"Thus on these narrow boards you'll seem / To explore the entire creation's scheme - / And with swift steps, yet wise and slow / From heaven, through the world, right down to hell you'll go!" Prelude on the Stage, lines 239-242.

"The little earth-god still persists in his old ways, / Ridiculous as ever, as in his first days. / He'd have improved if you'd not given / Him a mere glimmer of the light of heaven; / He calls in Reason, and it has only increased / His power to be beastlier than a beast." Prologue in Heaven, lines 281-286.

"Well that's Philosophy I've read, / And Law and Medicine, and I fear / Theology too, from A to Z; / Hard studies all, that have cost me dear. / And so I sit, poor silly man, / No wiser now then when I began." Night, lines 354-359.

"I have a potion here whose work's soon done; / Its dizzying...