Familiar Quotations A Collection of Passages, Phrases, and Proverbs Traced to Their Sources in Ancient and Modern Literature (part 4 of 8)
Nature's old felicities.
The Trosachs.
Myriads of daisies have shone forth in flower Near the lark's nest, and in their natural hour Have passed away; less happy than the one That by the unwilling ploughshare died to prove The tender charm of poetry and love.
Poems composed during a Tour in the Summer of 1833. xxxvii.
Small service is true service while it lasts. Of humblest friends, bright creature! scorn not one: The daisy, by the shadow that it casts, Protects the lingering dewdrop from the sun.
To a Child. Written in her Album.
Since every mortal power of Coleridge Was frozen at its marvellous source, The rapt one, of the godlike forehead, The heaven-eyed creature sleeps in earth: And Lamb, the frolic and the gentle, Has vanished from his lonely hearth.
Extempore Effusion upon the Death of James Hogg.
How fast has brother followed brother, From sunshine to the sunless land!
Extempore Effusion upon the Death of James Hogg.
Those old credulities, to Nature dear, Shall they no longer bloom upon the stock Of history?
Memorials of a Tour in Italy. iv.
How does the meadow-flower its bloom unfold? Because the lovely little flower is free Down to its root, and in that freedom bold.
A Poet! He hath put his Heart to School.
Minds that have nothing to confer Find little to perceive.
Yes, Thou art Fair.
FOOTNOTES:
[465-1] Coleridge said to Wordsworth ("Memoirs" by his nephew, vol. ii. p. 74), "Since Milton, I know of no poet with so many felicities and unforgettable lines and stanzas as you."
[465-2] The intellectual power, through words and things, Went sounding on a dim and perilous way!
The Excursion, book iii.
[468-1] The original edition (London, 1819, 8vo) had the following as the fourth stanza from the end of Part i., which was omitted in all subsequent editions:--
Is it a party in a parlour? Crammed just as they on earth were crammed,-- Some sipping punch, some sipping tea, But, as you by their faces see, All silent and all damned.
[469-1] See Milton, page 241.
[471-1] See Gray, page 382.
[474-1] It was on this occasion [the failure in energy of Lord Mar at the battle of Sheriffmuir] that Gordon of Glenbucket made the celebrated exclamation, "Oh for an hour of Dundee!"--MAHON: History of England, vol. i. p. 184.
Oh for one hour of blind old Dandolo, The octogenarian chief, Byzantium's conquering foe!
BYRON: Childe Harold, canto iv. stanza 12.
[475-1] See Milton, page 239.
[476-1] See Milton, page 235.
[477-1] See Shakespeare, page 57.
[477-2] See Collins, page 390.
[478-1] This line is from Sir John Beaumont's "Battle of Bosworth Field."
[479-1] Heaven gives its favourites--early death.--BYRON: Childe Harold, canto iv. stanza 102. Also Don Juan, canto iv. stanza 12.
Quem Di diligunt Adolescens moritur (He whom the gods favor dies in youth).
PLAUTUS: Bacchides, act iv. sc. 7.
[480-1] See page 465.
[480-2] But I have sinuous shells of pearly hue; . . . . . Shake one, and it awakens; then apply Its polisht lips to your attentive ear, And it remembers its august abodes, And murmurs as the ocean murmurs there.
LANDOR: Gebir, book v.
[481-1] An instinctive taste teaches men to build their churches in flat countries with spire steeples, which, as they cannot be referred to any other object, point as with silent finger to the sky and stars.--COLERIDGE: The Friend, No. 14.
[481-2] See Milton, page 249.
[481-3] Another and the same.--DARWIN: The Botanic Garden.
[483-1] In obedience to the order of the Council of Constance (1415), the remains of Wickliffe were exhumed and burned to ashes, and these cast into the Swift, a neighbouring brook running hard by; and "thus this brook hath conveyed his ashes into Avon, Avon into Severn, Severn into the narrow seas, they into the main ocean. And thus the ashes of Wickliffe are the emblem of his doctrine, which now is dispersed all the world over."--FULLER: Church history, sect. ii. book iv. paragraph 53.
What Heraclitus would not laugh, or what Democritus would not weep? . . . For though they digged up his body, burned his bones, and drowned his ashes, yet the word of God and truth of his doctrine, with the fruit and success thereof, they could not burn.--FOX: Book of Martyrs, vol. i. p. 606 (edition, 1641).
"Some prophet of that day said,--
"'The Avon to the Severn runs, The Severn to the sea; And Wickliffe's dust shall spread abroad Wide as the waters be.'"
DANIEL WEBSTER: Address before the Sons of New Hampshire, 1849.
These lines are similarly quoted by the Rev. John Cumming in the "Voices of the Dead."
[484-1] The pen wherewith thou dost so heavenly sing Made of a quill from an angel's wing.
HENRY CONSTABLE: Sonnet.
Whose noble praise Deserves a quill pluckt from an angel's wing.
DOROTHY BERRY: Sonnet.
[485-1] With this same key Shakespeare unlocked his heart.
BROWNING: House.
SIR WALTER SCOTT. 1771-1832.
Such is the custom of Branksome Hall.
Lay of the Last Minstrel. Canto i. Stanza 7.
If thou would'st view fair Melrose aright, Go visit it by the pale moonlight.
Lay of the Last Minstrel. Canto ii. Stanza 1.
O fading honours of the dead! O high ambition, lowly laid!
Lay of the Last Minstrel. Canto ii. Stanza 10.
I was not always a man of woe.
Lay of the Last Minstrel. Canto ii. Stanza 12.
I cannot tell how the truth may be; I say the tale as 't was said to me.
Lay of the Last Minstrel. Canto ii. Stanza 22.
In peace, Love tunes the shepherd's reed; In war, he mounts the warrior's steed; In halls, in gay attire is seen; In hamlets, dances on the green. Love rules the court, the camp, the grove, And men below and saints above; For love is heaven, and heaven is love.
Lay of the Last Minstrel. Canto iii. Stanza 1.
Her blue eyes sought the west afar, For lovers love the western star.
Lay of the Last Minstrel. Canto iii. Stanza 24.
Along thy wild and willow'd shore.
Lay of the Last Minstrel. Canto iv. Stanza 1.
Ne'er Was flattery lost on poet's ear; A simple race! they waste their toil For the vain tribute of a smile.
Lay of the Last Minstrel. Canto iv. Stanza 35.
Call it not vain: they do not err Who say that when the poet dies Mute Nature mourns her worshipper, And celebrates his obsequies.
Lay of the Last Minstrel. Canto v. Stanza 1.
True love 's the gift which God has given To man alone beneath the heaven: It is not fantasy's hot fire, Whose wishes soon as granted fly; It liveth not in fierce desire, With dead desire it doth not die; It is the secret sympathy, The silver link, the silken tie, Which heart to heart and mind to mind In body and in soul can bind.
Lay of the Last Minstrel. Canto v. Stanza 13.
Breathes there the man with soul so dead Who never to himself hath said, This is my own, my native land! Whose heart hath ne'er within him burn'd[488-1] As home his footsteps he hath turn'd From wandering on a foreign strand? If such there breathe, go, mark him well! For him no minstrel raptures swell; High though his titles, proud his name, Boundless his wealth as wish can claim,-- Despite those titles, power, and pelf, The wretch, concentred all in self, Living, shall forfeit fair renown, And, doubly dying, shall go down To the vile dust from whence he sprung, Unwept, unhonour'd, and unsung.[488-2]
Lay of the Last Minstrel. Canto vi. Stanza 1.
O Caledonia! stern and wild, Meet nurse for a poetic child! Land of brown heath and shaggy wood; Land of the mountain and the flood!
Lay of the Last Minstrel. Canto vi. Stanza 2.
Profan'd the God-given strength, and marr'd the lofty line.
Marmion. Introduction to Canto i.
Just at the age 'twixt boy and youth, When thought is speech, and speech is truth.
Marmion. Introduction to Canto ii.
When, musing on companions gone, We doubly feel ourselves alone.
Marmion. Introduction to Canto ii.
'T is an old tale and often told; But did my fate and wish agree, Ne'er had been read, in story old, Of maiden true betray'd for gold, That loved, or was avenged, like me.
Marmion. Canto ii. Stanza 27.
When Prussia hurried to the field, And snatch'd the spear, but left the shield.[489-1]
Marmion. Introduction to Canto iii.
In the lost battle, Borne down by the flying, Where mingles war's rattle With groans of the dying.
Marmion. Canto iii. Stanza 11.
Where 's the coward that would not dare To fight for such a land?
Marmion. Canto iv. Stanza 30.
Lightly from fair to fair he flew, And loved to plead, lament, and sue; Suit lightly won, and short-lived pain, For monarchs seldom sigh in vain.
Marmion. Canto v. Stanza 9.
With a smile on her lips and a tear in her eye.[489-2]
Marmion. Canto v. Stanza 12.
But woe awaits a country when She sees the tears of bearded men.
Marmion. Canto v. Stanza 16.
And dar'st thou then To beard the lion in his den, The Douglas in his hall?
Marmion. Canto vi. Stanza 14.
Oh what a tangled web we weave, When first we practise to deceive!
Marmion. Canto vi. Stanza 17.
O woman! in our hours of ease Uncertain, coy, and hard to please, And variable as the shade By the light quivering aspen made; When pain and anguish wring the brow, A ministering angel thou![490-1]
Marmion. Canto vi. Stanza 30.
"Charge, Chester, charge! on, Stanley, on!" Were the last words of Marmion.
Marmion. Canto vi. Stanza 32.
Oh for a blast of that dread horn[490-2] On Fontarabian echoes borne!
Marmion. Canto vi. Stanza 33.
To all, to each, a fair good-night, And pleasing dreams, and slumbers light.
L' Envoy. To the Reader.
In listening mood she seemed to stand, The guardian Naiad of the strand.
Lady of the Lake. Canto i. Stanza 17.
And ne'er did Grecian chisel trace A Nymph, a Naiad, or a Grace Of finer form or lovelier face.
Lady of the Lake. Canto i. Stanza 18.
A foot more light, a step more true, Ne'er from the heath-flower dash'd the dew.
Lady of the Lake. Canto i. Stanza 18.
On his bold visage middle age Had slightly press'd its signet sage, Yet had not quench'd the open truth And fiery vehemence of youth: Forward and frolic glee was there, The will to do, the soul to dare.
Lady of the Lake. Canto i. Stanza 21.
Sleep the sleep that knows not breaking, Morn of toil nor night of waking.
Lady of the Lake. Canto i. Stanza 31.
Hail to the chief who in triumph advances!
Lady of the Lake. Canto ii. Stanza 19.
Some feelings are to mortals given With less of earth in them than heaven.
Lady of the Lake. Canto ii. Stanza 22.
Time rolls his ceaseless course.
Lady of the Lake. Canto iii. Stanza 1.
Like the dew on the mountain, Like the foam on the river, Like the bubble on the fountain, Thou art gone, and forever!
Lady of the Lake. Canto iii. Stanza 16.
The rose is fairest when 't is budding new, And hope is brightest when it dawns from fears. The rose is sweetest wash'd with morning dew, And love is loveliest when embalm'd in tears.
Lady of the Lake. Canto iv. Stanza 1.
Art thou a friend to Roderick?
Lady of the Lake. Canto iv. Stanza 30.
Come one, come all! this rock shall fly From its firm base as soon as I.
Lady of the Lake. Canto v. Stanza 10.
And the stern joy which warriors feel In foemen worthy of their steel.
Lady of the Lake. Canto v. Stanza 10.
Who o'er the herd would wish to reign, Fantastic, fickle, fierce, and vain! Vain as the leaf upon the stream, And fickle as a changeful dream; Fantastic as a woman's mood, And fierce as Frenzy's fever'd blood. Thou many-headed monster[492-1] thing, Oh who would wish to be thy king!
Lady of the Lake. Canto v. Stanza 30.
Where, where was Roderick then? One blast upon his bugle horn Were worth a thousand men.
Lady of the Lake. Canto vi. Stanza 18.
In man's most dark extremity Oft succour dawns from Heaven.
Lord of the Isles. Canto i. Stanza 20.
Spangling the wave with lights as vain As pleasures in the vale of pain, That dazzle as they fade.
Lord of the Isles. Canto i. Stanza 23.
Oh, many a shaft at random sent Finds mark the archer little meant! And many a word at random spoken May soothe, or wound, a heart that 's broken!
Lord of the Isles. Canto v. Stanza 18.
Where lives the man that has not tried How mirth can into folly glide, And folly into sin!
Bridal of Triermain. Canto i. Stanza 21.
Still are the thoughts to memory dear.
Rokeby. Canto i. Stanza 32.
A mother's pride, a father's joy.
Rokeby. Canto iii. Stanza 15.
Oh, Brignall banks are wild and fair, And Greta woods are green, And you may gather garlands there Would grace a summer's queen.
Rokeby. Canto iii. Stanza 16.
Thus aged men, full loth and slow, The vanities of life forego, And count their youthful follies o'er, Till Memory lends her light no more.
Rokeby. Canto v. Stanza 1.
No pale gradations quench his ray, No twilight dews his wrath allay.
Rokeby. Canto vi. Stanza 21.
Come as the winds come, when Forests are rended; Come as the waves come, when Navies are stranded.
Pibroch of Donald Dhu.
A lawyer without history or literature is a mechanic, a mere working mason; if he possesses some knowledge of these, he may venture to call himself an architect.
Guy Mannering. Chap. xxxvii.
Bluid is thicker than water.[493-1]
Guy Mannering. Chap. xxxviii.
It 's no fish ye 're buying, it 's men's lives.[493-2]
The Antiquary. Chap. xi.
When Israel, of the Lord belov'd, Out of the land of bondage came, Her fathers' God before her mov'd, An awful guide in smoke and flame.
Ivanhoe. Chap. xxxix.
Sea of upturned faces.[493-3]
Rob Roy. Chap. xx.
There 's a gude time coming.
Rob Roy. Chap. xxxii.
My foot is on my native heath, and my name is MacGregor.
Rob Roy. Chap. xxxiv.
Scared out of his seven senses.[493-4]
Rob Roy. Chap. xxxiv.
Sound, sound the clarion, fill the fife! To all the sensual world proclaim, One crowded hour of glorious life Is worth an age without a name.
Old Mortality. Chap. xxxiv.
The happy combination of fortuitous circumstances.[494-1]
Answer to the Author of Waverley to the Letter of Captain Clutterbuck. The Monastery.
Within that awful volume lies The mystery of mysteries!
The Monastery. Chap. xii.
And better had they ne'er been born, Who read to doubt, or read to scorn.
The Monastery. Chap. xii.
Ah, County Guy, the hour is nigh, The sun has left the lea. The orange flower perfumes the bower, The breeze is on the sea.
Quentin Durward. Chap. iv.
Widowed wife and wedded maid.
The Betrothed. Chap. xv.
Woman's faith and woman's trust, Write the characters in dust.
The Betrothed. Chap. xx.
I am she, O most bucolical juvenal, under whose charge are placed the milky mothers of the herd.[494-2]
The Betrothed. Chap. xxviii.
But with the morning cool reflection came.[494-3]
Chronicles of the Canongate. Chap. iv.
What can they see in the longest kingly line in Europe, save that it runs back to a successful soldier?[494-4]
Woodstock. Chap. xxxvii.
The playbill, which is said to have announced the tragedy of Hamlet, the character of the Prince of Denmark being left out.
The Talisman. Introduction.
Rouse the lion from his lair.
The Talisman. Chap. vi.
Jock, when ye hae naething else to do, ye may be aye sticking in a tree; it will be growing, Jock, when ye 're sleeping.[495-1]
The Heart of Midlothian. Chap. viii.
Fat, fair, and forty.[495-2]
St. Ronan's Well. Chap. vii.
"Lambe them, lads! lambe them!" a cant phrase of the time derived from the fate of Dr. Lambe, an astrologer and quack, who was knocked on the head by the rabble in Charles the First's time.
Peveril of the Peak. Chap. xlii.
Although too much of a soldier among sovereigns, no one could claim with better right to be a sovereign among soldiers.[495-3]
Life of Napoleon.
The sun never sets on the immense empire of Charles V.[495-4]
Life of Napoleon. (February, 1807.)
FOOTNOTES:
[488-1] Did not our heart burn within us while he talked with us by the way?--Luke xxiv. 32.
Hath not thy heart within thee burned At evening's calm and holy hour?
S. G. BULFINCH: The Voice of God in the Garden.
[488-2] See Pope, page 341.
[489-1] See Freneau, page 443.
[489-2] Reproof on her lips, but a smile in her eye.--LOVER: Rory O'More.
[490-1] See Shakespeare, page 144.
Scott, writing to Southey in 1810, said: "A witty rogue the other day, who sent me a letter signed Detector, proved me guilty of stealing a passage from one of Vida's Latin poems, which I had never seen or heard of." The passage alleged to be stolen ends with,--
"When pain and anguish wring the brow, A ministering angel thou!"
which in Vida "ad Eranen," El. ii. v. 21, ran,--
"Cum dolor atque supercilio gravis imminet angor, Fungeris angelico sola ministerio."
"It is almost needless to add," says Mr. Lockhart, "there are no such lines."--Life of Scott, vol. iii. p. 294. (American edition.)
[490-2] Oh for the voice of that wild horn!--Rob Roy, chap. ii.
[492-1] See Massinger, page 194.
[493-1] This proverb, so frequently ascribed to Scott, is a common proverb of the seventeenth century. It is found in Ray and other collections of proverbs.
[493-2] It is not linen you 're wearing out, But human creatures's lives.
HOOD: Song of the Shirt.
[493-3] DANIEL WEBSTER: Speech, Sept. 30, 1842.
[493-4] Huzzaed out of my seven senses.--_Spectator, No. 616, Nov. 5, 1774._
[494-1] Fearful concatenation of circumstances.--DANIEL WEBSTER: Argument on the Murder of Captain White, 1830.
Fortuitous combination of circumstances.--DICKENS: Our Mutual Friend, vol. ii. chap. vii. (American edition).
[494-2] See Spenser, page 27.
[494-3] See Rowe, page 301.
[494-4] Le premier qui fut roi, fut un soldat heureux: Qui sert bien son pays, n'a pas besoin d'aïeux
(The first who was king was a successful soldier. He who serves well his country has no need of ancestors).--VOLTAIRE: Merope, act i. sc. 3.
[495-1] The very words of a Highland laird, while on his death-bed, to his son.
[495-2] See Dryden, page 275.
[495-3] See Pope, page 331.
[495-4] A power which has dotted over the surface of the whole globe with her possessions and military posts, whose morning drum-beat, following the sun, and keeping company with the hours, circles the earth with one continuous and unbroken strain of the martial airs of England.--DANIEL WEBSTER: Speech, May 7, 1834.
Why should the brave Spanish soldier brag the sun never sets in the Spanish dominions, but ever shineth on one part or other we have conquered for our king?--CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH: Advertisements for the Unexperienced, &c. (Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., Third Series, vol. iii. p. 49).
It may be said of them (the Hollanders) as of the Spaniards, that the sun never sets on their dominions.--GAGE: New Survey of the West Indies. Epistle Dedicatory. (London, 1648.)
