Philologists, who chase

A panting syllable through time and space,

Start it at home, and hunt it in the dark

To Gaul, to Greece, and into Noah's ark.

William Cowper (1731-1800): Retirement. Line 691.

Than a successive title long and dark,

Drawn from the mouldy rolls of Noah's ark.

John Dryden (1631-1701): Absalom and Achitophel. Part i. Line 301.

Presume to lay their hand upon the ark

Of her magnificent and awful cause.

William Cowper (1731-1800): The Task. Book ii. The Timepiece. Line 231.