How happy a thing were a wedding

Kings should disdain to die, and only disappear.

There’s an experienced rebel, Time, And in his squadrons Poverty; There’s Age that brings along with him A terrible artillery: And if against all these thou keep’st thy crown, Th’usurper Death will make thee lay it down.

Ye blushing virgins happy are In the chaste nunnery of her breasts— For he'd profane so chaste a fair, Whoe'er should call them Cupid's nests.

For see the rosy May draws nigh; She claims a virgin queen; And hark, the happy shepherds cry, 'Tis Kate of Aberdeen.

So venerable, so majestic, is this living temple of justice, this immemorial and yet freshly growing fabric of the Common Law, that the least of us is happy who hereafter may point to so much as one stone thereof and say, The work of my …

All those things that make a nation richer, stronger, or more happy; or that tend to exalt national character, but that will not pay individuals, deserve public encouragement.