I am called The richest monarch in the Christian world; The sun in my dominions never sets.
SCHILLER: Don Karlos, act. i. sc. 6.
Altera figlia Di quel monarca, a cui Nè anco, quando annotta il sol tramonta
(The proud daughter of that monarch to whom when it grows dark [elsewhere] the sun never sets).--GUARINI: Pastor Fido (1590). On the marriage of the Duke of Savoy with Catherine of Austria.
JAMES MONTGOMERY. 1771-1854.
When the good man yields his breath (For the good man never dies).[496-1]
The Wanderer of Switzerland. Part v.
Gashed with honourable scars, Low in Glory's lap they lie; Though they fell, they fell like stars, Streaming splendour through the sky.
The Battle of Alexandria.
Distinct as the billows, yet one as the sea.
The Ocean. Line 54.
Once, in the flight of ages past, There lived a man.
The Common Lot.
Counts his sure gains, and hurries back for more.
The West Indies. Part iii.
Hope against hope, and ask till ye receive.[496-2]
The World before the Flood. Canto v.
Joys too exquisite to last, And yet more exquisite when past.
The Little Cloud.
Bliss in possession will not last; Remembered joys are never past; At once the fountain, stream, and sea, They were, they are, they yet shall be.
The Little Cloud.
Friend after friend departs; Who hath not lost a friend? There is no union here of hearts That finds not here an end.
Friends.
Nor sink those stars in empty night: They hide themselves in heaven's own light.
Friends.
'T is not the whole of life to live, Nor all of death to die.
The Issues of Life and Death.
Beyond this vale of tears There is a life above, Unmeasured by the flight of years; And all that life is love.
The Issues of Life and Death.
Night is the time to weep, To wet with unseen tears Those graves of memory where sleep The joys of other years.
The Issues of Life and Death.
Who that hath ever been Could bear to be no more? Yet who would tread again the scene He trod through life before?
The Falling Leaf.
Here in the body pent, Absent from Him I roam, Yet nightly pitch my moving tent A day's march nearer home.
At Home in Heaven.
If God hath made this world so fair, Where sin and death abound, How beautiful beyond compare Will paradise be found!
The Earth full of God's Goodness.
Return unto thy rest, my soul, From all the wanderings of thy thought, From sickness unto death made whole, Safe through a thousand perils brought.
Rest for the Soul.
Prayer is the soul's sincere desire, Uttered or unexpressed,-- The motion of a hidden fire That trembles in the breast.
What is Prayer?
Prayer is the burden of a sigh, The falling of a tear, The upward glancing of an eye When none but God is near.
What is Prayer?
FOOTNOTES:
[496-1] Thnêskein mê lege tous agathous (Say not that the good die).--CALLIMACHUS: Epigram x.
[496-2] See Barbauld, page 433.
SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE. 1772-1834.
He holds him with his glittering eye, And listens like a three years' child.[498-1]
The Ancient Mariner. Part i.
Red as a rose is she.
The Ancient Mariner. Part i.
We were the first that ever burst Into that silent sea.
The Ancient Mariner. Part ii.
As idle as a painted ship Upon a painted ocean.
The Ancient Mariner. Part ii.
Water, water, everywhere, Nor any drop to drink.
The Ancient Mariner. Part ii.
Without a breeze, without a tide, She steadies with upright keel.
The Ancient Mariner. Part iii.
The nightmare Life-in-Death was she.
The Ancient Mariner. Part iii.
The sun's rim dips; the stars rush out: At one stride comes the dark; With far-heard whisper o'er the sea, Off shot the spectre-bark.
The Ancient Mariner. Part iii.
And thou art long and lank and brown, As is the ribbed sea-sand.[498-2]
The Ancient Mariner. Part iv.
Alone, alone,--all, all alone; Alone on a wide, wide sea.
The Ancient Mariner. Part iv.
The moving moon went up the sky, And nowhere did abide; Softly she was going up, And a star or two beside.
The Ancient Mariner. Part iv.
A spring of love gush'd from my heart, And I bless'd them unaware.
The Ancient Mariner. Part iv.
Oh sleep! it is a gentle thing, Beloved from pole to pole.
The Ancient Mariner. Part v.
A noise like of a hidden brook In the leafy month of June, That to the sleeping woods all night Singeth a quiet tune.
The Ancient Mariner. Part v.
Like one that on a lonesome road Doth walk in fear and dread, And having once turned round walks on, And turns no more his head, Because he knows a frightful fiend Doth close behind him tread.
The Ancient Mariner. Part vi.
So lonely 't was, that God himself Scarce seemed there to be.
The Ancient Mariner. Part vii.
He prayeth well who loveth well Both man and bird and beast.
The Ancient Mariner. Part vii.
He prayeth best who loveth best All things both great and small.
The Ancient Mariner. Part vii.
A sadder and a wiser man, He rose the morrow morn.
The Ancient Mariner. Part vii.
And the spring comes slowly up this way.
Christabel. Part i.
A lady richly clad as she, Beautiful exceedingly.
Christabel. Part i.
Carv'd with figures strange and sweet, All made out of the carver's brain.
Christabel. Part i.
Her gentle limbs did she undress, And lay down in her loveliness.
Christabel. Part i.
A sight to dream of, not to tell!
Christabel. Part i.
That saints will aid if men will call; For the blue sky bends over all!
Christabel. Conclusion to part i.
Each matin bell, the Baron saith, Knells us back to a world of death.
Christabel. Part ii.
Her face, oh call it fair, not pale!
Christabel. Part ii.
Alas! they had been friends in youth; But whispering tongues can poison truth, And constancy lives in realms above; And life is thorny, and youth is vain, And to be wroth with one we love Doth work like madness in the brain.
Christabel. Part ii.
They stood aloof, the scars remaining,-- Like cliffs which had been rent asunder: A dreary sea now flows between.
Christabel. Part ii.
Perhaps 't is pretty to force together Thoughts so all unlike each other; To mutter and mock a broken charm, To dally with wrong that does no harm.
Christabel. Conclusion to Part ii.
In Xanadu did Kubla Khan A stately pleasure-dome decree, Where Alph, the sacred river, ran Through caverns measureless to man Down to a sunless sea.
Kubla Khan.
Ancestral voices prophesying war.
Kubla Khan.
A damsel with a dulcimer In a vision once I saw: It was an Abyssinian maid, And on her dulcimer she played, Singing of Mount Abora.
Kubla Khan.
For he on honey-dew hath fed, And drunk the milk of Paradise.
Kubla Khan.
Ere sin could blight or sorrow fade, Death came with friendly care; The opening bud to heaven conveyed, And bade it blossom there.
Epitaph on an Infant.
Yes, while I stood and gazed, my temples bare, And shot my being through earth, sea, and air, Possessing all things with intensest love, O Liberty! my spirit felt thee there.
France. An Ode. v.
Forth from his dark and lonely hiding-place (Portentous sight!) the owlet Atheism, Sailing on obscene wings athwart the noon, Drops his blue-fring'd lids, and holds them close, And hooting at the glorious sun in heaven Cries out, "Where is it?"
Fears in Solitude.
And the Devil did grin, for his darling sin Is pride that apes humility.[501-1]
The Devil's Thoughts.
All thoughts, all passions, all delights, Whatever stirs this mortal frame, All are but ministers of Love, And feed his sacred flame.
Love.
Blest hour! it was a luxury--to be!
Reflections on having left a Place of Retirement.
A charm For thee, my gentle-hearted Charles, to whom No sound is dissonant which tells of life.
This Lime-tree Bower my Prison.
Hast thou a charm to stay the morning star In his steep course?
Hymn in the Vale of Chamouni.
Risest from forth thy silent sea of pines.
Hymn in the Vale of Chamouni.
Motionless torrents! silent cataracts!
Hymn in the Vale of Chamouni.
Ye living flowers that skirt the eternal frost.
Hymn in the Vale of Chamouni.
Earth with her thousand voices praises God.
Hymn in the Vale of Chamouni.
Tranquillity! thou better name Than all the family of Fame.
Ode to Tranquillity.
The grand old ballad of Sir Patrick Spence.
Dejection. An Ode. Stanza 1.
Joy is the sweet voice, joy the luminous cloud. We in ourselves rejoice! And thence flows all that charms or ear or sight, All melodies the echoes of that voice, All colours a suffusion from that light.
Dejection. An Ode. Stanza 5.
A mother is a mother still, The holiest thing alive.
The Three Graves.
Never, believe me, Appear the Immortals, Never alone.
The Visit of the Gods. (Imitated from Schiller.)
Joy rises in me, like a summer's morn.
A Christmas Carol. viii.
The knight's bones are dust, And his good sword rust; His soul is with the saints, I trust.
The Knight's Tomb.
It sounds like stories from the land of spirits If any man obtains that which he merits, Or any merit that which he obtains. . . . . . . . . . Greatness and goodness are not means, but ends! Hath he not always treasures, always friends, The good great man? Three treasures,--love and light, And calm thoughts, regular as infants' breath; And three firm friends, more sure than day and night,-- Himself, his Maker, and the angel Death.
Complaint. Ed. 1852. The Good Great Man. Ed. 1893.
My eyes make pictures when they are shut.
A Day-Dream.
To know, to esteem, to love, and then to part, Makes up life's tale to many a feeling heart!
On taking Leave of ----, 1817.
In many ways doth the full heart reveal The presence of the love it would conceal.
Motto to Poems written in Later Life.
Nought cared this body for wind or weather When youth and I lived in 't together.
Youth and Age.
Flowers are lovely; love is flower-like; Friendship is a sheltering tree; Oh the joys that came down shower-like, Of friendship, love, and liberty, Ere I was old!
Youth and Age.
I have heard of reasons manifold Why Love must needs be blind, But this the best of all I hold,-- His eyes are in his mind.[503-1]
To a Lady, Offended by a Sportive Observation.
What outward form and feature are He guesseth but in part; But what within is good and fair He seeth with the heart.
To a Lady, Offended by a Sportive Observation.
Be that blind bard who on the Chian strand, By those deep sounds possessed with inward light, Beheld the Iliad and the Odyssey Rise to the swelling of the voiceful sea.[503-2]
Fancy in Nubibus.
I counted two-and-seventy stenches, All well defined, and several stinks.
Cologne.
The river Rhine, it is well known, Doth wash your city of Cologne; But tell me, nymphs! what power divine Shall henceforth wash the river Rhine?
Cologne.
Strongly it bears us along in swelling and limitless billows; Nothing before and nothing behind but the sky and the ocean.
The Homeric Hexameter. (Translated from Schiller.)
In the hexameter rises the fountain's silvery column, In the pentameter aye falling in melody back.
The Ovidian Elegiac Metre. (From Schiller.)
I stood in unimaginable trance And agony that cannot be remembered.
Remorse. Act iv. Sc. 3.
The intelligible forms of ancient poets, The fair humanities of old religion, The power, the beauty, and the majesty That had their haunts in dale or piny mountain, Or forest by slow stream, or pebbly spring, Or chasms and watery depths,--all these have vanished; They live no longer in the faith of reason.
Wallenstein. Part i. Act ii. Sc. 4. (Translated from Schiller.)
I 've lived and loved.
Wallenstein. Part i. Act ii. Sc. 6.
Clothing the palpable and familiar With golden exhalations of the dawn.
The Death of Wallenstein. Act i. Sc. 1.
Often do the spirits Of great events stride on before the events, And in to-day already walks to-morrow.[504-1]
The Death of Wallenstein. Act v. Sc. 1.
Our myriad-minded Shakespeare.[504-2]
Biog. Lit. Chap. xv.
A dwarf sees farther than the giant when he has the giant's shoulder to mount on.[504-3]
The Friend. Sec. i. Essay 8.
An instinctive taste teaches men to build their churches in flat countries, with spire steeples, which, as they cannot be referred to any other object, point as with silent finger to the sky and star.[504-4]
Ibid., No. 14.
Reviewers are usually people who would have been poets, historians, biographers, if they could; they have tried their talents at one or the other, and have failed; therefore they turn critics.[505-1]
Lectures on Shakespeare and Milton, p. 36. Delivered 1811-1812.
Schiller has the material sublime.
Table Talk.
I wish our clever young poets would remember my homely definitions of prose and poetry; that is, prose,--words in their best order; poetry,--the best words in their best order.
Table Talk.
That passage is what I call the sublime dashed to pieces by cutting too close with the fiery four-in-hand round the corner of nonsense.
Table Talk.
Iago's soliloquy, the motive-hunting of a motiveless malignity--how awful it is!
Notes on some other Plays of Shakespeare.
FOOTNOTES:
[498-1] Wordsworth, in his Notes to "We are Seven," claims to have written this line.
[498-2] Coleridge says: "For these lines I am indebted to Mr. Wordsworth."
[501-1] His favourite sin Is pride that apes humility.
SOUTHEY: The Devil's Walk.
[503-1] See Shakespeare, page 57.
[503-2] And Iliad and Odyssey Rose to the music of the sea.
Thalatta, p. 133. (From the German of Stolberg.)
[504-1] Sed ita a principio inchoatum esse mundum ut certis rebus certa signa præcurrerent (Thus in the beginning the world was so made that certain signs come before certain events).--CICERO: Divinatione, liber i. cap. 52.
Coming events cast their shadows before.--CAMPBELL: Lochiel's Warning.
Poets are the hierophants of an unapprehended inspiration; the mirrors of the gigantic shadows which futurity casts upon the present.--SHELLEY: A Defence of Poetry.
[504-2] "A phrase," says Coleridge, "which I have borrowed from a Greek monk, who applies it to a patriarch of Constantinople."
[504-3] See Burton, page 185.
[504-4] See Wordsworth, page 481.
[505-1] Reviewers, with some rare exceptions, are a most stupid and malignant race. As a bankrupt thief turns thief-taker in despair, so an unsuccessful author turns critic.--SHELLEY: Fragments of Adonais.
You know who critics are? The men who have failed in literature and art.--DISRAELI: Lothair, chap. xxxv.
JOSIAH QUINCY. 1772-1864
If this bill [for the admission of Orleans Territory as a State] passes, it is my deliberate opinion that it is virtually a dissolution of the Union; that it will free the States from their moral obligation; and, as it will be the right of all, so it will be the duty of some, definitely to prepare for a separation,--amicably if they can, violently if they must.[505-2]
Abridged Cong. Debates, Jan. 14, 1811. Vol. iv. p. 327.
FOOTNOTES:
[505-2] The gentleman [Mr. Quincy] cannot have forgotten his own sentiment, uttered even on the floor of this House, "Peaceably if we can, forcibly if we must."--HENRY CLAY: Speech, Jan. 8, 1813.
ROBERT SOUTHEY. 1774-1843.
"You are old, Father William," the young man cried, "The few locks which are left you are gray; You are hale, Father William, a hearty old man,-- Now tell me the reason I pray."
The Old Man's Comforts, and how he gained them.
The march of intellect.[506-1]
Colloquies on the Progress and Prospects of Society. Vol. ii. p. 360. The Doctor, Chap. Extraordinary.
The laws are with us, and God on our side.
On the Rise and Progress of Popular Disaffection (1817), Essay viii. Vol. ii. p. 107.
Agreed to differ.
Life of Wesley.
My days among the dead are passed; Around me I behold, Where'er these casual eyes are cast, The mighty minds of old; My never-failing friends are they, With whom I converse day by day.
Occasional Pieces. xxiii.
How does the water Come down at Lodore?
The Cataract of Lodore.
So I told them in rhyme, For of rhymes I had store.
The Cataract of Lodore.
Through moss and through brake.
The Cataract of Lodore.
Helter-skelter, Hurry-scurry.
The Cataract of Lodore.
A sight to delight in.
The Cataract of Lodore.
And so never ending, but always descending.
The Cataract of Lodore.
And this way the water comes down at Lodore.
The Cataract of Lodore.
From his brimstone bed, at break of day, A-walking the Devil is gone, To look at his little snug farm of the World, And see how his stock went on.
The Devil's Walk. Stanza 1.
He passed a cottage with a double coach-house,-- A cottage of gentility; And he owned with a grin, That his favourite sin Is pride that apes humility.[507-1]
The Devil's Walk. Stanza 8.
Where Washington hath left His awful memory A light for after times!
Ode written during the War with America, 1814.
How beautiful is night! A dewy freshness fills the silent air; No mist obscures; nor cloud, or speck, nor stain, Breaks the serene of heaven: In full-orbed glory, yonder moon divine Rolls through the dark blue depths; Beneath her steady ray The desert circle spreads Like the round ocean, girdled with the sky. How beautiful is night!
Thalaba. Book i. Stanza 1.
"But what good came of it at last?" Quoth little Peterkin. "Why, that I cannot tell," said he; "But 't was a famous victory."
The Battle of Blenheim.
Blue, darkly, deeply, beautifully blue.[507-2]
Madoc in Wales. Part i. 5.
What will not woman, gentle woman dare, When strong affection stirs her spirit up?
Madoc in Wales. Part ii. 2.
And last of all an Admiral came, A terrible man with a terrible name,-- A name which you all know by sight very well, But which no one can speak, and no one can spell.
The March to Moscow. Stanza 8.
They sin who tell us love can die; With life all other passions fly, All others are but vanity. . . . . . Love is indestructible, Its holy flame forever burneth; From heaven it came, to heaven returneth. . . . . . It soweth here with toil and care, But the harvest-time of love is there.
The Curse of Kehama. Canto x. Stanza 10.
Oh, when a mother meets on high The babe she lost in infancy, Hath she not then for pains and fears, The day of woe, the watchful night, For all her sorrow, all her tears, An over-payment of delight?
The Curse of Kehama. Canto x. Stanza 11.
Thou hast been called, O sleep! the friend of woe; But 't is the happy that have called thee so.
The Curse of Kehama. Canto xv. Stanza 11.
The Satanic School.
Vision of Judgment. Original Preface.
FOOTNOTES:
[506-1] See Burke, page 408.
[507-1] See Coleridge, page 501.
[507-2] "Darkly, deeply, beautifully blue," As some one somewhere sings about the sky.
BYRON: Don Juan, canto iv. stanza 110.
CHARLES LAMB. 1775-1834.
The red-letter days now become, to all intents and purposes, dead-letter days.
Oxford in the Vacation.
For with G. D., to be absent from the body is sometimes (not to speak profanely) to be present with the Lord.
Oxford in the Vacation.
A clear fire, a clean hearth, and the rigour of the game.
Mrs. Battle's Opinions on Whist.
Sentimentally I am disposed to harmony; but organically I am incapable of a tune.
A Chapter on Ears.
Not if I know myself at all.
The Old and New Schoolmaster.
It is good to love the unknown.
Valentine's Day.
The pilasters reaching down were adorned with a glistering substance (I know not what) under glass (as it seemed), resembling--a homely fancy, but I judged it to be sugar-candy; yet to my raised imagination, divested of its homelier qualities, it appeared a glorified candy.
My First Play.
Presents, I often say, endear absents.
A Dissertation upon Roast Pig.
It argues an insensibility.
A Dissertation upon Roast Pig.
Books which are no books.
