prior, Matthew (1664-1721)

Date: 1704

"As thro' the Artist's intervening Glass, / Our Eye observes the distant Planets pass; / A little we discover; but allow, / That more remains unseen, than Art can show: / So whilst our Mind it's Knowledge wou'd improve; / (It's feeble Eye intent on Things above) / High as We may, We lift our Rea...

— Prior, Matthew (1664-1721)