The spacious firmament on high, With all the blue ethereal sky, And spangled heavens, a shining frame, Their great Original proclaim. Th'unwearied sun from day to day Does his Creator's power display; And publishes to every land The work of an Almighty hand.

-Addison,Joseph
  In The Spectator, no.465, 23  Aug.

In Reason's ear they all rejoice, And utter forth a glorious voice, For ever singing, as they shine: 'The hand that made us is divine.'

-Addison,Joseph
  In The Spectator, no.465, 23  Aug.

Genet had been right at least about one thing. Blacks should be used to play whites. For centuries we had probed their faces, the angles of their bodies, the sounds of their voices and even their odors.Often our survival had depended on the accurate reading of a white man's chuckle or the disdainful wave of a white woman's hand.

-Angelou, Maya originally MayaJohnson
The Heart of a Woman, ch.12.

   Back and side go bare, go bare, Both foot and hand go cold; But, belly,God send thee good ale enough, Whether it be new or old.

-Anonymous
c.1575  Song, included in the play Gammer Gurton's Needle, act 2. William Stevenson (c.1530^75) and John Still (1543^1608) have both been credited with authorship of the play, but the song probably predates it.

Onlyöbut this is rareö When a beloved hand is laid in ours, When, jaded with the rush and glare Of the interminable hours, Our eyes can in another's eyes read clear, When our world-deafened ear Is by the tones of a loved voice caressedö A bolt is shot back somewhere in our breast, And a lost pulse of feeling stirs again. The eye sinks inward, and the heart lies plain, And what we mean, we say, and what we would, we know.

-Arnold, Matthew
  Empedocles on Etna and Other Poems,'The Buried Life', l.77^87.

Rapt, twirling in thy hand a withered spray, And waiting for the spark from heaven to fall.

-Arnold, Matthew
  Poems:  A New Edition,'The Scholar-Gipsy', l.119^20.

And it is the colour of sand, The darkness, as it sifts through your hand.

-Ashbery,John Lawrence
  The Tennis Court Oath,'How Much Longer Will I Be  Able To Inhabit The Divine Sepulcher†'.

And lang, lang may the ladyes sit, Wi' their fans into their hand, Before they see Sir Patrick Spens Come sailing to the strand! 56

-Ballads
'Sir Patrick Spens'.

Je ne comprends pas qu'une main pure puisse toucher un journal sans une convulsion de de¤  go u" t. I cannot imagine how a pure hand can touch a newspaper without disgust.

-Baudelaire, Charles
  Mon coeur mis a'   nu, pt.81.

When a public man lays his hand on his heart and declares that his conduct needs no apology, the audience hastens to put up its umbrellas against the particularly severe downpour of apologies in store for it. I won't give the customary warning. My conduct shrieks aloud for apology, and you are in for a thorough drenching.

-Beerbohm, Sir (Henry) Max(imilian)
  'A Straight Talk' (parody of George Bernard Shaw), in the Saturday Review, 22 Dec.

Miss Joan Hunter Dunn, Miss Joan Hunter Dunn, I can hear from the car-park the dance has begun. Oh! full Surrey twilight! importunate band! Oh! strongly adorable tennis-girl's hand!

-Betjeman, SirJohn
  New Bats in Old Belfries,'A Subaltern's Love-Song'.

And the L God said,Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:Therefore the L God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the tree of life.

-Bible (Old Testament)
ORDORDGenesis 3:21^4.

Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call hisname Ishmael; becausethe L hath heard thy affliction. And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.

-Bible (Old Testament)
ORDGenesis16:11^12.

And it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed: and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed.

-Bible (Old Testament)
Exodus17:11.

And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life, Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot. Burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.

-Bible (Old Testament)
Exodus 21:23^4.

Behold, there ariseth a little cloud out of the sea, like a man's hand.

-Bible (Old Testament)
Kings18:44.

Every one with one of his hands wrought in the work, and with the other hand held a weapon.

-Bible (Old Testament)
Nehemiah 4:17.

Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life.But put forththinehand now, and touchhisboneand his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face.

-Bible (Old Testament)
Job 2:4^5.

   Into thine hand I commit my spirit: thou hast redeemed me,O L God of truth.

-Bible (Old Testament)
ORDPsalms 31:5.

Nevertheless I am continually with thee: thou hast holden me by my right hand. Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory.Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee. My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.

-Bible (Old Testament)
Psalms 73:23^6.