Detached Thoughts on Books.
Your absence of mind we have borne, till your presence of body came to be called in question by it.
Amicus Redivivus.
Gone before To that unknown and silent shore.
Hester. Stanza 7.
I have had playmates, I have had companions, In my days of childhood, in my joyful school-days. All, all are gone, the old familiar faces.
Old Familiar Faces.
For thy sake, tobacco, I Would do anything but die.
A Farewell to Tobacco.
And half had staggered that stout Stagirite.
Written at Cambridge.
Who first invented work, and bound the free And holiday-rejoicing spirit down . . . . . . . . . To that dry drudgery at the desk's dead wood? . . . . . . . . . Sabbathless Satan!
Work.
I like you and your book, ingenious Hone! In whose capacious all-embracing leaves The very marrow of tradition 's shown; And all that history, much that fiction weaves.
To the Editor of the Every-Day Book.
He might have proved a useful adjunct, if not an ornament to society.
Captain Starkey.
Neat, not gaudy.[510-1]
Letter to Wordsworth, 1806.
Martin, if dirt was trumps, what hands you would hold!
Lamb's Suppers.
Returning to town in the stage-coach, which was filled with Mr. Gilman's guests, we stopped for a minute or two at Kentish Town. A woman asked the coachman, "Are you full inside?" Upon which Lamb put his head through the window and said, "I am quite full inside; that last piece of pudding at Mr. Gilman's did the business for me."
Autobiographical Recollections. (Leslie.)
FOOTNOTES:
[510-1] See Shakespeare, page 130.
JAMES SMITH. 1775-1839.
No Drury Lane for you to-day.
Rejected Addresses. The Baby's Début.
I saw them go: one horse was blind, The tails of both hung down behind, Their shoes were on their feet.
Rejected Addresses. The Baby's Début.
Lax in their gaiters, laxer in their gait.
The Theatre.
WILLIAM PITT. ---- -1840.
A strong nor'-wester 's blowing, Bill! Hark! don't ye hear it roar now? Lord help 'em, how I pities them Unhappy folks on shore now!
The Sailor's Consolation.
My eyes! what tiles and chimney-pots About their heads are flying!
The Sailor's Consolation.
WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR. 1775-1864.
Rose Aylmer, whom these wakeful eyes May weep, but never see, A night of memories and of sighs I consecrate to thee.
Rose Aylmer.
Wearers of rings and chains! Pray do not take the pains To set me right. In vain my faults ye quote; I write as others wrote On Sunium's hight.
The last Fruit of an old Tree. Epigram cvi.
Shakespeare is not our poet, but the world's,[511-1]-- Therefore on him no speech! And brief for thee, Browning! Since Chaucer was alive and hale, No man hath walk'd along our roads with steps So active, so inquiring eye, or tongue So varied in discourse.
To Robert Browning.
The Siren waits thee, singing song for song.
To Robert Browning.
But I have sinuous shells of pearly hue Within, and they that lustre have imbibed In the sun's palace-porch, where when unyoked His chariot-wheel stands midway in the wave: Shake one, and it awakens; then apply Its polisht lips to your attentive ear, And it remembers its august abodes, And murmurs as the ocean murmurs there.[512-1]
Gebir. Book i. (1798).
Past are three summers since she first beheld The ocean; all around the child await Some exclamation of amazement here. She coldly said, her long-lasht eyes abased, Is this the mighty ocean? is this all? That wondrous soul Charoba once possest,-- Capacious, then, as earth or heaven could hold, Soul discontented with capacity,-- Is gone (I fear) forever. Need I say She was enchanted by the wicked spells Of Gebir, whom with lust of power inflamed The western winds have landed on our coast? I since have watcht her in lone retreat, Have heard her sigh and soften out the name.[512-2]
Gebir. Book ii.
I strove with none, for none was worth my strife; Nature I loved; and next to Nature, Art. I warm'd both hands against the fire of life; It sinks, and I am ready to depart.
Dying Speech of an old Philosopher.
FOOTNOTES:
[511-1] Nor sequent centuries could hit Orbit and sum of Shakespeare's wit.
R. W. EMERSON: May-Day and Other Pieces. Solution.
[512-1] See Wordsworth, page 480.
Poor shell! that Wordsworth so pounded and flattened in his marsh it no longer had the hoarseness of a sea, but of a hospital.--LANDOR: Letter to John Forster.
[512-2] These lines were specially singled out for admiration by Shelley, Humphrey Davy, Scott, and many remarkable men.--FORSTER: Life of Landor, vol. i. p. 95.
THOMAS CAMPBELL. 1777-1844.
'T is distance lends enchantment to the view, And robes the mountain in its azure hue.[512-3]
Pleasures of Hope. Part i. Line 7.
But Hope, the charmer, linger'd still behind.
Pleasures of Hope. Part i. Line 40.
O Heaven! he cried, my bleeding country save!
Pleasures of Hope. Part i. Line 359.
Hope for a season bade the world farewell, And Freedom shriek'd as Kosciusko fell![513-1]
Pleasures of Hope. Part i. Line 381.
On Prague's proud arch the fires of ruin glow, His blood-dyed waters murmuring far below.
Pleasures of Hope. Part i. Line 385.
And rival all but Shakespeare's name below.
Pleasures of Hope. Part i. Line 472.
Who hath not own'd, with rapture-smitten frame, The power of grace, the magic of a name?
Pleasures of Hope. Part ii. Line 5.
Without the smile from partial beauty won, Oh what were man?--a world without a sun.
Pleasures of Hope. Part ii. Line 21.
The world was sad, the garden was a wild, And man the hermit sigh'd--till woman smiled.
Pleasures of Hope. Part ii. Line 37.
While Memory watches o'er the sad review Of joys that faded like the morning dew.
Pleasures of Hope. Part ii. Line 45.
There shall he love when genial morn appears, Like pensive Beauty smiling in her tears.
Pleasures of Hope. Part ii. Line 95.
And muse on Nature with a poet's eye.
Pleasures of Hope. Part ii. Line 98.
That gems the starry girdle of the year.
Pleasures of Hope. Part ii. Line 194.
Melt and dispel, ye spectre-doubts, that roll Cimmerian darkness o'er the parting soul!
Pleasures of Hope. Part ii. Line 263.
O star-eyed Science! hast thou wandered there, To waft us home the message of despair?
Pleasures of Hope. Part ii. Line 325.
But sad as angels for the good man's sin, Weep to record, and blush to give it in.[513-2]
Pleasures of Hope. Part ii. Line 357.
Cease, every joy, to glimmer on my mind, But leave, oh leave the light of Hope behind! What though my winged hours of bliss have been Like angel visits, few and far between.[514-1]
Pleasures of Hope. Part ii. Line 375.
The hunter and the deer a shade.[514-2]
O'Connor's Child. Stanza 5.
Another's sword has laid him low, Another's and another's; And every hand that dealt the blow-- Ah me! it was a brother's!
O'Connor's Child. Stanza 10.
'T is the sunset of life gives me mystical lore, And coming events cast their shadows before.[514-3]
Lochiel's Warning.
Shall victor exult, or in death be laid low, With his back to the field and his feet to the foe, And leaving in battle no blot on his name, Look proudly to heaven from the death-bed of fame.
Lochiel's Warning.
And rustic life and poverty Grow beautiful beneath his touch.
Ode to the Memory of Burns.
Whose lines are mottoes of the heart, Whose truths electrify the sage.
Ode to the Memory of Burns.
Ye mariners of England, That guard our native seas; Whose flag has braved, a thousand years, The battle and the breeze!
Ye Mariners of England.
Britannia needs no bulwarks, No towers along the steep; Her march is o'er the mountain waves, Her home is on the deep.
Ye Mariners of England.
When the stormy winds do blow;[515-1] When the battle rages loud and long, And the stormy winds do blow.
Ye Mariners of England.
The meteor flag of England Shall yet terrific burn, Till danger's troubled night depart, And the star of peace return.
Ye Mariners of England.
There was silence deep as death, And the boldest held his breath For a time.
Battle of the Baltic.
The combat deepens. On, ye brave, Who rush to glory or the grave! Wave, Munich! all thy banners wave, And charge with all thy chivalry!
Hohenlinden.
Few, few shall part where many meet! The snow shall be their winding-sheet, And every turf beneath their feet Shall be a soldier's sepulchre.
Hohenlinden.
There came to the beach a poor exile of Erin, The dew on his thin robe was heavy and chill; For his country he sigh'd, when at twilight repairing To wander alone by the wind-beaten hill.
The Exile of Erin.
To bear is to conquer our fate.
On visiting a Scene in Argyleshire.
The sentinel stars set their watch in the sky.[515-2]
The Soldier's Dream.
In life's morning march, when my bosom was young.
The Soldier's Dream.
But sorrow return'd with the dawning of morn, And the voice in my dreaming ear melted away.
The Soldier's Dream.
Triumphal arch, that fill'st the sky When storms prepare to part, I ask not proud Philosophy To teach me what thou art.
To the Rainbow.
A stoic of the woods,--a man without a tear.
Gertrude of Wyoming. Part i. Stanza 23.
O Love! in such a wilderness as this.
Gertrude of Wyoming. Part iii. Stanza 1.
The torrent's smoothness, ere it dash below!
Gertrude of Wyoming. Part iii. Stanza 5.
Again to the battle, Achaians! Our hearts bid the tyrants defiance! Our land, the first garden of Liberty's tree, It has been, and shall yet be, the land of the free.
Song of the Greeks.
Drink ye to her that each loves best! And if you nurse a flame That 's told but to her mutual breast, We will not ask her name.
Drink ye to Her.
To live in hearts we leave behind Is not to die.
Hallowed Ground.
Oh leave this barren spot to me! Spare, woodman, spare the beechen tree![516-1]
The Beech-Tree's Petition.
FOOTNOTES:
[512-3] See John Webster, page 181.
The mountains too, at a distance, appear airy masses and smooth, but seen near at hand they are rough.--DIOGENES LAERTIUS: Pyrrho, ix.
[513-1] At length, fatigued with life, he bravely fell, And health with Boerhaave bade the world farewell.
CHURCH: The Choice (1754).
[513-2] See Sterne, page 379.
[514-1] See Norris, page 281.
[514-2] See Freneau, page 443.
[514-3] See Coleridge, page 504.
[515-1] When the stormy winds do blow.--MARTYN PARKER: _Ye Gentlemen of England._
[515-2] The starres, bright centinels of the skies.--HABINGTON: Castara, Dialogue between Night and Araphil.
[516-1] Woodman, spare that tree! Touch not a single bough!
G. P. MORRIS: Woodman, spare that Tree.
HENRY CLAY. 1777-1852.
The gentleman [Josiah Quincy] cannot have forgotten his own sentiment, uttered even on the floor of this House, "Peaceably if we can, forcibly if we must."[516-2]
Speech, 1813.
Government is a trust, and the officers of the government are trustees; and both the trust and the trustees are created for the benefit of the people.
Speech at Ashland, Ky., March, 1829.
I have heard something said about allegiance to the South. I know no South, no North, no East, no West, to which I owe any allegiance.
Speech, 1848.
Sir, I would rather be right than be President.
Speech, 1850 (referring to the Compromise Measures).
FOOTNOTES:
[516-2] See Quincy, page 505.
F. S. KEY. 1779-1843.
And the star-spangled banner, oh long may it wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
The Star-Spangled Banner.
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation![517-1] Then conquer we must when our cause it is just, And this be our motto, "In God is our trust!" And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
The Star-Spangled Banner.
FOOTNOTES:
[517-1] It made and preserves us a nation.--MORRIS: _The Flag of our Union._
HORACE SMITH. 1779-1849.
Thinking is but an idle waste of thought, And nought is everything and everything is nought.
Rejected Addresses. Cui Bono?
In the name of the Prophet--figs.
Johnson's Ghost.
And thou hast walked about (how strange a story!) In Thebes's streets three thousand years ago, When the Memnonium was in all its glory.
Address to the Mummy at Belzoni's Exhibition.
THOMAS MOORE. 1779-1852.
When Time who steals our years away Shall steal our pleasures too, The mem'ry of the past will stay, And half our joys renew.
Song. From Juvenile Poems.
Weep on! and as thy sorrows flow, I 'll taste the luxury of woe.
Anacreontic.
Where bastard Freedom waves The fustian flag in mockery over slaves.
To the Lord Viscount Forbes, written from the City of Washington.
How shall we rank thee upon glory's page, Thou more than soldier, and just less than sage?
To Thomas Hume.
I knew, by the smoke that so gracefully curl'd Above the green elms, that a cottage was near; And I said, "If there 's peace to be found in the world, A heart that was humble might hope for it here."
Ballad Stanzas.
Faintly as tolls the evening chime, Our voices keep tune and our oars keep time.
A Canadian Boat-Song.
Row, brothers, row, the stream runs fast, The rapids are near, and the daylight 's past.
A Canadian Boat-Song.
The minds of some of our statesmen, like the pupil of the human eye, contract themselves the more, the stronger light there is shed upon them.
Preface to Corruption and Intolerance.
Like a young eagle who has lent his plume To fledge the shaft by which he meets his doom, See their own feathers pluck'd to wing the dart Which rank corruption destines for their heart.[518-1]
Corruption.
A Persian's heaven is eas'ly made: 'T is but black eyes and lemonade.
Intercepted Letters. Letter vi.
There was a little man, and he had a little soul; And he said, Little Soul, let us try, try, try!
Little Man and Little Soul.
Go where glory waits thee![519-1] But while fame elates thee, Oh, still remember me!
Go where Glory waits thee.
Oh, breathe not his name! let it sleep in the shade, Where cold and unhonour'd his relics are laid,
Oh breathe not his Name.
And the tear that we shed, though in secret it rolls, Shall long keep his memory green in our souls.
Oh breathe not his Name.
The harp that once through Tara's halls The soul of music shed, Now hangs as mute on Tara's walls As if that soul were fled. So sleeps the pride of former days, So glory's thrill is o'er; And hearts that once beat high for praise Now feel that pulse no more.
The Harp that once through Tara's Halls.
Who ran Through each mode of the lyre, and was master of all.
On the Death of Sheridan.
Whose wit in the combat, as gentle as bright, Ne'er carried a heart-stain away on its blade.
On the Death of Sheridan.
Good at a fight, but better at a play; Godlike in giving, but the devil to pay.
On a Cast of Sheridan's Hand.
Though an angel should write, still 't is devils must print.
The Fudges in England. Letter iii.
Fly not yet; 't is just the hour When pleasure, like the midnight flower That scorns the eye of vulgar light, Begins to bloom for sons of night And maids who love the moon.
Fly not yet.
Oh stay! oh stay! Joy so seldom weaves a chain Like this to-night, that oh 't is pain To break its links so soon.
Fly not yet.
When did morning ever break, And find such beaming eyes awake?
Fly not yet.
And the heart that is soonest awake to the flowers Is always the first to be touch'd by the thorns.
Oh think not my Spirits are always as light.
Rich and rare were the gems she wore, And a bright gold ring on her wand she bore.
Rich and rare were the Gems she wore.
There is not in the wide world a valley so sweet As that vale in whose bosom the bright waters meet.
The Meeting of the Waters.
Oh, weep for the hour When to Eveleen's bower The lord of the valley with false vows came.
Eveleen's Bower.
Shall I ask the brave soldier who fights by my side In the cause of mankind, if our creeds agree?
Come, send round the Wine.
No, the heart that has truly lov'd never forgets, But as truly loves on to the close; As the sunflower turns on her god when he sets The same look which she turn'd when he rose.
Believe me, if all those endearing young Charms.
The moon looks On many brooks "The brook can see no moon but this."[521-1]
While gazing on the Moon's Light.
And when once the young heart of a maiden is stolen, The maiden herself will steal after it soon.
Ill Omens.
'T is sweet to think that where'er we rove We are sure to find something blissful and dear; And that when we 're far from the lips we love, We 've but to make love to the lips we are near.
'T is sweet to think.
'T is believ'd that this harp which I wake now for thee Was a siren of old who sung under the sea.
The Origin of the Harp.
But there 's nothing half so sweet in life As love's young dream.
Love's Young Dream.
To live with them is far less sweet Than to remember thee.[521-2]
I saw thy Form.
Eyes of unholy blue.
By that Lake whose gloomy Shore.
'T is the last rose of summer, Left blooming alone.
The Last Rose of Summer.
When true hearts lie wither'd And fond ones are flown, Oh, who would inhabit This bleak world alone?
The Last Rose of Summer.
And the best of all ways To lengthen our days Is to steal a few hours from the night, my dear.
The Young May Moon.
You may break, you may shatter the vase if you will, But the scent of the roses will hang round it still.
Farewell! But whenever you welcome the Hour.
Thus, when the lamp that lighted The traveller at first goes out, He feels awhile benighted, And looks around in fear and doubt. But soon, the prospect clearing, By cloudless starlight on he treads, And thinks no lamp so cheering As that light which Heaven sheds.
I 'd mourn the Hopes.
No eye to watch, and no tongue to wound us, All earth forgot, and all heaven around us.
Come o'er the Sea.
The light that lies In woman's eyes.
The Time I 've lost in wooing.
My only books Were woman's looks,-- And folly 's all they 've taught me.
The Time I 've lost in wooing.
I know not, I ask not, if guilt 's in that heart, I but know that I love thee whatever thou art.
Come, rest in this Bosom.
To live and die in scenes like this, With some we 've left behind us.
As slow our Ship.
Wert thou all that I wish thee, great, glorious, and free, First flower of the earth and first gem of the sea.
Remember Thee.
All that 's bright must fade,-- The brightest still the fleetest; All that 's sweet was made But to be lost when sweetest.
All that 's Bright must fade.
Those evening bells! those evening bells! How many a tale their music tells Of youth and home, and that sweet time When last I heard their soothing chime!
Those Evening Bells.
Oft in the stilly night, Ere slumber's chain has bound me, Fond memory brings the light Of other days around me; The smiles, the tears, Of boyhood's years, The words of love then spoken; The eyes that shone Now dimmed and gone, The cheerful hearts now broken.
Oft in the Stilly Night.
I feel like one Who treads alone Some banquet-hall deserted, Whose lights are fled, Whose garlands dead, And all but he departed.
Oft in the Stilly Night.
As half in shade and half in sun This world along its path advances, May that side the sun 's upon Be all that e'er shall meet thy glances!
Peace be around Thee.
If I speak to thee in friendship's name, Thou think'st I speak too coldly; If I mention love's devoted flame, Thou say'st I speak too boldly.
How shall I woo?
A friendship that like love is warm; A love like friendship, steady.
How shall I woo?
The bird let loose in Eastern skies, Returning fondly home, Ne'er stoops to earth her wing, nor flies Where idle warblers roam; But high she shoots through air and light, Above all low delay, Where nothing earthly bounds her flight, Nor shadow dims her way.
Oh that I had Wings.
This world is all a fleeting show, For man's illusion given; The smiles of joy, the tears of woe, Deceitful shine, deceitful flow,-- There 's nothing true but Heaven.
This World is all a fleeting Show.
Sound the loud timbrel o'er Egypt's dark sea! Jehovah has triumph'd,--his people are free.
