Page images
PDF
EPUB

DEAR native regions, I foretell
From what I feel at this farewell,
That wheresoe'er my steps shall tend,
And whensoe'er my course shall end,
If in that hour a single tie
Survive of local sympathy,

My soul will cast the backward view,
The longing look alone on you.

Thus when the sun, prepared for rest,
Hath gain'd the precincts of the west,
Though his departing radiance fail
T'illuminate the hollow vale,

A lingering light he fondly throws
On the dear hills where first he rose.

SHE observed the staggering and unsatisfactory condition of those who have risen to distinction by undue paths, and the out-works and bulwarks of fiction and falsehood, by which they are under the necessity of surrounding and defending their precarious advantages.

WALTER SCOTT.

AMBITION'S like a circle on the water,
Which never ceases to enlarge itself,

Till by broad spreading it disperse to nought.

SHAKESPEARE.

COMPLAISANCE renders a superior amiable, an equal agreeable, an inferior acceptable. It smooths distinction, sweetens conversation, and makes every one in the company pleased with himself. It produces good nature and mutual benevolence, encourages the timorous, soothes the turbulent, humanizes the fierce, and distinguishes a society of civilized persons from a confusion of savages.

ADDISON.

LOVE wol not be constreined by maistrie:
Whan maistrie cometh the God of Love anon,
Beteth his winges, and, farewell, he is gon.
Love is a thing as any spirit free.

CHAUCER.

THE discovery of any thing which is true, is a valuable acquisition to society, which cannot possibly hurt, or obstruct the good effect of any other truth whatsoever; for they all partake of one common essence, and necessarily coincide with each other; and like the drops of rain which fall separately into the river, mix themselves at once with the stream, and strengthen the general current.

THAT thou mayst injure no one, dove-like be,
And serpent-like that none may injure thee.

My Church is my Mother; and no proof, however strong, that there are better Mothers than she, can tear me away from her bosom.

RICHTER.

Of all wild beasts preserve me from a tyrant,
And of all tame, a flatterer.

Si le plaisir est une rose,

Le souvenir en est l'odeur.

JOHNSON.

VICTOR AUGIER.

THAT conscience approves of and attests such a course of action, is itself, alone, an obligation.

BUTLER.

IN the lighted hall the guests are met,
The beautiful look'd lovelier in the light,
Of love and admiration, and delight,
Reflected from a thousand hearts and eyes,
Kindling a momentary paradise.

P. B. SHELLEY.

A VALUABLE truth can never want the meretricious dress of wit to set it off; this dress is a strong presumption of the falsehood of what it covers.

EGERTON BRYDGES.

O SLEEP, awhile thy power suspending,
Weigh not yet my eye-lid down,
For Memory, see! with eve attending,
Claims a moment for her own:
I know her by her faded light,

When faithful with the gloom returning,
She comes to bid a sad good night.

O! let me hear with bosom swelling,
While she sighs o'er time that's past;
O! let me weep, while she is talking

Of joys that pine, and pangs that last.
And now, O Sleep, while grief is streaming,
Let thy balm sweet peace restore;
While fearful hope through tears is beaming,
Soothe to rest that wakes no more.

CURRAN.

THE anger of a generous man is like a vial of clear water, which when shook, beads at the top, but instantly subsides without any soil or sediment of uncharitableness.

WHAT a state is guilt,

When ev'ry thing alarms it! Like a centinel,
Who sleeps upon his watch, it wakes in dread
Ev'n at a breath of wind.

HAVARD.

I CANNOT praise a fugitive and cloistered virtue unexercised and unbreathed, that never sallies out and sees her adversary, but slinks out of the race, where that immortal garland is to be run for, not without dust and heat.

MILTON.

WHAT is it to have

A flattering false inscription on a tomb,

And in men's hearts reproach? the bowel'd corpse May be sear'd in, but (with free tongue I speak) The faults of great men through their sear-clothes

break.

CYRIL TOURNEUR.

HE that does a base thing in zeal for his friend, burns the golden thread that ties their hearts together.

JER. TAYLOR.

How is it possible to expect that mankind will take advice, when they will not so much as take warning?

SWIFT.

Ан, Freedom is a noble thing-
Freedom makes man to have liking;
Freedom the zest to pleasure gives
He lives at ease who freely lives.
Grief, sickness, poortith, want, are all
Summ'd up within the name of thrall.

« PreviousContinue »