With crosses, relics, crucifixes,

Beads, pictures, rosaries, and pixes,—

The tools of working our salvation

By mere mechanic operation.

Samuel Butler (1600-1680): Hudibras. Part iii. Canto i. Line 1495.

We bow our heads before Thee, and we laud

And magnify thy name Almighty God!

But man is thy most awful instrument

In working out a pure intent.

William Wordsworth (1770-1850): Ode. Imagination before Content.

A fiery soul, which, working out its way,

Fretted the pygmy-body to decay,

And o'er-inform'd the tenement of clay.

A daring pilot in extremity;

Pleas'd with the danger, when the waves went high

He sought the storms.

John Dryden (1631-1701): Absalom and Achitophel. Part i. Line 156.

O, how full of briers is this working-day world!

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): As You Like It. Act i. Sc. 3.