Sound the loud Timbrel.
As down in the sunless retreats of the ocean Sweet flowers are springing no mortal can see, So deep in my soul the still prayer of devotion, Unheard by the world, rises silent to Thee.
As still to the star of its worship, though clouded, The needle points faithfully o'er the dim sea, So dark when I roam in this wintry world shrouded, The hope of my spirit turns trembling to Thee.
The Heart's Prayer.
Here bring your wounded hearts, here tell your anguish; Earth has no sorrow that Heaven cannot heal.
Come, ye Disconsolate.
Oh call it by some better name, For friendship sounds too cold.
Oh call it by some better Name.
When twilight dews are falling soft Upon the rosy sea, love, I watch the star whose beam so oft Has lighted me to thee, love.
When Twilight Dews.
I give thee all,--I can no more, Though poor the off'ring be; My heart and lute are all the store That I can bring to thee.[525-1]
My Heart and Lute.
Who has not felt how sadly sweet The dream of home, the dream of home, Steals o'er the heart, too soon to fleet, When far o'er sea or land we roam?
The Dream of Home.
To Greece we give our shining blades.
Evenings in Greece. First Evening.
When thus the heart is in a vein Of tender thought, the simplest strain Can touch it with peculiar power.
Evenings in Greece. First Evening.
If thou would'st have me sing and play As once I play'd and sung, First take this time-worn lute away, And bring one freshly strung.
If Thou would'st have Me sing and play.
To sigh, yet feel no pain; To weep, yet scarce know why; To sport an hour with Beauty's chain, Then throw it idly by.
The Blue Stocking.
Ay, down to the dust with them, slaves as they are! From this hour let the blood in their dastardly veins, That shrunk at the first touch of Liberty's war, Be wasted for tyrants, or stagnate in chains.
On the Entry of the Austrians into Naples, 1821.
This narrow isthmus 'twixt two boundless seas, The past, the future,--two eternities!
Lalla Rookh. The Veiled Prophet of Khorassan.
But Faith, fanatic Faith, once wedded fast To some dear falsehood, hugs it to the last.
Lalla Rookh. The Veiled Prophet of Khorassan.
There 's a bower of roses by Bendemeer's stream.
Lalla Rookh. The Veiled Prophet of Khorassan.
Like the stain'd web that whitens in the sun, Grow pure by being purely shone upon.
Lalla Rookh. The Veiled Prophet of Khorassan.
One morn a Peri at the gate Of Eden stood disconsolate.
Paradise and the Peri.
Take all the pleasures of all the spheres, And multiply each through endless years,-- One minute of heaven is worth them all.
Paradise and the Peri.
But the trail of the serpent is over them all.
Paradise and the Peri.
Oh, ever thus, from childhood's hour, I 've seen my fondest hopes decay; I never loved a tree or flower But 't was the first to fade away. I never nurs'd a dear gazelle, To glad me with its soft black eye, But when it came to know me well And love me, it was sure to die.
The Fire-Worshippers.
Oh for a tongue to curse the slave Whose treason, like a deadly blight, Comes o'er the councils of the brave, And blasts them in their hour of might!
The Fire-Worshippers.
Beholding heaven, and feeling hell.
The Fire-Worshippers.
As sunshine broken in the rill, Though turned astray, is sunshine still.
The Fire-Worshippers.
Farewell, farewell to thee, Araby's daughter! Thus warbled a Peri beneath the dark sea.
The Fire-Worshippers.
Alas! how light a cause may move Dissension between hearts that love! Hearts that the world in vain had tried, And sorrow but more closely tied; That stood the storm when waves were rough, Yet in a sunny hour fall off, Like ships that have gone down at sea When heaven was all tranquillity.
Lalla Rookh. The Light of the Harem.
Love on through all ills, and love on till they die.
Lalla Rookh. The Light of the Harem.
And oh if there be an Elysium on earth, It is this, it is this!
Lalla Rookh. The Light of the Harem.
Humility, that low, sweet root From which all heavenly virtues shoot.
The Loves of the Angels. The Third Angel's Story.
FOOTNOTES:
[518-1] See Waller, page 220.
[519-1] This goin ware glory waits ye haint one agreeable feetur.--LOWELL: The Biglow Papers. First Series, No. 11.
[521-1] This image was suggested by the following thought, which occurs somewhere in Sir William Jones's Works: "The moon looks upon many night-flowers; the night-flower sees but one moon."
[521-2] In imitation of Shenstone's inscription, "Heu! quanto minus est cum reliquis versari quam tui meminisse."
[525-1] This song was introduced in Kemble's "Lodoiska," act iii. sc. 1.
LORD DENMAN. 1779-1854.
A delusion, a mockery, and a snare.
O'Connell v. The Queen, 11 Clark and Finnelly Reports.
The mere repetition of the Cantilena of lawyers cannot make it law, unless it can be traced to some competent authority; and if it be irreconcilable, to some clear legal principle.
O'Connell v. The Queen, 11 Clark and Finnelly Reports.
CLEMENT C. MOORE. 1779-1863.
'T was the night before Christmas, when all through the house Not a creature was stirring,--not even a mouse; The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there.
A Visit from St. Nicholas.
LORD BROUGHAM. 1779-1868.
Let the soldier be abroad if he will, he can do nothing in this age. There is another personage,--a personage less imposing in the eyes of some, perhaps insignificant. The schoolmaster is abroad, and I trust to him, armed with his primer, against the soldier in full military array.
Speech, Jan. 29, 1828.
In my mind, he was guilty of no error, he was chargeable with no exaggeration, he was betrayed by his fancy into no metaphor, who once said that all we see about us, kings, lords, and Commons, the whole machinery of the State, all the apparatus of the system, and its varied workings, end in simply bringing twelve good men into a box.
Present State of the Law, Feb. 7, 1828.
Pursuit of knowledge under difficulties.[528-1]
Death was now armed with a new terror.[528-2]
FOOTNOTES:
[528-1] The title given by Lord Brougham to a book published in 1830.
[528-2] Brougham delivered a very warm panegyric upon the ex-Chancellor, and expressed a hope that he would make a good end, although to an expiring Chancellor death was now armed with a new terror.--CAMPBELL: Lives of the Chancellors, vol. vii. p. 163.
Lord St. Leonards attributes this phrase to Sir Charles Wetherell, who used it on the occasion referred to by Lord Campbell.
From Edmund Curll's practice of issuing miserable catch-penny lives of every eminent person immediately after his decease, Arbuthnot wittily styled him "one of the new terrors of death."--CARRUTHERS: Life of Pope (second edition), p. 149.
PAUL MOON JAMES. 1780-1854.
The scene was more beautiful far to the eye Than if day in its pride had arrayed it.
The Beacon.
And o'er them the lighthouse looked lovely as hope,-- That star of life's tremulous ocean.
The Beacon.
CHARLES MINER. 1780-1865.
When I see a merchant over-polite to his customers, begging them to taste a little brandy and throwing half his goods on the counter,--thinks I, that man has an axe to grind.
Who 'll turn Grindstones.[528-3]
FOOTNOTES:
[528-3] From "Essays from the Desk of Poor Robert the Scribe," Doylestown, Pa., 1815. It first appeared in the "Wilkesbarre Gleaner," 1811.
JOHN C. CALHOUN. 1782-1850.
The very essence of a free government consists in considering offices as public trusts,[529-1] bestowed for the good of the country, and not for the benefit of an individual or a party.
Speech, Feb. 13, 1835.
A power has risen up in the government greater than the people themselves, consisting of many and various and powerful interests, combined into one mass, and held together by the cohesive power of the vast surplus in the banks.[529-2]
Speech, May 27, 1836.
FOOTNOTES:
[529-1] See Appendix, page 859.
[529-2] From this comes the phrase, "Cohesive power of public plunder."
DANIEL WEBSTER. 1782-1852.
(From Webster's Works. Boston. 1857.)
Whatever makes men good Christians, makes them good citizens.
Speech at Plymouth, Dec. 22, 1820.[529-3] Vol. i. p. 44.
We wish that this column, rising towards heaven among the pointed spires of so many temples dedicated to God, may contribute also to produce in all minds a pious feeling of dependence and gratitude. We wish, finally, that the last object to the sight of him who leaves his native shore, and the first to gladden his who revisits it, may be something which shall remind him of the liberty and the glory of his country. Let it rise! let it rise, till it meet the sun in his coming; let the earliest light of the morning gild it, and parting day linger and play on its summit!
Address on laying the Corner-Stone of the Bunker Hill Monument, 1825. P. 62.
Venerable men! you have come down to us from a former generation. Heaven has bounteously lengthened out your lives, that you might behold this joyous day.
Address on laying the Corner-Stone of the Bunker Hill Monument, 1825. Vol. i. p. 64.
Mind is the great lever of all things; human thought is the process by which human ends are ultimately answered.
Address on laying the Corner-Stone of the Bunker Hill Monument, 1825. Vol. i. p. 71.
Knowledge, in truth, is the great sun in the firmament. Life and power are scattered with all its beams.
Address on laying the Corner-Stone of the Bunker Hill Monument, 1825. Vol. i. p. 74.
Let our object be our country, our whole country, and nothing but our country.
Address on laying the Corner-Stone of the Bunker Hill Monument, 1825. Vol. i. p. 78.
Knowledge is the only fountain both of the love and the principles of human liberty.
Completion of Bunker Hill Monument, June 17, 1843. P. 93.
The Bible is a book of faith, and a book of doctrine, and a book of morals, and a book of religion, of especial revelation from God.
Completion of Bunker Hill Monument, June 17, 1843. P. 102.
America has furnished to the world the character of Washington. And if our American institutions had done nothing else, that alone would have entitled them to the respect of mankind.
Completion of Bunker Hill Monument, June 17, 1843. P. 105.
Thank God! I--I also--am an American!
Completion of Bunker Hill Monument, June 17, 1843. P. 107.
Sink or swim, live or die, survive or perish, I give my hand and my heart to this vote.[530-1]
Eulogy on Adams and Jefferson, Aug. 2, 1826. P. 133.
It is my living sentiment, and by the blessing of God it shall be my dying sentiment,--Independence now and Independence forever.[531-1]
Eulogy on Adams and Jefferson, Aug. 2, 1826. Vol. i. p. 136.
Although no sculptured marble should rise to their memory, nor engraved stone bear record of their deeds, yet will their remembrance be as lasting as the land they honored.
Eulogy on Adams and Jefferson, Aug. 2, 1826. Vol. i. p. 146.
Washington is in the clear upper sky.[531-2]
Eulogy on Adams and Jefferson, Aug. 2, 1826. Vol. i. p. 148.
He smote the rock of the national resources, and abundant streams of revenue gushed forth. He touched the dead corpse of Public Credit, and it sprung upon its feet.[531-3]
Speech on Hamilton, March 10, 1831. P. 200.
One country, one constitution, one destiny.
Speech, March 15, 1837. P. 349.
When tillage begins, other arts follow. The farmers therefore are the founders of human civilization.
Remarks on Agriculture, Jan. 13, 1840. P. 457.
Sea of upturned faces.[531-4]
Speech, Sept. 30, 1842. Vol. ii. p. 117.
Justice, sir, is the great interest of man on earth.
On Mr. Justice Story, 1845. P. 300.
Liberty exists in proportion to wholesome restraint.
Speech at the Charleston Bar Dinner, May 10, 1847. Vol. ii. p. 393.
The law: It has honored us; may we honor it.
Toast at the Charleston Bar Dinner, May 10, 1847. Vol. ii. p. 394.
I have read their platform, and though I think there are some unsound places in it, I can stand upon it pretty well. But I see nothing in it both new and valuable. "What is valuable is not new, and what is new is not valuable."
Speech at Marshfield, Sept. 1, 1848. P. 433.
Labour in this country is independent and proud. It has not to ask the patronage of capital, but capital solicits the aid of labor.
Speech, April, 1824. Vol. iii. p. 141.
The gentleman has not seen how to reply to this, otherwise than by supposing me to have advanced the doctrine that a national debt is a national blessing.[532-1]
Second Speech on Foot's Resolution, Jan. 26, 1830. P. 303.
I thank God, that if I am gifted with little of the spirit which is able to raise mortals to the skies, I have yet none, as I trust, of that other spirit which would drag angels down.
Second Speech on Foot's Resolution, Jan. 26, 1830. P. 316.
I shall enter on no encomium upon Massachusetts; she needs none. There she is. Behold her, and judge for yourselves. There is her history; the world knows it by heart. The past, at least, is secure. There is Boston and Concord and Lexington and Bunker Hill; and there they will remain forever.
Second Speech on Foot's Resolution, Jan. 26, 1830. P. 317.
The people's government, made for the people, made by the people, and answerable to the people.[532-2]
Second Speech on Foot's Resolution, Jan. 26, 1830. P. 321.
When my eyes shall be turned to behold for the last time the sun in heaven, may I not see him shining on the broken and dishonored fragments of a once glorious Union; on States dissevered, discordant, belligerent; on a land rent with civil feuds, or drenched, it may be, in fraternal blood.
Second Speech on Foot's Resolution, Jan. 26, 1830. Vol. iii. p. 342.
Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable.
Second Speech on Foot's Resolution, Jan. 26, 1830. Vol. iii. p. 342.
God grants liberty only to those who love it, and are always ready to guard and defend it.
Speech, June 3, 1834. Vol. iv. p. 47.
On this question of principle, while actual suffering was yet afar off, they [the Colonies] raised their flag against a power to which, for purposes of foreign conquest and subjugation, Rome in the height of her glory is not to be compared,--a power which has dotted over the surface of the whole globe with her possessions and military posts, whose morning drum-beat, following the sun,[533-1] and keeping company with the hours, circles the earth with one continuous and unbroken strain of the martial airs of England.[533-2]
Speech, May 7, 1834. P. 110.
Inconsistencies of opinion, arising from changes of circumstances, are often justifiable.
Speech, July 25 and 27, 1846. Vol. v. p. 187.
I was born an American; I will live an American; I shall die an American.[533-3]
Speech, July 17, 1850. P. 437.
There is no refuge from confession but suicide; and suicide is confession.
Argument on the Murder of Captain White, April 6, 1830. Vol. vi. p. 54.
There is nothing so powerful as truth,--and often nothing so strange.
Argument on the Murder of Captain White. Vol. vi. p. 68.
Fearful concatenation of circumstances.[534-1]
Argument on the Murder of Captain White. Vol. vi. p. 88.
A sense of duty pursues us ever. It is omnipresent, like the Deity. If we take to ourselves the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, duty performed or duty violated is still with us, for our happiness or our misery. If we say the darkness shall cover us, in the darkness as in the light our obligations are yet with us.
Argument on the Murder of Captain White. Vol. vi. p. 105.
I shall defer my visit to Faneuil Hall, the cradle of American liberty, until its doors shall fly open on golden hinges to lovers of Union as well as lovers of liberty.[534-2]
Letter, April, 1851.
FOOTNOTES:
[529-3] This oration will be read five hundred years hence with as much rapture as it was heard. It ought to be read at the end of every century, and indeed at the end of every year, forever and ever.--JOHN ADAMS: Letter to Webster, Dec. 23, 1821.
[530-1] Mr. Adams, describing a conversation with Jonathan Sewall in 1774, says: "I answered that the die was now cast; I had passed the Rubicon. Swim or sink, live or die, survive or perish with my country was my unalterable determination."--JOHN ADAMS: Works, vol. iv. p. 8.
Live or die, sink or swim.--PEELE: Edward I. (1584?).
[531-1] Mr. Webster says of Mr. Adams: "On the day of his death, hearing the noise of bells and cannon, he asked the occasion. On being reminded that it was 'Independent Day,' he replied, 'Independence forever.'"--Works, vol. i. p. 150. BANCROFT: History of the United States, vol. vii. p. 65.
[531-2] We shall be strong to run the race, And climb the upper sky.
WATTS: Spiritual Hymns, xxiv.
[531-3] He it was that first gave to the law the air of a science. He found it a skeleton, and clothed it with life, colour, and complexion; he embraced the cold statue, and by his touch it grew into youth, health, and beauty.--BARRY YELVERTON (Lord Avonmore): On Blackstone.
[531-4] See Scott, page 493.
[532-1] A national debt, if it is not excessive, will be to us a national blessing.--ALEXANDER HAMILTON.
[532-2] When the State of Pennsylvania held its convention to consider the Constitution of the United States, Judge Wilson said of the introductory clause, "We, the people, do ordain and establish," etc.: "It is not an unmeaning flourish. The expressions declare in a practical manner the principle of this Constitution. It is ordained and established by the people themselves." This was regarded as an authoritative exposition.--The Nation.
That government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.--ABRAHAM LINCOLN: Speech at Gettysburg, Nov. 19, 1863.
[533-1] See Scott, page 495.
[533-2] The martial airs of England Encircle still the earth.
AMELIA B. RICHARDS: The Martial Airs of England.
[533-3] See Patrick Henry, page 429.
[534-1] See Scott, page 494.
[534-2] Mr. Webster's reply to the invitation of his friends, who had been refused the use of Faneuil Hall by the Mayor and Aldermen of Boston.
JANE TAYLOR. 1783-1824.
Though man a thinking being is defined, Few use the grand prerogative of mind. How few think justly of the thinking few! How many never think, who think they do!
Essays in Rhyme. (On Morals and Manners. Prejudice.) Essay i. Stanza 45.
Far from mortal cares retreating, Sordid hopes and vain desires, Here, our willing footsteps meeting, Every heart to heaven aspires.
Hymn.
I thank the goodness and the grace Which on my birth have smiled, And made me, in these Christian days, A happy Christian child.
A Child's Hymn of Praise.
Oh that it were my chief delight To do the things I ought! Then let me try with all my might To mind what I am taught.
For a Very Little Child.[535-1]
Who ran to help me when I fell, And would some pretty story tell, Or kiss the place to make it well? My mother.
My Mother.
FOOTNOTES:
[535-1] Written by Ann Taylor.
REGINALD HEBER. 1783-1826.
Failed the bright promise of your early day.
Palestine.
No hammers fell, no ponderous axes rung; Like some tall palm the mystic fabric sprung.[535-2] Majestic silence!
Palestine.
Brightest and best of the sons of the morning, Dawn on our darkness, and lend us thine aid.
Epiphany.
By cool Siloam's shady rill How sweet the lily grows!
First Sunday after Epiphany. No. ii.
When Spring unlocks the flowers to paint the laughing soil.
Seventh Sunday after Trinity.
Death rides on every passing breeze, He lurks in every flower.
At a Funeral. No. i.
Thou art gone to the grave; but we will not deplore thee, Though sorrows and darkness encompass the tomb.
At a Funeral. No. ii.
Thus heavenly hope is all serene, But earthly hope, how bright soe'er, Still fluctuates o'er this changing scene, As false and fleeting as 't is fair.
On Heavenly Hope and Earthly Hope.
From Greenland's icy mountains, From India's coral strand, Where Afric's sunny fountains Roll down their golden sand.
Missionary Hymn.
Though every prospect pleases, And only man is vile.
Missionary Hymn.
I see them on their winding way, About their ranks the moonbeams play.
