Pure was the lustre of the orient ray, That joyful wak'd Alzira's nuptial day: 110 Her auburn hair, spread loosely to the wind, The virgin train, with rosy chaplets bind; The scented flowers that form her bridal wreathe, A deeper hue, a richer fragrance breathe.

She lived on scanty food; Hard were her girdles; She struggled in venomous conflicts; Pure was her heart amid the wicked.

Pure was thy life; its bloody close Hath blessed thee with the sons of light, Among the noble host of those Who perished in the cause of right.

Pure must have been the thoughts which were yours when thus employed, when such was their origin, and we may hope, indeed, they have been accepted.

I had hugged this purpose to my heart, Cast by for it all ruth, all pride, all scruples; Yet now its face, that seemed as pure as crystal, Shows fleshly, foul, and stained with tears and gore!

They shine within the Temple, they bear to the matchless mother a message which would have been a disgrace from mortal lips, but which from theirs fell upon her as pure as dew-drops upon the lilies of the plain of Esdraelon.

This passion was as distant and as pure as ecstasy.

By their ore-grow'th of some complextion[10] Oft breaking downe the pales and forts of reason Or by some habit, that too much ore-leauens The forme of plausiue manners, that these men Carrying I say the stamp of one defect Being Natures liuery, or Fortunes starre, His vertues els be they as pure as grace, As infinite as man may vndergoe, Shall in the generall censure take corruption From that particuler fault: the dram of eale[20]

But there was not the slightest dustiness, nothing less pure than leaves, and ripe pollen, and flecks of withered bracken and moss.

Human life is like a river Its brightness lasts not on for ever That dances from its native braes, As pure as maidhood's early days; But soon, with dark and sullen motion, It rolls into its funeral ocean, And those whose currents are the slightest, And shortest run, are aye the brightest: So is our lifeits latest wave Rolls dark and solemn to the grave.

According to others, it ensures that for the whole year the milk shall be "as pure as silver and as the stars in the sky, and the butter as yellow as the sun and the fire and the gold."

So may'st thou yearn to wear, Like ev'ry angel there, Vestment as pure as snow, spotlessly white; And on thy face to shine That radiancy divine, God's own unquenchable, immortal light.

It is 'as pure as water and as good as bread.'

The mediaeval church fathers endeavored for centuries to enforce the doctrine that men should be as pure as women, with what success, every one knows.