From old Belerium to the northern main.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): Windsor Forest. Line 316.

Forc'd from their homes, a melancholy train,

To traverse climes beyond the western main;

Where wild Oswego spreads her swamps around,

And Niagara stuns with thundering sound.

Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774): The Traveller. Line 409.

Soft is the strain when zephyr gently blows,

And the smooth stream in smoother numbers flows;

But when loud surges lash the sounding shore,

The hoarse rough verse should like the torrent roar.

When Ajax strives some rock's vast weight to throw,

The line too labours, and the words move slow:

Not so when swift Camilla scours the plain,

Flies o'er th' unbending corn, and skims along the main.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): Essay on Criticism. Part ii. Line 166.

Main chance.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): King Henry VI. Part II. Act i. Sc. 1.

As the ancients

Say wisely, have a care o' th' main chance,

And look before you ere you leap;

For as you sow, ye are like to reap.

Samuel Butler (1600-1680): Hudibras. Part ii. Canto ii. Line 501.

Plac'd far amid the melancholy main.

James Thomson (1700-1748): The Castle of Indolence. Canto i. Stanza 30.

When Britain first, at Heaven's command,

Arose from out the azure main,

This was the charter of her land,

And guardian angels sung the strain:

Rule, Britannia! Britannia rules the waves!

Britons never shall be slaves.

James Thomson (1700-1748): Alfred. Act ii. Sc. 5.