Lines written to a March.
FOOTNOTES:
[535-2] Altered in later editions to--
No workman's steel, no ponderous axes rung, Like some tall palm the noiseless fabric sprung.
WASHINGTON IRVING. 1783-1859.
Free-livers on a small scale, who are prodigal within the compass of a guinea.
The Stout Gentleman.
The almighty dollar,[536-1] that great object of universal devotion throughout our land, seems to have no genuine devotees in these peculiar villages.
The Creole Village.
FOOTNOTES:
[536-1] See Jonson, page 178.
LEIGH HUNT. 1784-1859.
Abou Ben Adhem (may his tribe increase!) Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace.
Abou Ben Adhem.
Write me as one who loves his fellow-men.
Abou Ben Adhem.
And lo! Ben Adhem's name led all the rest.
Abou Ben Adhem.
Oh for a seat in some poetic nook, Just hid with trees and sparkling with a brook!
Politics and Poetics.
With spots of sunny openings, and with nooks To lie and read in, sloping into brooks.
The Story of Rimini.
SAMUEL WOODWORTH. 1785-1842.
How dear to this heart are the scenes of my childhood, When fond recollection presents them to view.
The Old Oaken Bucket.
Then soon with the emblem of truth overflowing, And dripping with coolness, it rose from the well.
The Old Oaken Bucket.
The old oaken bucket, the iron-bound bucket, The moss-covered bucket, which hung in the well.
The Old Oaken Bucket.
ALLAN CUNNINGHAM. 1785-1842.
A wet sheet and a flowing sea, A wind that follows fast, And fills the white and rustling sail, And bends the gallant mast. And bends the gallant mast, my boys, While like the eagle free Away the good ship flies, and leaves Old England on the lee.
A Wet Sheet and a Flowing Sea.
While the hollow oak our palace is, Our heritage the sea.
A Wet Sheet and a Flowing Sea.
When looks were fond and words were few.
Poet's Bridal-day Song.
SIR W. F. P. NAPIER. 1785-1860.
Napoleon's troops fought in bright fields, where every helmet caught some gleams of glory; but the British soldier conquered under the cool shade of aristocracy. No honours awaited his daring, no despatch gave his name to the applauses of his countrymen; his life of danger and hardship was uncheered by hope, his death unnoticed.
Peninsular War (1810). Vol. ii. Book xi. Chap. iii.
JOHN PIERPONT. 1785-1866.
A weapon that comes down as still As snowflakes fall upon the sod; But executes a freeman's will, As lightning does the will of God; And from its force nor doors nor locks Can shield you,--'t is the ballot-box.
A Word from a Petitioner.
From every place below the skies The grateful song, the fervent prayer,-- The incense of the heart,[538-1]--may rise To heaven, and find acceptance there.
Every Place a Temple.
FOOTNOTES:
[538-1] See Cotton, page 362.
BRYAN W. PROCTER. 1787-1874.
The sea! the sea! the open sea! The blue, the fresh, the ever free!
The Sea.
I 'm on the sea! I 'm on the sea! I am where I would ever be, With the blue above and the blue below, And silence wheresoe'er I go.
The Sea.
I never was on the dull, tame shore, But I loved the great sea more and more.
The Sea.
Touch us gently, Time![538-2] Let us glide adown thy stream Gently,--as we sometimes glide Through a quiet dream.
Touch us gently, Time.
FOOTNOTES:
[538-2] See Crabbe, page 445.
LORD BYRON 1788-1824.
Farewell! if ever fondest prayer For other's weal avail'd on high, Mine will not all be lost in air, But waft thy name beyond the sky.
Farewell! if ever fondest Prayer.
I only know we loved in vain; I only feel--farewell! farewell!
Farewell! if ever fondest Prayer.
When we two parted In silence and tears, Half broken-hearted, To sever for years.
When we Two parted.
Fools are my theme, let satire be my song.
English Bards and Scotch Reviewers. Line 6.
'T is pleasant, sure, to see one's name in print; A book 's a book, although there 's nothing in 't.
English Bards and Scotch Reviewers. Line 51.
With just enough of learning to misquote.
English Bards and Scotch Reviewers. Line 66.
As soon Seek roses in December, ice in June; Hope constancy in wind, or corn in chaff; Believe a woman or an epitaph, Or any other thing that 's false, before You trust in critics.
English Bards and Scotch Reviewers. Line 75.
Perverts the Prophets and purloins the Psalms.
English Bards and Scotch Reviewers. Line 326.
Oh, Amos Cottle! Phoebus! what a name!
English Bards and Scotch Reviewers. Line 399.
So the struck eagle, stretch'd upon the plain, No more through rolling clouds to soar again, View'd his own feather on the fatal dart, And wing'd the shaft that quiver'd in his heart.[539-1]
English Bards and Scotch Reviewers. Line 826.
Yet truth will sometimes lend her noblest fires, And decorate the verse herself inspires: This fact, in virtue's name, let Crabbe attest,-- Though Nature's sternest painter, yet the best.
English Bards and Scotch Reviewers. Line 839.
Maid of Athens, ere we part, Give, oh give me back my heart!
Maid of Athens.
Had sigh'd to many, though he loved but one.
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto i. Stanza 5.
If ancient tales say true, nor wrong these holy men.
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto i. Stanza 7.
Maidens, like moths, are ever caught by glare, And Mammon wins his way where seraphs might despair.
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto i. Stanza 9.
Such partings break the heart they fondly hope to heal.
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto i. Stanza 10.
Might shake the saintship of an anchorite.
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto i. Stanza 11.
Adieu! adieu! my native shore Fades o'er the waters blue.
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto i. Stanza 13.
My native land, good night!
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto i. Stanza 13.
O Christ! it is a goodly sight to see What Heaven hath done for this delicious land.
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto i. Stanza 15.
In hope to merit heaven by making earth a hell.
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto i. Stanza 20.
By Heaven! it is a splendid sight to see For one who hath no friend, no brother there.
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto i. Stanza 40.
Still from the fount of joy's delicious springs Some bitter o'er the flowers its bubbling venom flings.[540-1]
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto i. Stanza 82.
War, war is still the cry,--"war even to the knife!"[541-1]
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto i. Stanza 86.
Gone, glimmering through the dream of things that were.
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto ii. Stanza 2.
A schoolboy's tale, the wonder of an hour!
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto ii. Stanza 2.
Dim with the mist of years, gray flits the shade of power.
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto ii. Stanza 2.
The dome of thought, the palace of the soul.[541-2]
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto ii. Stanza 6.
Ah, happy years! once more who would not be a boy?
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto ii. Stanza 23.
None are so desolate but something dear, Dearer than self, possesses or possess'd A thought, and claims the homage of a tear.
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto ii. Stanza 24.
But 'midst the crowd, the hum, the shock of men, To hear, to see, to feel, and to possess, And roam along, the world's tired denizen, With none who bless us, none whom we can bless.
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto ii. Stanza 26.
Coop'd in their winged, sea-girt citadel.
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto ii. Stanza 28.
Fair Greece! sad relic of departed worth! Immortal, though no more! though fallen, great!
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto ii. Stanza 73.
Hereditary bondsmen! know ye not, Who would be free, themselves must strike the blow?
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto ii. Stanza 76.
A thousand years scarce serve to form a state: An hour may lay it in the dust.
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto ii. Stanza 84.
Land of lost gods and godlike men.
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto ii. Stanza 85.
Where'er we tread, 't is haunted, holy ground.
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto ii. Stanza 88.
Age shakes Athena's tower, but spares gray Marathon.
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto ii. Stanza 88.
Ada! sole daughter of my house and heart.
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto iii. Stanza 1.
Once more upon the waters! yet once more! And the waves bound beneath me as a steed That knows his rider.
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto iii. Stanza 2.
I am as a weed Flung from the rock, on Ocean's foam to sail Where'er the surge may sweep, the tempest's breath prevail.
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto iii. Stanza 2.
He who grown aged in this world of woe, In deeds, not years, piercing the depths of life,[542-1] So that no wonder waits him.
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto iii. Stanza 5.
Years steal Fire from the mind as vigour from the limb, And life's enchanted cup but sparkles near the brim.
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto iii. Stanza 8.
There was a sound of revelry by night, And Belgium's capital had gather'd then Her beauty and her chivalry, and bright The lamps shone o'er fair women and brave men. A thousand hearts beat happily; and when Music arose with its voluptuous swell, Soft eyes look'd love to eyes which spake again, And all went merry as a marriage bell.
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto iii. Stanza 21.
But hush! hark! a deep sound strikes like a rising knell! Did ye not hear it?--No! 't was but the wind, Or the car rattling o'er the stony street. On with the dance! let joy be unconfined; No sleep till morn, when Youth and Pleasure meet To chase the glowing hours with flying feet.
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto iii. Stanza 22.
He rush'd into the field, and foremost fighting fell.
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto iii. Stanza 23.
And there was mounting in hot haste.
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto iii. Stanza 25.
Or whispering with white lips, "The foe! They come! they come!"
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto iii. Stanza 25.
Grieving, if aught inanimate e'er grieves, Over the unreturning brave.
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto iii. Stanza 27.
Battle's magnificently stern array.
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto iii. Stanza 28.
And thus the heart will break, yet brokenly live on.
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto iii. Stanza 32.
But quiet to quick bosoms is a hell.
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto iii. Stanza 42.
He who ascends to mountain-tops shall find The loftiest peaks most wrapt in clouds and snow; He who surpasses or subdues mankind Must look down on the hate of those below.
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto iii. Stanza 45.
All tenantless, save to the crannying wind.
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto iii. Stanza 47.
The castled crag of Drachenfels Frowns o'er the wide and winding Rhine.
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto iii. Stanza 55.
He had kept The whiteness of his soul, and thus men o'er him wept.
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto iii. Stanza 57.
But there are wanderers o'er Eternity Whose bark drives on and on, and anchor'd ne'er shall be.
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto iii. Stanza 70.
By the blue rushing of the arrowy Rhone.
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto iii. Stanza 71.
I live not in myself, but I become Portion of that around me;[543-1] and to me High mountains are a feeling, but the hum Of human cities torture.
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto iii. Stanza 72.
This quiet sail is as a noiseless wing To waft me from distraction.
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto iii. Stanza 85.
On the ear Drops the light drip of the suspended oar.
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto iii. Stanza 86.
All is concentr'd in a life intense, Where not a beam, nor air, nor leaf is lost, But hath a part of being.
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto iii. Stanza 89.
In solitude, where we are least alone.[544-1]
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto iii. Stanza 90.
The sky is changed,--and such a change! O night And storm and darkness! ye are wondrous strong, Yet lovely in your strength, as is the light Of a dark eye in woman! Far along, From peak to peak, the rattling crags among, Leaps the live thunder.
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto iii. Stanza 92.
Exhausting thought, And hiving wisdom with each studious year.
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto iii. Stanza 107.
Sapping a solemn creed with solemn sneer.
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto iii. Stanza 107.
I have not loved the world, nor the world me.[544-2]
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto iii. Stanza 113.
I stood Among them, but not of them; in a shroud Of thoughts which were not their thoughts.
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto iii. Stanza 113.
I stood in Venice on the Bridge of Sighs, A palace and a prison on each hand.
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto iv. Stanza 1.
Where Venice sate in state, throned on her hundred isles.
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto iv. Stanza 1.
Venice once was dear, The pleasant place of all festivity, The revel of the earth, the masque of Italy.
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto iv. Stanza 3.
The thorns which I have reap'd are of the tree I planted; they have torn me, and I bleed. I should have known what fruit would spring from such a seed.
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto iv. Stanza 10.
Oh for one hour of blind old Dandolo, The octogenarian chief, Byzantium's conquering foe![545-1]
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto iv. Stanza 12.
There are some feelings time cannot benumb, Nor torture shake.
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto iv. Stanza 19.
Striking the electric chain wherewith we are darkly bound.
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto iv. Stanza 23.
The cold, the changed, perchance the dead, anew, The mourn'd, the loved, the lost,--too many, yet how few!
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto iv. Stanza 24.
Parting day Dies like the dolphin, whom each pang imbues With a new colour as it gasps away, The last still loveliest, till--'t is gone, and all is gray.
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto iv. Stanza 29.
The Ariosto of the North.
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto iv. Stanza 40.
Italia! O Italia! thou who hast The fatal gift of beauty.[545-2]
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto iv. Stanza 42.
Fills The air around with beauty.
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto iv. Stanza 49.
Let these describe the undescribable.
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto iv. Stanza 53.
The starry Galileo with his woes.
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto iv. Stanza 54.
Ungrateful Florence! Dante sleeps afar, Like Scipio, buried by the upbraiding shore.
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto iv. Stanza 57.
The poetry of speech.
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto iv. Stanza 58.
The hell of waters! where they howl and hiss, And boil in endless torture.
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto iv. Stanza 69.
Then farewell Horace, whom I hated so,-- Not for thy faults, but mine.
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto iv. Stanza 77.
O Rome! my country! city of the soul!
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto iv. Stanza 78.
The Niobe of nations! there she stands.
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto iv. Stanza 79.
Yet, Freedom! yet thy banner, torn, but flying, Streams like the thunder-storm against the wind.
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto iv. Stanza 98.
Heaven gives its favourites--early death.[546-1]
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto iv. Stanza 102.
History, with all her volumes vast, Hath but one page.
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto iv. Stanza 108.
Man! Thou pendulum betwixt a smile and tear.
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto iv. Stanza 109.
Tully was not so eloquent as thou, Thou nameless column with the buried base.
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto iv. Stanza 110.
Egeria! sweet creation of some heart Which found no mortal resting-place so fair As thine ideal breast.
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto iv. Stanza 115.
The nympholepsy of some fond despair.
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto iv. Stanza 115.
Thou wert a beautiful thought, and softly bodied forth.
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto iv. Stanza 115.
Alas! our young affections run to waste, Or water but the desert.
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto iv. Stanza 120.
I see before me the gladiator lie.
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto iv. Stanza 140.
There were his young barbarians all at play; There was their Dacian mother: he, their sire, Butcher'd to make a Roman holiday!
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto iv. Stanza 141.
"While stands the Coliseum, Rome shall stand; When falls the Coliseum, Rome shall fall; And when Rome falls--the world."[546-2]
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto iv. Stanza 145.
Scion of chiefs and monarchs, where art thou? Fond hope of many nations, art thou dead? Could not the grave forget thee, and lay low Some less majestic, less beloved head?
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto iv. Stanza 168.
Oh that the desert were my dwelling-place,[547-1] With one fair spirit for my minister, That I might all forget the human race, And hating no one, love but only her!
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto iv. Stanza 177.
There is a pleasure in the pathless woods; There is a rapture on the lonely shore; There is society, where none intrudes, By the deep sea, and music in its roar: I love not man the less, but Nature more.
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto iv. Stanza 178.
Roll on, thou deep and dark blue ocean, roll! Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain; Man marks the earth with ruin,--his control Stops with the shore.
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto iv. Stanza 179.
He sinks into thy depths with bubbling groan, Without a grave, unknell'd, uncoffin'd, and unknown.[547-2]
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto iv. Stanza 179.
Time writes no wrinkle on thine azure brow,-- Such as creation's dawn beheld, thou rollest now.[547-3]
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto iv. Stanza 182.
Thou glorious mirror, where the Almighty's form Glasses itself in tempests.
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto iv. Stanza 183.
And I have loved thee, Ocean! and my joy Of youthful sports was on thy breast to be Borne, like thy bubbles, onward; from a boy I wantoned with thy breakers, . . . . . And trusted to thy billows far and near, And laid my hand upon thy mane,--as I do here.[548-1]
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto iv. Stanza 184.
And what is writ is writ,-- Would it were worthier!
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto iv. Stanza 185.
Farewell! a word that must be, and hath been,-- A sound which makes us linger; yet--farewell!
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto iv. Stanza 186.
Hands promiscuously applied, Round the slight waist, or down the glowing side.
The Waltz.
He who hath bent him o'er the dead Ere the first day of death is fled,-- The first dark day of nothingness, The last of danger and distress, Before decay's effacing fingers Have swept the lines where beauty lingers.
The Giaour. Line 68.
Such is the aspect of this shore; 'T is Greece, but living Greece no more! So coldly sweet, so deadly fair, We start, for soul is wanting there.
The Giaour. Line 90.
Shrine of the mighty! can it be That this is all remains of thee?
The Giaour. Line 106.
For freedom's battle, once begun, Bequeath'd by bleeding sire to son, Though baffled oft, is ever won.
The Giaour. Line 123.
And lovelier things have mercy shown To every failing but their own; And every woe a tear can claim, Except an erring sister's shame.
The Giaour. Line 418.
The keenest pangs the wretched find Are rapture to the dreary void, The leafless desert of the mind, The waste of feelings unemployed.
The Giaour. Line 957.
Better to sink beneath the shock Than moulder piecemeal on the rock.
The Giaour. Line 969.
The cold in clime are cold in blood, Their love can scarce deserve the name.
The Giaour. Line 1099.
I die,--but first I have possess'd, And come what may, I have been bless'd.
The Giaour. Line 1114.
She was a form of life and light That seen, became a part of sight, And rose, where'er I turn'd mine eye, The morning-star of memory! Yes, love indeed is light from heaven; A spark of that immortal fire With angels shared, by Alla given, To lift from earth our low desire.
The Giaour. Line 1127.
Know ye the land where the cypress and myrtle Are emblems of deeds that are done in their clime; Where the rage of the vulture, the love of the turtle, Now melt into sorrow, now madden to crime?[549-1]
The Bride of Abydos. Canto i. Stanza 1.
Where the virgins are soft as the roses they twine, And all save the spirit of man is divine?
The Bride of Abydos. Canto i. Stanza 1.
Who hath not proved how feebly words essay To fix one spark of beauty's heavenly ray? Who doth not feel, until his failing sight Faints into dimness with its own delight, His changing cheek, his sinking heart, confess The might, the majesty of loveliness?
The Bride of Abydos. Canto i. Stanza 6.
The light of love,[550-1] the purity of grace, The mind, the music breathing from her face,[550-2] The heart whose softness harmonized the whole,-- And oh, that eye was in itself a soul!
The Bride of Abydos. Canto i. Stanza 6.
The blind old man of Scio's rocky isle.
The Bride of Abydos. Canto ii. Stanza 2.
Be thou the rainbow to the storms of life, The evening beam that smiles the clouds away, And tints to-morrow with prophetic ray!
The Bride of Abydos. Canto ii. Stanza 20.
He makes a solitude, and calls it--peace![550-3]
The Bride of Abydos. Canto ii. Stanza 20.
Hark! to the hurried question of despair: "Where is my child?"--an echo answers, "Where?"[550-4]
The Bride of Abydos. Canto ii. Stanza 27.
The fatal facility of the octosyllabic verse.
The Corsair. Preface.
O'er the glad waters of the dark blue sea, Our thoughts as boundless, and our souls as free, Far as the breeze can bear, the billows foam,[550-5] Survey our empire, and behold our home! These are our realms, no limit to their sway,-- Our flag the sceptre all who meet obey.
The Corsair. Canto i. Stanza 1.
Oh who can tell, save he whose heart hath tried.
