Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
mercy_n	wise_a	world_n	worthy_a	31	3	5.7469	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45754	The ladies dictionary, being a general entertainment of the fair-sex a work never attempted before in English.	N. H.; Dunton, John, 1659-1733.	1694 (1694)	Wing H99; ESTC R6632	671,643	762

but if a Lady happens to have a Wart or Pimple on her Face they would not by their Good wills have her put a black patch on it and if she do's they point as it as a mark of Pride though we see nature her self has adorned the visage with moles and other marks that resemble them and in imitation of which we suppose they were first used Venus whom the Poet celebrate as the Goddess of Beauty is said to be born with a Motticella or Natural beauty spot as if Nature had set forth a pattern for Art to imitate And it was held to add a greater Lustre to her rare Features We commonly see little spotty Clouds over the Face of the Sun yet he is not ashamed of his attraction nay some of late have affirmed through an Optick Glass to have discerned some nacul● or spots mingled with his brightness yet they are not attributed to him as D eformities The Moon shining in her full Orb with her greatest lustre hath in her pale Visage some very remarkable spots which rather appear as an Ornament than a disfigurement or defect and may be said to be her chiefeet Glory seeing she is held in every thing but that to be inconstant yet those she never puts off but perpetually wears them When a Lady puts on her Mask which is rarely ●●vill'd at but held as the Skreen of modest blushes as well as the shelter of beauty from the too warm Kisses of the Sun or parching of the Northern wind what can that be termed but one great sao● to cover the Face Suppose she cuts her Patches into Stars they may improve her serious thoughts by minding her as often as she looks on them of the place to which she is desirous to go I● into Flys they Emblem to her the Lightness Vanity and shore duration of things in this World Or suppose they be cut into the Form of little Worms then they may put her upon Meditations of Death and the Grave where those Insects are to be her Companions Yet notwithstanding these advantages may be gathered from it it is the unhappiness of the most harmless and innocent things to meet with misconstructions when however from the same Subject whence they draw their Suspicion of Curiosity to accuse a Lady of Pride she derives the greatest Arguments of Discipline and Instruction to defend her Innocence There was hardly ever any Rare Invention tho never so necessary to the Publick but some one or other would be finding Fault with it The Learned Works of the most celebrated Authors have met with carping Z●iluses We see when Night has cast her Sable Mantle o're the World the Face of Heaven in spight of her will be gay by putting on her gaudy spots of Light and Studs of Stars The Earth and with her all Nature smiles when she is spotted and Enamelled with fragrant flowers The Peacock is set off by Nature with the spotty Glory of his Train and it is accounted the Rarest Beauty of the Creatures on whom men set the highest Value to be sprinkled or dapled o're by Natures Pencil yet though in these Kinds it is so highly approv'd when any such artificial things are seen in a Ladies Face what Batteries do the Envious and Censorious raise against her Virtues both in discourse and writing But however this ought to be your comfort Ladies that their Railing Lectures have rarely at any time been known to work a Reformation in your Sex but you have had the pleasure to make them spend their Spirits and throw away their breaths in vain and fruitless Ravings and at the same time have had the diversion to laugh at their Folly and make it your Recreation to be unmoved at their simplicity Then fear them not whilst we defend your Cause When we invoke his shafts Apollo draws To wound Invaders of the female Laws And turn their malice to your high applause Poetesses Poetry is deservedly placed in the Catalogue of Sciences that appertain to the Imagination and may reasonably be set in the first Rank and that not by chance or for want of consideration because it has been held by many to be a kind of Inspiration and Proceeds not immediately from the Effects of Learning nor a large understanding but has its Power and Force from Immagination Plato would have it to be no Human Science but a Divine Revelation for he says If the Poets were not Ravis●ed and full of God they 〈◊〉 not make nor utter any thing worthy of Admiration and he goes about to prove it viz. That those who are given to melancholy Musing or deep Study are not capable of those exalted Expressions or Phrasees those similies and lively images of things that like Lillies● Roses and the rarest of flouers set out beautify and adorn dorn the pleasant Garden 〈◊〉 Poesy it is thought by som● that in this strain the Inspired Prophets that spoke in the height of Rapture delivered their Divine Messages and Admonitions to the World As for the Royal Psalmist and the wisest of Kings there is no doubt but they took excellent Pleasure in it or that Debora Suang praises in the like concordant Harmony of Sacred Numbers The blessed Virgin Elizabeth Anna and Simeon divinely Inspired Sung Praises for the wonderful mercies God vouchsafed to mankind in the stupendious Mystery of the Incarnation of the Worlds Redeemer It cannot be deny'd but the Heathen Oracles gave all or most of their Answers in Verse The Sybles that were accounted Propheresses were admirably seen in it as appears by their Verses yet extant in divers worthy Authors wherein many wonderful things are foretold that have already come to pass especially the Incarnation of our blessed Saviour with the manner and Estate in which he should be born as it is elsewhere treated on at large in this book The Reason that Aristotle gives why profound Polititians and those of great Learning can never arrive at the excellency of Poetry is viz. because the understanding chiefly sways in them and where there is a large understanding the Imagination is lessened to which the Art of Versifying appertains and so cannot work strongly enough to produce rich and curious Fancies and this may be more demonstrable in Socrates who after He had a long time ●cudgled his brains in hopes to bea● them into the Art of Poetry could no●t notwithstanding all his Procepts and Rules his great knowledg in Philosophy and other Sciences make any passable or tolerable Verse Cicero the best Orator that ever Rome boasted of was in the same Predicament and yet in this Art that has soiled and puzled a number of Wise and Learned men the Fair Sex has been very famous their Beauties and Virtues have not only been the glorious Subjects of Poetry and Inspired it with higher raptures than any other objects or representations to immagination but themselves have been very commendably the Authoresses of many curious Pieces wherein their Ingenuity has been livelily displayed and