To threats the stubborn sinner oft is hard, THE character of the true philosopher is to hope all things not impossible; and to believe all things not unreasonable. He who has seen the obscurities which appeared impenetrable in physical and mathematical science suddenly dispelled, and the most barren and unpromising fields of inquiry converted, as if by inspiration, into rich and inexhaustible springs of knowledge and power, on a simple change of our point of view, or by merely bringing to bear on them some principle which it never occurred before to try, will surely be the last to acquiesce in any dispiriting prospects of either the present or future destinies of mankind; while, on the other hand, the boundless views of intellectual and moral, as well as material relations which open upon him on all hands in the course of these pursuits, the knowledge of the trivial place he occupies in the scale of creation, and the sense continually pressed upon him of his own weakness and incapacity to suspend or modify the slightest movement of the vast machinery he sees in action around him, must effectually convince him that humility of pretension, no less than confidence of hope, is what best becomes his character. HERSCHEL. WHEN life looks lone and dreary, Let conquerors fight for glory Too dearly the meed they gain : Let patriots live in story— Too often they die in vain ; Give kingdoms to those who choose 'em ; OH dismal dole, when the secret soul And a laugh we start when the throbbing heart THO' sacred the tie that our country entwineth, And sad the remembrance that slavery stains. Farewell to the land in childhood I wander'd! And Fame has no wreaths for the brow of the slave. But hail to thee, Albion ! who meet'st the commotion Of Europe, as calm as thy cliffs meet the foam; With no bonds but the law, and no slave but the ocean, Hail, temple of liberty! thou art my home! DE RONI. How sudden do our prospects vary here! SHIRLEY. MODERATION is the silken string running through the pearl-chain of all the virtues. MEN are machines, with all their boasted freedom. Their movements turn upon some fav'rite passion; Let art but find the latent foible out, We touch the spring, and wind them at our pleasure. BROOK. THE grand and indeed only character of Truth, is its capability of enduring the test of universal experience, and coming unchanged out of every possible form of fair discussion. HERSCHEL. THE whisper'd "No"-how little meant- THE hope of profit is always a stimulating, but a degrading motive; it dims the clearest intellect, it stills the proudest feelings. Habit and prejudice will soon reconcile even genius to the work of money, and to avow the motive without a blush. D'ISRAELI. H GENTLY Scan your brother man, One point must still be greatly dark, Who made the heart, 'tis He alone He knows each chord-its various tone, Then at the balance let's be mute, What's done we partly may compute, BURNS. A NATION, ignorant of the equal benefits of liberty and law, must be awed by the flashes of arbitrary power the cruelty of a despot will assume the character of justice; his profusion of liberality; his obstinacy of firmness. If the most reasonable excuse be rejected, few acts of obedience will be found impossible; and guilt must tremble, where innocence cannot always be secure. GIBBON. |