The Corsair. Canto i. Stanza 1.
She walks the waters like a thing of life, And seems to dare the elements to strife.
The Corsair. Canto i. Stanza 3.
The power of thought,--the magic of the mind!
The Corsair. Canto i. Stanza 8.
The many still must labour for the one.
The Corsair. Canto i. Stanza 8.
There was a laughing devil in his sneer.
The Corsair. Canto i. Stanza 9.
Hope withering fled, and Mercy sighed farewell!
The Corsair. Canto i. Stanza 9.
Farewell! For in that word, that fatal word,--howe'er We promise, hope, believe,--there breathes despair.
The Corsair. Canto i. Stanza 15.
No words suffice the secret soul to show, For truth denies all eloquence to woe.
The Corsair. Canto iii. Stanza 22.
He left a corsair's name to other times, Link'd with one virtue and a thousand crimes.[551-1]
The Corsair. Canto iii. Stanza 24.
Lord of himself,--that heritage of woe!
Lara. Canto i. Stanza 2.
She walks in beauty, like the night Of cloudless climes and starry skies; And all that 's best of dark and bright Meet in her aspect and her eyes; Thus mellow'd to that tender light Which Heaven to gaudy day denies.[551-2]
Hebrew Melodies. She walks in Beauty.
The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold, And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold.
The Destruction of Sennacherib.
It is the hour when from the boughs The nightingale's high note is heard; It is the hour when lovers' vows Seem sweet in every whisper'd word.
Parisina. Stanza 1.
Yet in my lineaments they trace Some features of my father's face.
Parisina. Stanza 13.
Fare thee well! and if forever, Still forever fare thee well.
Fare thee well.
Born in the garret, in the kitchen bred.[552-1]
A Sketch.
In the desert a fountain is springing, In the wide waste there still is a tree, And a bird in the solitude singing, Which speaks to my spirit of thee.
Stanzas to Augusta.
The careful pilot of my proper woe.
Epistle to Augusta. Stanza 3.
When all of genius which can perish dies.
Monody on the Death of Sheridan. Line 22.
Folly loves the martyrdom of fame.
Monody on the Death of Sheridan. Line 68.
Who track the steps of glory to the grave.
Monody on the Death of Sheridan. Line 74.
Sighing that Nature form'd but one such man, And broke the die, in moulding Sheridan.[552-2]
Monody on the Death of Sheridan. Line 117.
O God! it is a fearful thing To see the human soul take wing In any shape, in any mood.
Prisoner of Chillon. Stanza 8.
And both were young, and one was beautiful.
The Dream. Stanza 2.
And to his eye There was but one beloved face on earth, And that was shining on him.
The Dream. Stanza 2.
She was his life, The ocean to the river of his thoughts,[553-1] Which terminated all.
The Dream. Stanza 2.
A change came o'er the spirit of my dream.
The Dream. Stanza 3.
And they were canopied by the blue sky, So cloudless, clear, and purely beautiful That God alone was to be seen in heaven.
The Dream. Stanza 4.
There 's not a joy the world can give like that it takes away.
Stanzas for Music.
I had a dream which was not all a dream.
Darkness.
My boat is on the shore, And my bark is on the sea; But before I go, Tom Moore, Here 's a double health to thee!
To Thomas Moore.
Here 's a sigh to those who love me, And a smile to those who hate; And whatever sky 's above me, Here 's a heart for every fate.[553-2]
To Thomas Moore.
Were 't the last drop in the well, As I gasp'd upon the brink, Ere my fainting spirit fell 'T is to thee that I would drink.
To Thomas Moore.
So we 'll go no more a-roving So late into the night.
So we 'll go.
Mont Blanc is the monarch of mountains; They crowned him long ago On a throne of rocks, in a robe of clouds, With a diadem of snow.
Manfred. Act i. Sc. 1.
But we, who name ourselves its sovereigns, we, Half dust, half deity, alike unfit To sink or soar.
Manfred. Act i. Sc. 2.
Think'st thou existence doth depend on time? It doth; but actions are our epochs.
Manfred. Act ii. Sc. 1.
The heart ran o'er With silent worship of the great of old! The dead but sceptred sovereigns, who still rule Our spirits from their urns.
Manfred. Act iii. Sc. 4.
Which makes life itself a lie, Flattering dust with eternity.
Sardanapalus. Act i. Sc. 2.
By all that 's good and glorious.
Sardanapalus. Act i. Sc. 2.
I am the very slave of circumstance And impulse,--borne away with every breath!
Sardanapalus. Act iv. Sc. 1.
The dust we tread upon was once alive.
Sardanapalus. Act iv. Sc. 1.
For most men (till by losing rendered sager) Will back their own opinions by a wager.
Beppo. Stanza 27.
Soprano, basso, even the contra-alto, Wished him five fathom under the Rialto.
Beppo. Stanza 32.
His heart was one of those which most enamour us,-- Wax to receive, and marble to retain.[554-1]
Beppo. Stanza 34.
Besides, they always smell of bread and butter.
Beppo. Stanza 39.
That soft bastard Latin, Which melts like kisses from a female mouth.
Beppo. Stanza 44.
Heart on her lips, and soul within her eyes, Soft as her clime, and sunny as her skies.
Beppo. Stanza 45.
O Mirth and Innocence! O milk and water! Ye happy mixtures of more happy days.
Beppo. Stanza 80.
And if we do but watch the hour, There never yet was human power Which could evade, if unforgiven, The patient search and vigil long Of him who treasures up a wrong.
Mazeppa. Stanza 10.
They never fail who die In a great cause.
Marino Faliero. Act ii. Sc. 2.
Whose game was empires and whose stakes were thrones, Whose table earth, whose dice were human bones.
Age of Bronze. Stanza 3.
I loved my country, and I hated him.
The Vision of Judgment. lxxxiii.
Sublime tobacco! which from east to west Cheers the tar's labour or the Turkman's rest.
The Island. Canto ii. Stanza 19.
Divine in hookas, glorious in a pipe When tipp'd with amber, mellow, rich, and ripe; Like other charmers, wooing the caress More dazzlingly when daring in full dress; Yet thy true lovers more admire by far Thy naked beauties--give me a cigar!
The Island. Canto ii. Stanza 19.
My days are in the yellow leaf; The flowers and fruits of love are gone; The worm, the canker, and the grief Are mine alone!
On my Thirty-sixth Year.
Brave men were living before Agamemnon.[555-1]
Don Juan. Canto i. Stanza 5.
In virtues nothing earthly could surpass her, Save thine "incomparable oil," Macassar!
Don Juan. Canto i. Stanza 17.
But, oh ye lords of ladies intellectual, Inform us truly,--have they not henpeck'd you all?
Don Juan. Canto i. Stanza 22.
The languages, especially the dead, The sciences, and most of all the abstruse, The arts, at least all such as could be said To be the most remote from common use.
Don Juan. Canto i. Stanza 40.
Her stature tall,--I hate a dumpy woman.
Don Juan. Canto i. Stanza 61.
Christians have burnt each other, quite persuaded That all the Apostles would have done as they did.
Don Juan. Canto i. Stanza 83.
And whispering, "I will ne'er consent,"--consented.
Don Juan. Canto i. Stanza 117.
'T is sweet to hear the watch-dog's honest bark Bay deep-mouth'd welcome as we draw near home; 'T is sweet to know there is an eye will mark Our coming, and look brighter when we come.
Don Juan. Canto i. Stanza 123.
Sweet is revenge--especially to women.
Don Juan. Canto i. Stanza 124.
And truant husband should return, and say, "My dear, I was the first who came away."
Don Juan. Canto i. Stanza 141.
Man's love is of man's life a thing apart; 'T is woman's whole existence.
Don Juan. Canto i. Stanza 194.
In my hot youth, when George the Third was king.
Don Juan. Canto i. Stanza 212.
So for a good old-gentlemanly vice I think I must take up with avarice.[556-1]
Don Juan. Canto i. Stanza 216.
What is the end of fame? 'T is but to fill A certain portion of uncertain paper.
Don Juan. Canto i. Stanza 218.
At leaving even the most unpleasant people And places, one keeps looking at the steeple.
Don Juan. Canto ii. Stanza 14.
There 's nought, no doubt, so much the spirit calms As rum and true religion.
Don Juan. Canto ii. Stanza 34.
A solitary shriek, the bubbling cry Of some strong swimmer in his agony.
Don Juan. Canto ii. Stanza 53.
All who joy would win Must share it, happiness was born a twin.
Don Juan. Canto ii. Stanza 172.
Let us have wine and women, mirth and laughter, Sermons and soda-water the day after.
Don Juan. Canto ii. Stanza 178.
A long, long kiss,--a kiss of youth and love.
Don Juan. Canto ii. Stanza 186.
Alas, the love of women! it is known To be a lovely and a fearful thing.
Don Juan. Canto ii. Stanza 199.
In her first passion woman loves her lover: In all the others, all she loves is love.[557-1]
Don Juan. Canto iii. Stanza 3.
He was the mildest manner'd man That ever scuttled ship or cut a throat.
Don Juan. Canto iii. Stanza 41.
The isles of Greece, the isles of Greece! Where burning Sappho loved and sung. . . . . . Eternal summer gilds them yet, But all except their sun is set.
Don Juan. Canto iii. Stanza 86. 1.
The mountains look on Marathon, And Marathon looks on the sea; And musing there an hour alone, I dreamed that Greece might still be free.
Don Juan. Canto iii. Stanza 86. 3.
Earth! render back from out thy breast A remnant of our Spartan dead! Of the three hundred grant but three To make a new Thermopylæ.
Don Juan. Canto iii. Stanza 86. 7.
You have the Pyrrhic dance as yet, Where is the Pyrrhic phalanx gone? Of two such lessons, why forget The nobler and the manlier one? You have the letters Cadmus gave,-- Think ye he meant them for a slave?
Don Juan. Canto iii. Stanza 86. 10.
Place me on Sunium's marbled steep, Where nothing save the waves and I May hear our mutual murmurs sweep; There, swan-like, let me sing and die.[558-1]
Don Juan. Canto iii. Stanza 86. 16.
But words are things, and a small drop of ink, Falling like dew upon a thought, produces That which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think.
Don Juan. Canto iii. Stanza 88.
Ah, surely nothing dies but something mourns.
Don Juan. Canto iii. Stanza 108.
And if I laugh at any mortal thing, 'T is that I may not weep.
Don Juan. Canto iv. Stanza 4.
The precious porcelain of human clay.[558-2]
Don Juan. Canto iv. Stanza 11.
"Whom the gods love die young," was said of yore.[558-3]
Don Juan. Canto iv. Stanza 12.
Perhaps the early grave Which men weep over may be meant to save.
Don Juan. Canto iv. Stanza 12.
And her face so fair Stirr'd with her dream, as rose-leaves with the air.[558-4]
Don Juan. Canto iv. Stanza 29.
These two hated with a hate Found only on the stage.
Don Juan. Canto iv. Stanza 93.
"Arcades ambo,"--id est, blackguards both.
Don Juan. Canto iv. Stanza 93.
I 've stood upon Achilles' tomb, And heard Troy doubted: time will doubt of Rome.
Don Juan. Canto iv. Stanza 101.
Oh "darkly, deeply, beautifully blue!"[559-1] As some one somewhere sings about the sky.
Don Juan. Canto iv. Stanza 110.
There 's not a sea the passenger e'er pukes in, Turns up more dangerous breakers than the Euxine.
Don Juan. Canto v. Stanza 5.
But all have prices, From crowns to kicks, according to their vices.[559-2]
Don Juan. Canto v. Stanza 27.
And puts himself upon his good behaviour.
Don Juan. Canto v. Stanza 47.
That all-softening, overpowering knell, The tocsin of the soul,--the dinner bell.
Don Juan. Canto v. Stanza 49.
The women pardon'd all except her face.
Don Juan. Canto v. Stanza 113.
Heroic, stoic Cato, the sententious, Who lent his lady to his friend Hortensius.
Don Juan. Canto vi. Stanza 7.
A "strange coincidence," to use a phrase By which such things are settled nowadays.
Don Juan. Canto vi. Stanza 78.
The drying up a single tear has more Of honest fame than shedding seas of gore.
Don Juan. Canto viii. Stanza 3.
Thrice happy he whose name has been well spelt In the despatch: I knew a man whose loss Was printed Grove, although his name was Grose.
Don Juan. Canto viii. Stanza 18.
What a strange thing is man! and what a stranger Is woman!
Don Juan. Canto ix. Stanza 64.
And wrinkles, the damned democrats, won't flatter.
Don Juan. Canto x. Stanza 24.
Oh for a forty-parson power!
Don Juan. Canto x. Stanza 34.
When Bishop Berkeley said "there was no matter," And proved it,--'t was no matter what he said.[560-1]
Don Juan. Canto xi. Stanza 1.
And after all, what is a lie? 'T is but The truth in masquerade.
Don Juan. Canto xi. Stanza 37.
'T is strange the mind, that very fiery particle, Should let itself be snuff'd out by an article.
Don Juan. Canto xi. Stanza 59.
Of all tales 't is the saddest,--and more sad, Because it makes us smile.
Don Juan. Canto xiii. stanza 9.
Cervantes smil'd Spain's chivalry away.
Don Juan. Canto xiii. Stanza 11.
Society is now one polish'd horde, Formed of two mighty tribes, the Bores and Bored.
Don Juan. Canto xiii. Stanza 95.
All human history attests That happiness for man,--the hungry sinner!-- Since Eve ate apples, much depends on dinner.[560-2]
Don Juan. Canto xiii. Stanza 99.
'T is strange, but true; for truth is always strange,-- Stranger than fiction.
Don Juan. Canto xiv. Stanza 101.
The Devil hath not, in all his quiver's choice, An arrow for the heart like a sweet voice.
Don Juan. Canto xv. Stanza 13.
A lovely being, scarcely formed or moulded, A rose with all its sweetest leaves yet folded.
Don Juan. Canto xv. Stanza 43.
Friendship is Love without his wings.
L'Amitié est l'Amour sans Ailes.
I awoke one morning and found myself famous.
Memoranda from his Life, by Moore, Chap. xiv.
The best of prophets of the future is the past.
Letter, Jan. 28, 1821.
What say you to such a supper with such a woman?[561-1]
Note to a Letter on Bowles's Strictures.
FOOTNOTES:
[539-1] See Waller, pages 219-220.
[540-1] Medio de fonte leporum Surgit amari aliquid quod in ipsis floribus angat
(In the midst of the fountain of wit there arises something bitter, which stings in the very flowers).--LUCRETIUS: iv. 1133.
[541-1] "War even to the knife" was the reply of Palafox, the governor of Saragossa, when summoned to surrender by the French, who besieged that city in 1808.
[541-2] See Waller, page 221.
[542-1] See Sheridan, page 443.
[543-1] I am a part of all that I have met.--TENNYSON: Ulysses.
[544-1] See Gibbon, page 430.
[544-2] Good bye, proud world; I 'm going home. Thou art not my friend, and I 'm not thine.
EMERSON: Good Bye, proud World.
See Johnson, page 374.
[545-1] See Wordsworth, page 474.
[545-2] A translation of the famous sonnet of Filicaja: "Italia, Italia! O tu cui feo la sorte."
[546-1] See Wordsworth, page 478.
[546-2] Literally the exclamation of the pilgrims in the eighth century.
[547-1] See Cowper, page 418.
[547-2] See Pope, page 341.
[547-3] And thou vast ocean, on whose awful face Time's iron feet can print no ruin-trace.
ROBERT MONTGOMERY: The Omnipresence of the Deity.
[548-1] He laid his hand upon "the ocean's mane," And played familiar with his hoary locks.
POLLOK: The Course of Time, book iv. line 389.
[549-1] Know'st thou the land where the lemon-trees bloom, Where the gold orange glows in the deep thicket's gloom, Where a wind ever soft from the blue heaven blows, And the groves are of laurel and myrtle and rose!
GOETHE: Wilhelm Meister.
[550-1] See Gray, page 382.
[550-2] See Lovelace, page 259. Browne, page 218.
[550-3] Solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant (They make solitude, which they call peace).--TACITUS: Agricola, c. 30.
[550-4] I came to the place of my birth, and cried, "The friends of my youth, where are they?" And echo answered, "Where are they?"--Arabic MS.
[550-5] See Churchill, page 413.
To all nations their empire will be dreadful, because their ships will sail wherever billows roll or winds can waft them.--DALRYMPLE: Memoirs, vol. iii. p. 152.
[551-1] See Burton, page 186.
[551-2] The subject of these lines was Mrs. R. Wilmot.--Berry Memoirs, vol. iii. p. 7.
[552-1] See Congreve, page 294.
[552-2] Natura il fece, e poi ruppe la stampa (Nature made him, and then broke the mould).--ARIOSTO: _Orlando Furioso, canto x. stanza 84._
The idea that Nature lost the perfect mould has been a favorite one with all song-writers and poets, and is found in the literature of all European nations.--Book of English Songs, p. 28.
[553-1] She floats upon the river of his thoughts.--LONGFELLOW: The Spanish Student, act ii. sc. 3.
[553-2] With a heart for any fate.--LONGFELLOW: A Psalm of Life.
[554-1] My heart is wax to be moulded as she pleases, but enduring as marble to retain.--CERVANTES: The Little Gypsy.
[555-1] Vixerunt fortes ante Agamemnona Multi.
HORACE: Ode iv. 9. 25.
[556-1] See Middleton, page 173.
[557-1] Dans les premières passions les femmes aiment l'amant, et dans les autres elles aiment l'amour.--ROCHEFOUCAULD: Maxim 471.
[558-1] See Shakespeare, page 63.
[558-2] See Dryden, page 277.
[558-3] See Wordsworth, page 479.
[558-4] All her innocent thoughts Like rose-leaves scatter'd.
JOHN WILSON: On the Death of a Child. (1812.)
[559-1] See Southey, page 507.
[559-2] See Robert Walpole, page 304.
[560-1] What is mind? No matter. What is matter? Never mind.--T. H. KEY (once Head Master of University College School). On the authority of F. J. Furnivall.
[560-2] For a man seldom thinks with more earnestness of anything than he does of his dinner.--PIOZZI: _Anecdotes of Samuel Johnson, p. 149._
[561-1] See Lady Montagu, page 350.
WILLIAM KNOX. 1789-1825.
Oh why should the spirit of mortal be proud? Like a fast-flitting meteor, a fast-flying cloud, A flash of the lightning, a break of the wave, He passes from life to his rest in the grave.[561-2]
Mortality.[561-3]
FOOTNOTES:
[561-2] Abraham Lincoln was very fond of repeating these lines.
[561-3] From Knox's "Songs of Israel," 1824.
ALFRED BUNN. 1790-1860.
I dreamt that I dwelt in marble halls, With vassals and serfs at my side.
Song.
The light of other days[561-4] is faded, And all their glories past.
Song.
The heart bowed down by weight of woe To weakest hope will cling.
Song.
FOOTNOTES:
[561-4] See Moore, page 523.
FITZ-GREENE HALLECK. 1790-1867.
Strike--for your altars and your fires! Strike--for the green graves of your sires! God, and your native land!
Marco Bozzaris.
Come to the bridal chamber, Death! Come to the mother's, when she feels For the first time her first-born's breath! Come when the blessed seals That close the pestilence are broke, And crowded cities wail its stroke! Come in consumption's ghastly form, The earthquake shock, the ocean storm! Come when the heart beats high and warm, With banquet song, and dance, and wine! And thou art terrible!--the tear, The groan, the knell, the pall, the bier, And all we know or dream or fear Of agony are thine.
Marco Bozzaris.
But to the hero, when his sword Has won the battle for the free, Thy voice sounds like a prophet's word; And in its hollow tones are heard The thanks of millions yet to be.
Marco Bozzaris.
One of the few, the immortal names, That were not born to die.
Marco Bozzaris.
Such graves as his are pilgrim shrines, Shrines to no code or creed confined,-- The Delphian vales, the Palestines, The Meccas of the mind.
Burns.
Green be the turf above thee, Friend of my better days! None knew thee but to love thee,[562-1] Nor named thee but to praise.
On the Death of Joseph Rodman Drake.
There is an evening twilight of the heart, When its wild passion-waves are lulled to rest.
Twilight.
They love their land because it is their own, And scorn to give aught other reason why; Would shake hands with a king upon his throne, And think it kindness to his Majesty.
Connecticut.
This bank-note world.
Alnwick Castle.
Lord Stafford mines for coal and salt, The Duke of Norfolk deals in malt, The Douglas in red herrings.
Alnwick Castle.
FOOTNOTES:
[562-1] See Rogers, page 455.
CHARLES WOLFE. 1791-1823.
Not a drum was heard, not a funeral note, As his corse to the rampart we hurried.
The Burial of Sir John Moore.
But he lay like a warrior taking his rest, With his martial cloak around him.
The Burial of Sir John Moore.
Slowly and sadly we laid him down, From the field of his fame fresh and gory; We carved not a line, and we raised not a stone, But we left him alone with his glory.
The Burial of Sir John Moore.
If I had thought thou couldst have died, I might not weep for thee; But I forgot, when by thy side, That thou couldst mortal be.
To Mary.
Yet there was round thee such a dawn Of light, ne'er seen before, As fancy never could have drawn, And never can restore.
To Mary.
Go, forget me! why should sorrow O'er that brow a shadow fling? Go, forget me, and to-morrow Brightly smile and sweetly sing! Smile,--though I shall not be near thee; Sing,--though I shall never hear thee!
Go, forget me!
HENRY HART MILMAN. 1791-1868.
And the cold marble leapt to life a god.
The Belvedere Apollo.
Too fair to worship, too divine to love.
The Belvedere Apollo.
CHARLES SPRAGUE. 1791-1875.
Lo where the stage, the poor, degraded stage, Holds its warped mirror to a gaping age.
Curiosity.
Through life's dark road his sordid way he wends, An incarnation of fat dividends.
Curiosity.
Behold! in Liberty's unclouded blaze We lift our heads, a race of other days.
Centennial Ode. Stanza 22.
Yes, social friend, I love thee well, In learned doctors' spite; Thy clouds all other clouds dispel, And lap me in delight.
To my Cigar.
PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY. 1792-1822.
Then black despair, The shadow of a starless night, was thrown Over the world in which I moved alone.
The Revolt of Islam. Dedication. Stanza 6.
With hue like that when some great painter dips His pencil in the gloom of earthquake and eclipse.
The Revolt of Islam. Canto v. Stanza 23.
The awful shadow of some unseen Power Floats, tho' unseen, amongst us.
Hymn to Intellectual Beauty.
The Pilgrim of Eternity, whose fame Over his living head like heaven is bent, An early but enduring monument, Came, veiling all the lightnings of his song In sorrow.
Adonais. xxx.
A pard-like spirit, beautiful and swift.
Adonais. xxxii.
Life, like a dome of many-coloured glass, Stains the white radiance of eternity.
Adonais. lii.
Oh thou, Who chariotest to their dark wintry bed The winged seeds, where they lie cold and low, Each like a corpse within its grave, until Thine azure sister of the spring shall blow Her clarion o'er the dreaming earth.
Ode to the West Wind.
Thou who didst waken from his summer dreams The blue Mediterranean, where he lay, Lull'd by the coil of his crystalline streams Beside a pumice isle in Baiæ's bay, And saw in sleep old palaces and towers Quivering within the wave's intenser day, All overgrown with azure moss and flowers So sweet, the sense faints picturing them.
Ode to the West Wind.
That orbed maiden with white fire laden, Whom mortals call the moon.
The Cloud. iv.
We look before and after, And pine for what is not; Our sincerest laughter With some pain is fraught; Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought.
To a Skylark. Line 86.
Kings are like stars,--they rise and set, they have The worship of the world, but no repose.[565-1]
Hellas. Line 195.
The moon of Mahomet Arose, and it shall set; While, blazoned as on heaven's immortal noon, The cross leads generations on.
Hellas. Line 221.
The world's great age begins anew, The golden years return, The earth doth like a snake renew Her winter weeds outworn.
Hellas. Line 1060.
What! alive, and so bold, O earth?
Written on hearing the News of the Death of Napoleon.
All love is sweet, Given or returned. Common as light is love, And its familiar voice wearies not ever. . . . . . . They who inspire it most are fortunate, As I am now; but those who feel it most Are happier still.[566-1]
Prometheus Unbound. Act ii. Sc. 5.
Those who inflict must suffer, for they see The work of their own hearts, and this must be Our chastisement or recompense.
Julian and Maddalo. Line 482.
Most wretched men Are cradled into poetry by wrong: They learn in suffering what they teach in song.[566-2]
Julian and Maddalo. Line 544.
I could lie down like a tired child, And weep away the life of care Which I have borne, and yet must bear.
Stanzas written in Dejection, near Naples. Stanza 4.
Peter was dull; he was at first Dull,--oh so dull, so very dull! Whether he talked, wrote, or rehearsed, Still with this dulness was he cursed! Dull,--beyond all conception, dull.
Peter Bell the Third. Part vii. xi.
A lovely lady, garmented in light From her own beauty.
The Witch of Atlas. Stanza 5.
Music, when soft voices die, Vibrates in the memory; Odours, when sweet violets sicken, Live within the sense they quicken.
Music, when soft Voices die.
I love tranquil solitude And such society As is quiet, wise, and good.
Rarely, rarely comest Thou.
Sing again, with your dear voice revealing A tone Of some world far from ours, Where music and moonlight and feeling Are one.
To Jane. The keen Stars were twinkling.
The desire of the moth for the star, Of the night for the morrow, The devotion to something afar From the sphere of our sorrow.
One Word is too often profaned.
You lie--under a mistake,[567-1] For this is the most civil sort of lie That can be given to a man's face. I now Say what I think.
Translation of Calderon's Magico Prodigioso. Scene i.
How wonderful is Death! Death and his brother Sleep.
Queen Mab. i.
Power, like a desolating pestilence, Pollutes whate'er it touches; and obedience, Bane of all genius, virtue, freedom, truth, Makes slaves of men, and of the human frame A mechanized automaton.
Queen Mab. iii.
Heaven's ebon vault Studded with stars unutterably bright, Through which the moon's unclouded grandeur rolls, Seems like a canopy which love has spread To curtain her sleeping world.
Queen Mab. iv.
Poets are the hierophants of an unapprehended inspiration; the mirrors of the gigantic shadows which futurity casts upon the present.[568-1]
A Defence of Poetry.
FOOTNOTES:
[565-1] See Bacon, page 166.
[566-1] The pleasure of love is in loving. We are much happier in the passion we feel than in that we inspire.--ROCHEFOUCAULD: Maxim 259.
[566-2] See Butler, page 216.
[567-1] See Swift, page 292.
[568-1] See Coleridge, page 504.
J. HOWARD PAYNE. 1792-1852.
'Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam, Be it ever so humble, there 's no place like home;[568-2] A charm from the skies seems to hallow us there, Which sought through the world is ne'er met with elsewhere.
An exile from home splendour dazzles in vain, Oh give me my lowly thatched cottage again; The birds singing gayly, that came at my call, Give me them, and that peace of mind dearer than all.
Home, Sweet Home. (From the opera of "Clari, the Maid of Milan.")
FOOTNOTES:
[568-2] Home is home, though it be never so homely.--CLARKE: Paroemiologia, p. 101. (1639.)
SEBA SMITH. 1792-1868.
The cold winds swept the mountain-height, And pathless was the dreary wild, And 'mid the cheerless hours of night A mother wandered with her child: As through the drifting snows she press'd, The babe was sleeping on her breast.
The Snow Storm.
JOHN KEBLE. 1792-1866.
The trivial round, the common task, Would furnish all we ought to ask.
Morning.
Why should we faint and fear to live alone, Since all alone, so Heaven has willed, we die? Nor even the tenderest heart, and next our own, Knows half the reasons why we smile and sigh.
The Christian Year. Twenty-fourth Sunday after Trinity.
'T is sweet, as year by year we lose Friends out of sight, in faith to muse How grows in Paradise our store.
Burial of the Dead.
Abide with me from morn till eve, For without Thee I cannot live; Abide with me when night is nigh, For without Thee I dare not die.
Evening.
FELICIA D. HEMANS. 1794-1835.
The stately homes of England,-- How beautiful they stand, Amid their tall ancestral trees, O'er all the pleasant land!
The Homes of England.
The breaking waves dashed high On a stern and rock-bound coast, And the woods against a stormy sky Their giant branches tossed.
Landing of the Pilgrim Fathers.
What sought they thus afar? Bright jewels of the mine, The wealth of seas, the spoils of war? They sought a faith's pure shrine.
Landing of the Pilgrim Fathers.
Ay, call it holy ground, The soil where first they trod: They have left unstained what there they found,-- Freedom to worship God.
Landing of the Pilgrim Fathers.
Through the laburnum's dropping gold Rose the light shaft of Orient mould, And Europe's violets, faintly sweet, Purpled the mossbeds at its feet.
The Palm-Tree.
They grew in beauty side by side, They filled one home with glee: Their graves are severed far and wide By mount and stream and sea.
The Graves of a Household.
Alas for love, if thou wert all, And naught beyond, O Earth!
The Graves of a Household.
The boy stood on the burning deck, Whence all but him had fled; The flame that lit the battle's wreck Shone round him o'er the dead.
Casabianca.
Leaves have their time to fall, And flowers to wither at the north-wind's breath, And stars to set; but all, Thou hast all seasons for thine own, O Death!
The Hour of Death.
Come to the sunset tree! The day is past and gone; The woodman's axe lies free, And the reaper's work is done.
Tyrolese Evening Song.
In the busy haunts of men.
Tale of the Secret Tribunal. Part i.
Calm on the bosom of thy God, Fair spirit, rest thee now!
Siege of Valencia. Scene ix.
Oh, call my brother back to me! I cannot play alone: The summer comes with flower and bee,-- Where is my brother gone?
The Child's First Grief.
I have looked on the hills of the stormy North, And the larch has hung his tassels forth.
The Voice of Spring.
I had a hat. It was not all a hat,-- Part of the brim was gone: Yet still I wore it on.
Rhine Song of the German Soldiers after Victory.
EDWARD EVERETT. 1794-1865.
When I am dead, no pageant train Shall waste their sorrows at my bier, Nor worthless pomp of homage vain Stain it with hypocritic tear.
Alaric the Visigoth.
You shall not pile, with servile toil, Your monuments upon my breast, Nor yet within the common soil Lay down the wreck of power to rest, Where man can boast that he has trod On him that was "the scourge of God."
Alaric the Visigoth.
No gilded dome swells from the lowly roof to catch the morning or evening beam; but the love and gratitude of united America settle upon it in one eternal sunshine. From beneath that humble roof went forth the intrepid and unselfish warrior, the magistrate who knew no glory but his country's good; to that he returned, happiest when his work was done. There he lived in noble simplicity, there he died in glory and peace. While it stands, the latest generations of the grateful children of America will make this pilgrimage to it as to a shrine; and when it shall fall, if fall it must, the memory and the name of Washington shall shed an eternal glory on the spot.
Oration on the Character of Washington.
WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. 1794-1878.
Here the free spirit of mankind, at length, Throws its last fetters off; and who shall place A limit to the giant's unchained strength, Or curb his swiftness in the forward race?
The Ages. xxxiii.
To him who in the love of Nature holds Communion with her visible forms, she speaks A various language.
Thanatopsis.
Go forth under the open sky, and list To Nature's teachings.
Thanatopsis.
The hills, Rock-ribbed, and ancient as the sun.
Thanatopsis.
Old ocean's gray and melancholy waste.
Thanatopsis.
All that tread The globe are but a handful to the tribes That slumber in its bosom.
Thanatopsis.
So live, that when thy summons comes to join The innumerable caravan which moves[572-1] To that mysterious realm where each shall take His chamber in the silent halls of death, Thou go not, like the quarry-slave at night, Scourged to his dungeon, but sustained and soothed By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave Like one that wraps the drapery of his couch About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams.
Thanatopsis.
The groves were God's first temples.
A Forest Hymn.
The stormy March has come at last, With winds and clouds and changing skies; I hear the rushing of the blast That through the snowy valley flies.
March.
But 'neath yon crimson tree Lover to listening maid might breathe his flame, Nor mark, within its roseate canopy, Her blush of maiden shame.
Autumn Woods.
The melancholy days are come, the saddest of the year, Of wailing winds and naked woods and meadows brown and sear.
The Death of the Flowers.
And sighs to find them in the wood and by the stream no more.
The Death of the Flowers.
Loveliest of lovely things are they On earth that soonest pass away. The rose that lives its little hour Is prized beyond the sculptured flower.
A Scene on the Banks of the Hudson.
The victory of endurance born.
The Battle-Field.
Truth crushed to earth shall rise again,-- The eternal years of God are hers; But Error, wounded, writhes with pain, And dies among his worshippers.
The Battle-Field.
FOOTNOTES:
[572-1] The edition of 1821 read,--
The innumerable caravan that moves To the pale realms of shade, where each shall take.
JOSEPH RODMAN DRAKE. 1795-1820.
When Freedom from her mountain-height Unfurled her standard to the air, She tore the azure robe of night, And set the stars of glory there. She mingled with its gorgeous dyes The milky baldric of the skies, And striped its pure, celestial white With streakings of the morning light.
Flag of the free heart's hope and home! By angel hands to valour given! Thy stars have lit the welkin dome, And all thy hues were born in heaven. Forever float that standard sheet! Where breathes the foe but falls before us, With Freedom's soil beneath our feet, And Freedom's banner streaming o'er us?
The American Flag.
JOHN KEATS. 1795-1821.
A thing of beauty is a joy forever; Its loveliness increases; it will never Pass into nothingness.
Endymion. Book i.
He ne'er is crown'd With immortality, who fears to follow Where airy voices lead.
Endymion. Book ii.
To sorrow I bade good-morrow, And thought to leave her far away behind; But cheerly, cheerly, She loves me dearly; She is so constant to me, and so kind.
Endymion. Book iv.
So many, and so many, and such glee.
Endymion. Book iv.
Love in a hut, with water and a crust, Is--Love, forgive us!--cinders, ashes, dust.
Lamia. Part ii.
There was an awful rainbow once in heaven: We know her woof, her texture; she is given In the dull catalogue of common things. Philosophy will clip an angel's wings.
Lamia. Part ii.
Music's golden tongue Flatter'd to tears this aged man and poor.
The Eve of St. Agnes. Stanza 3.
The silver snarling trumpets 'gan to chide.
The Eve of St. Agnes. Stanza 4.
Asleep in lap of legends old.
The Eve of St. Agnes. Stanza 15.
Sudden a thought came like a full-blown rose, Flushing his brow.
The Eve of St. Agnes. Stanza 16.
A poor, weak, palsy-stricken, churchyard thing.
The Eve of St. Agnes. Stanza 18.
As though a rose should shut and be a bud again.
The Eve of St. Agnes. Stanza 27.
And lucent syrops, tinct with cinnamon.
The Eve of St. Agnes. Stanza 30.
He play'd an ancient ditty long since mute, In Provence call'd "La belle dame sans mercy."
The Eve of St. Agnes. Stanza 33.
That large utterance of the early gods!
Hyperion. Book i.
Those green-robed senators of mighty woods, Tall oaks, branch-charmed by the earnest stars, Dream, and so dream all night without a stir.
Hyperion. Book i.
The days of peace and slumberous calm are fled.
Hyperion. Book ii.
Dance and Provençal song and sunburnt mirth! Oh for a beaker full of the warm South, Full of the true, the blushful Hippocrene! With beaded bubbles winking at the brim, And purple-stainèd mouth.
Ode to a Nightingale.
Through the sad heart of Ruth, when sick for home She stood in tears amid the alien corn; The same that ofttimes hath Charm'd magic casements, opening on the foam Of perilous seas, in faery lands forlorn.
Ode to a Nightingale.
Thou foster-child of Silence and slow Time.
Ode on a Grecian Urn.
Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on,-- Not to the sensual ear, but, more endear'd, Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone.
Ode on a Grecian Urn.
Thou, silent form, doth tease us out of thought As doth eternity: Cold Pastoral!
Ode on a Grecian Urn.
Beauty is truth, truth beauty,--that is all Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.
Ode on a Grecian Urn.
In a drear-nighted December, Too happy, happy tree, Thy branches ne'er remember Their green felicity.
Stanzas.
Hear ye not the hum Of mighty workings?
Addressed to Haydon. Sonnet x.
Much have I travell'd in the realms of gold, And many goodly states and kingdoms seen; Round many western islands have I been Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold. Oft of one wide expanse had I been told That deep-brow'd Homer ruled as his demesne, Yet did I never breathe its pure serene Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold: Then felt I like some watcher of the skies When a new planet swims into his ken; Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes He stared at the Pacific, and all his men Look'd at each other with a wild surmise, Silent, upon a peak in Darien.
On first looking into Chapman's Homer.
E'en like the passage of an angel's tear That falls through the clear ether silently.
To One who has been long in City pent.
The poetry of earth is never dead.
On the Grasshopper and Cricket.
Here lies one whose name was writ in water.[577-1]
FOOTNOTES:
[577-1] See Chapman, page 37.
Among the many things he has requested of me to-night, this is the principal,--that on his gravestone shall be this inscription.--RICHARD MONCKTON MILNES: Life, Letters, and Literary Remains of John Keats. Letter to Severn, vol. ii. p. 91.
THOMAS NOON TALFOURD. 1795-1854.
So his life has flowed From its mysterious urn a sacred stream, In whose calm depth the beautiful and pure Alone are mirrored; which, though shapes of ill May hover round its surface, glides in light, And takes no shadow from them.
Ion. Act i. Sc. 1.
'T is a little thing To give a cup of water; yet its draught Of cool refreshment, drained by fevered lips, May give a shock of pleasure to the frame More exquisite than when nectarean juice Renews the life of joy in happiest hours.
Ion. Act i. Sc. 2.
THOMAS CARLYLE. 1795-1881.
Except by name, Jean Paul Friedrich Richter is little known out of Germany. The only thing connected with him, we think, that has reached this country is his saying,--imported by Madame de Staël, and thankfully pocketed by most newspaper critics,--"Providence has given to the French the empire of the land; to the English that of the sea; to the Germans that of--the air!"
Richter. Edinburgh Review, 1827.
Literary men are . . . a perpetual priesthood.
State of German Literature. Edinburgh Review, 1827.
Clever men are good, but they are not the best.
Goethe. Edinburgh Review, 1828.
We are firm believers in the maxim that for all right judgment of any man or thing it is useful, nay, essential, to see his good qualities before pronouncing on his bad.
Goethe. Edinburgh Review, 1828.
How does the poet speak to men with power, but by being still more a man than they?
Burns. Edinburgh Review, 1828.
A poet without love were a physical and metaphysical impossibility.
Burns. Edinburgh Review, 1828.
His religion at best is an anxious wish,--like that of Rabelais, a great Perhaps.
Burns. Edinburgh Review, 1828.
We have oftener than once endeavoured to attach some meaning to that aphorism, vulgarly imputed to Shaftesbury, which however we can find nowhere in his works, that "ridicule is the test of truth."[578-1]
Voltaire. Foreign Review, 1829.
We must repeat the often repeated saying, that it is unworthy a religious man to view an irreligious one either with alarm or aversion, or with any other feeling than regret and hope and brotherly commiseration.
Voltaire. Foreign Review, 1829.
There is no heroic poem in the world but is at bottom a biography, the life of a man; also it may be said, there is no life of a man, faithfully recorded, but is a heroic poem of its sort, rhymed or unrhymed.
Sir Walter Scott. London and Westminster Review, 1838.
Silence is deep as Eternity, speech is shallow as Time.
Sir Walter Scott. London and Westminster Review, 1838.
To the very last, he [Napoleon] had a kind of idea; that, namely, of la carrière ouverte aux talents,--the tools to him that can handle them.[579-1]
Sir Walter Scott. London and Westminster Review, 1838.
Blessed is the healthy nature; it is the coherent, sweetly co-operative, not incoherent, self-distracting, self-destructive one!
Sir Walter Scott. London and Westminster Review, 1838.
The uttered part of a man's life, let us always repeat, bears to the unuttered, unconscious part a small unknown proportion. He himself never knows it, much less do others.
Sir Walter Scott. London and Westminster Review, 1838.
Literature is the Thought of thinking Souls.
Sir Walter Scott. London and Westminster Review, 1838.
It can be said of him, when he departed he took a Man's life with him. No sounder piece of British manhood was put together in that eighteenth century of Time.
Sir Walter Scott. London and Westminster Review, 1838.
The eye of the intellect "sees in all objects what it brought with it the means of seeing."
Varnhagen Von Ense's Memoirs. London and Westminster Review, 1838.
Happy the people whose annals are blank in history-books.[579-2]
Life of Frederick the Great. Book xvi. Chap. i.
As the Swiss inscription says: Sprechen ist silbern, Schweigen ist golden,--"Speech is silvern, Silence is golden;" or, as I might rather express it, Speech is of Time, Silence is of Eternity.
Sartor Resartus. Book iii. Chap. iii.
The greatest of faults, I should say, is to be conscious of none.[579-3]
Heroes and Hero-Worship. The Hero as a Prophet.
In books lies the soul of the whole Past Time: the articulate audible voice of the Past, when the body and material substance of it has altogether vanished like a dream.
Heroes and Hero-Worship. The Hero as a Man of Letters.
The true University of these days is a Collection of Books.
Heroes and Hero-Worship. The Hero as a Man of Letters.
One life,--a little gleam of time between two Eternities.
Heroes and Hero-Worship. The Hero as a Man of Letters.
Adversity is sometimes hard upon a man; but for one man who can stand prosperity there are a hundred that will stand adversity.
Heroes and Hero-Worship. The Hero as a Man of Letters.
FOOTNOTES:
[578-1] How comes it to pass, then, that we appear such cowards in reasoning, and are so afraid to stand the test of ridicule?--SHAFTESBURY: Characteristics. A Letter concerning Enthusiasm, sect. 2.
Truth, 't is supposed, may bear all lights; and one of those principal lights or natural mediums by which things are to be viewed in order to a thorough recognition is ridicule itself.--SHAFTESBURY: Essay on the Freedom of Wit and Humour, sect. 1.
'T was the saying of an ancient sage (Gorgias Leontinus, apud Aristotle's "Rhetoric," lib. iii. c. 18), that humour was the only test of gravity, and gravity of humour. For a subject which would not bear raillery was suspicious; and a jest which would not bear a serious examination was certainly false wit.--Ibid. sect. 5.
[579-1] Carlyle in his essay on Mirabeau, 1837, quotes this from a "New England book."
[579-2] MONTESQUIEU: Aphorism.
[579-3] His only fault is that he has none.--PLINY THE YOUNGER: Book ix. Letter xxvi.
THOMAS C. HALIBURTON. 1796-1865.
I want you to see Peel, Stanley, Graham, Sheil, Russell, Macaulay, Old Joe, and so on. They are all upper-crust here.[580-1]
Sam Slick In England.[580-2] Chap. xxiv.
Circumstances alter cases.
The Old Judge. Chap. xv.
FOOTNOTES:
[580-1] Those families, you know, are our upper-crust,--not upper ten thousand.--COOPER: The Ways of the Hour, chap. vi. (1850.)
At present there is no distinction among the upper ten thousand of the city.--N. P. WILLIS: Necessity for a Promenade Drive.
[580-2] "Sam Slick" first appeared in a weekly paper of Nova Scotia, 1835.
WILLIAM MOTHERWELL. 1797-1835.
I 've wandered east, I 've wandered west, Through many a weary way; But never, never can forget The love of life's young day.
Jeannie Morrison.
And we, with Nature's heart in tune, Concerted harmonies.
Jeannie Morrison.
THOMAS HAYNES BAYLY. 1797-1839.
I 'd be a butterfly born in a bower, Where roses and lilies and violets meet.
I 'd be a Butterfly.
Oh no! we never mention her,-- Her name is never heard; My lips are now forbid to speak That once familiar word.
Oh no! we never mention her.
We met,--'t was in a crowd.
We met.
Gayly the troubadour Touched his guitar.
Welcome me Home.
Why don't the men propose, Mamma? Why don't the men propose?
Why don't the Men propose?
She wore a wreath of roses The night that first we met.
She wore a Wreath.
Friends depart, and memory takes them To her caverns, pure and deep.
Teach me to forget.
Tell me the tales that to me were so dear, Long, long ago, long, long ago.
Long, long ago.
The rose that all are praising Is not the rose for me.
The Rose that all are praising.
Oh pilot, 't is a fearful night! There 's danger on the deep.
The Pilot.
Fear not, but trust in Providence, Wherever thou may'st be.
The Pilot.
Absence makes the heart grow fonder:[581-1] Isle of Beauty, fare thee well!
Isle of Beauty.
The mistletoe hung in the castle hall, The holly-branch shone on the old oak wall.
The Mistletoe Bough.
Oh, I have roamed o'er many lands, And many friends I 've met; Not one fair scene or kindly smile Can this fond heart forget.
Oh, steer my Bark to Erin's Isle.
FOOTNOTES:
[581-1] I find that absence still increases love.--CHARLES HOPKINS: To C. C.
Distance sometimes endears friendship, and absence sweeteneth it.--HOWELL: Familiar Letters, book i. sect. i. No. 6.
THOMAS DRUMMOND.[582-1] 1797-1840.
Property has its duties as well as its rights.[582-2]
Letter to the Landlords of Tipperary.
FOOTNOTES:
[582-1] Captain Drummond was the inventor of the Drummond light.
[582-2] DISRAELI: Sybil, book i. chap. xi.
McDONALD CLARKE. 1798-1842.
Whilst twilight's curtain spreading far, Was pinned with a single star.[582-3]
Death in Disguise. Line 227. (Boston edition, 1833.)
FOOTNOTES:
[582-3] Mrs. Child says:
"He thus describes the closing day":-- Now twilight lets her curtain down, And pins it with a star.
SAMUEL LOVER. 1797-1868.
A baby was sleeping, Its mother was weeping.
The Angel's Whisper.
Reproof on her lips, but a smile in her eye.[582-4]
Rory O'More.
For drames always go by conthraries, my dear.[582-5]
Rory O'More.
"Then here goes another," says he, "to make sure, For there 's luck in odd numbers,"[583-1] says Rory O'More.
Rory O'More.
There was a place in childhood that I remember well, And there a voice of sweetest tone bright fairy tales did tell.
My Mother dear.
Sure the shovel and tongs To each other belongs.
Widow Machree.
FOOTNOTES:
[582-4] See Scott, page 482.
[582-5] See Middleton, page 172.
[583-1] See Shakespeare, page 46.
THOMAS HOOD. 1798-1845.
There is a silence where hath been no sound, There is a silence where no sound may be,-- In the cold grave, under the deep, deep sea, Or in the wide desert where no life is found.
Sonnet. Silence.
We watch'd her breathing through the night, Her breathing soft and low, As in her breast the wave of life Kept heaving to and fro.
The Death-Bed.
Our very hopes belied our fears, Our fears our hopes belied; We thought her dying when she slept, And sleeping when she died.
The Death-Bed.
I remember, I remember The fir-trees dark and high; I used to think their slender tops Were close against the sky; It was a childish ignorance, But now 't is little joy To know I 'm farther off from heaven Than when I was a boy.
I remember, I remember.
She stood breast-high amid the corn Clasp'd by the golden light of morn, Like the sweetheart of the sun, Who many a glowing kiss had won.
Ruth.
Thus she stood amid the stooks, Praising God with sweetest looks.
Ruth.
When he is forsaken, Wither'd and shaken, What can an old man do but die?
Spring it is cheery.
And there is even a happiness That makes the heart afraid.
Ode to Melancholy.
There 's not a string attuned to mirth But has its chord in melancholy.[584-1]
Ode to Melancholy.
But evil is wrought by want of thought, As well as want of heart.
The Lady's Dream.
Oh would I were dead now, Or up in my bed now, To cover my head now, And have a good cry!
A Table of Errata.
Straight down the crooked lane, And all round the square.
A Plain Direction.
For my part, getting up seems not so easy By half as lying.
Morning Meditations.
A man that 's fond precociously of stirring Must be a spoon.
Morning Meditations.
Seem'd washing his hands with invisible soap In imperceptible water.
Miss Kilmansegg. Her Christening.
O bed! O bed! delicious bed! That heaven upon earth to the weary head!
Her Dream.
He lies like a hedgehog rolled up the wrong way, Tormenting himself with his prickles.
Her Dream.
Gold! Gold! Gold! Gold! Bright and yellow, hard and cold.
Her Moral.
Spurn'd by the young, but hugg'd by the old To the very verge of the churchyard mould.
Her Moral.
How widely its agencies vary,-- To save, to ruin, to curse, to bless,-- As even its minted coins express, Now stamp'd with the image of Good Queen Bess, And now of a Bloody Mary.
Her Moral.
Another tumble! That 's his precious nose!
Parental Ode to my Infant Son.
Boughs are daily rifled By the gusty thieves, And the book of Nature Getteth short of leaves.
The Season.
With fingers weary and worn, With eyelids heavy and red, A woman sat in unwomanly rags Plying her needle and thread,-- Stitch! Stitch! Stitch!
The Song of the Shirt.
O men with sisters dear, O men with mothers and wives, It is not linen you 're wearing out, But human creatures' lives![585-1]
The Song of the Shirt.
Sewing at once a double thread, A shroud as well as a shirt.
The Song of the Shirt.
O God! that bread should be so dear, And flesh and blood so cheap!
The Song of the Shirt.
No blessed leisure for love or hope, But only time for grief.
The Song of the Shirt.
My tears must stop, for every drop Hinders needle and thread.
The Song of the Shirt.
One more unfortunate Weary of breath, Rashly importunate, Gone to her death.
The Bridge of Sighs.
Take her up tenderly, Lift her with care; Fashioned so slenderly, Young, and so fair!
The Bridge of Sighs.
Alas for the rarity Of Christian charity Under the sun!
The Bridge of Sighs.
Even God's providence Seeming estrang'd.
The Bridge of Sighs.
No sun, no moon, no morn, no noon, No dawn, no dusk, no proper time of day, . . . . . . No road, no street, no t' other side the way, . . . . . . No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees, No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no buds.
November.
No solemn sanctimonious face I pull, Nor think I 'm pious when I 'm only bilious; Nor study in my sanctum supercilious, To frame a Sabbath Bill or forge a Bull.
Ode to Rae Wilson.
The Quaker loves an ample brim, A hat that bows to no salaam; And dear the beaver is to him As if it never made a dam.
All round my Hat.
FOOTNOTES:
[584-1] See Burton, page 185.
[585-1] See Scott, page 493.
GEORGE LINLEY. 1798-1865.
Ever of thee I 'm fondly dreaming, Thy gentle voice my spirit can cheer.
Ever of Thee.
Thou art gone from my gaze like a beautiful dream, And I seek thee in vain by the meadow and stream.
Thou art gone.
Tho' lost to sight, to mem'ry dear Thou ever wilt remain; One only hope my heart can cheer,-- The hope to meet again.
Oh fondly on the past I dwell, And oft recall those hours When, wand'ring down the shady dell, We gathered the wild-flowers.
Yes, life then seem'd one pure delight, Tho' now each spot looks drear; Yet tho' thy smile be lost to sight, To mem'ry thou art dear.
Oft in the tranquil hour of night, When stars illume the sky, I gaze upon each orb of light, And wish that thou wert by.
I think upon that happy time, That time so fondly lov'd, When last we heard the sweet bells chime, As thro' the fields we rov'd.
Yes, life then seem'd one pure delight, Tho' now each spot looks drear; Yet tho' thy smile be lost to sight, To mem'ry thou art dear.
Song.[587-1]
FOOTNOTES:
[587-1] This song--written and composed by Linley for Mr. Augustus Braham, and sung by him--is given entire, as so much inquiry has been made for the source of "Though lost to Sight, to Memory dear." It is not known when the song was written,--probably about 1830.
Another song, entitled "Though lost to Sight, to Memory dear," was published in London in 1880, purporting to have been "written by Ruthven Jenkyns in 1703." It is said to have been published in the "Magazine for Mariners." No such magazine, however, ever existed, and the composer of the music acknowledged, in a private letter, to have copied the song from an American newspaper. There is no other authority for the origin of this song, and the reputed author, Ruthven Jenkyns, was living, under the name of C----, in California in 1882.
COLONEL BLACKER.
Put your trust in God, my boys, and keep your powder dry.[588-1]
Oliver's Advice. 1834.
FOOTNOTES:
[588-1] There is a well-authenticated anecdote of Cromwell. On a certain occasion, when his troops were about crossing a river to attack the enemy, he concluded an address, couched in the usual fanatic terms in use among them, with these words: "Put your trust in God; but mind to keep your powder dry!"--HAYES: Ballads of Ireland, vol. i. p. 191.
ROBERT POLLOK. 1799-1827.
Sorrows remember'd sweeten present joy.
The Course of Time. Book i. Line 464.
He laid his hand upon "the Ocean's mane," And played familiar with his hoary locks.[588-2]
The Course of Time. Book iv. Line 389.
He was a man Who stole the livery of the court of Heaven To serve the Devil in.
The Course of Time. Book viii. Line 616.
With one hand he put A penny in the urn of poverty, And with the other took a shilling out.
The Course of Time. Book viii. Line 632.
FOOTNOTES:
[588-2] See Byron, page 548.
RUFUS CHOATE. 1799-1859.
There was a state without king or nobles; there was a church without a bishop;[588-3] there was a people governed by grave magistrates which it had selected, and by equal laws which it had framed.
Speech before the New England Society, Dec. 22, 1843.
We join ourselves to no party that does not carry the flag and keep step to the music of the Union.
Letter to the Whig Convention, 1855.
Its constitution the glittering and sounding generalities[589-1] of natural right which make up the Declaration of Independence.
Letter to the Maine Whig Committee, 1856.
FOOTNOTES:
[588-3] The Americans equally detest the pageantry of a king and the supercilious hypocrisy of a bishop.--JUNIUS: _Letter xxxv. Dec. 19, 1769._
It [Calvinism] established a religion without a prelate, a government without a king.--GEORGE BANCROFT: History of the United States, vol. iii. chap. vi.
[589-1] Although Mr. Choate has usually been credited with the original utterance of the words "glittering generalities," the following quotation will show that he was anticipated therein by several years:--
We fear that the glittering generalities of the speaker have left an impression more delightful than permanent.--FRANKLIN J. DICKMAN: Review of a Lecture by Rufus Choate, Providence Journal, Dec. 14, 1849.
THOMAS K. HERVEY. 1799-1859.
The tomb of him who would have made The world too glad and free.
The Devil's Progress.
He stood beside a cottage lone And listened to a lute, One summer's eve, when the breeze was gone, And the nightingale was mute.
The Devil's Progress.
A love that took an early root, And had an early doom.
The Devil's Progress.
Like ships, that sailed for sunny isles, But never came to shore.
The Devil's Progress.
A Hebrew knelt in the dying light, His eye was dim and cold, The hairs on his brow were silver-white, And his blood was thin and old.
The Devil's Progress.
THOMAS B. MACAULAY. 1800-1859.
(From his Essays.)
That is the best government which desires to make the people happy, and knows how to make them happy.
On Mitford's History of Greece. 1824.
Free trade, one of the greatest blessings which a government can confer on a people, is in almost every country unpopular.
On Mitford's History of Greece. 1824.
The history of nations, in the sense in which I use the word, is often best studied in works not professedly historical.
On Mitford's History of Greece. 1824.
Wherever literature consoles sorrow or assuages pain; wherever it brings gladness to eyes which fail with wakefulness and tears, and ache for the dark house and the long sleep,--there is exhibited in its noblest form the immortal influence of Athens.
On Mitford's History of Greece. 1824.
We hold that the most wonderful and splendid proof of genius is a great poem produced in a civilized age.
On Milton. 1825.
Nobles by the right of an earlier creation, and priests by the imposition of a mightier hand.
On Milton. 1825.
Out of his surname they have coined an epithet for a knave, and out of his Christian name a synonym for the Devil.[590-1]
On Machiavelli. 1825.
The English Bible,--a book which if everything else in our language should perish, would alone suffice to show the whole extent of its beauty and power.
On John Dryden. 1828.
His imagination resembled the wings of an ostrich. It enabled him to run, though not to soar.
On John Dryden. 1828.
A man possessed of splendid talents, which he often abused, and of a sound judgment, the admonitions of which he often neglected; a man who succeeded only in an inferior department of his art, but who in that department succeeded pre-eminently.
On John Dryden. 1828.
He had a head which statuaries loved to copy, and a foot the deformity of which the beggars in the streets mimicked.
On Moore's Life of Lord Byron. 1830.
We know no spectacle so ridiculous as the British public in one of its periodical fits of morality.
On Moore's Life of Lord Byron. 1830.
From the poetry of Lord Byron they drew a system of ethics compounded of misanthropy and voluptuousness,--a system in which the two great commandments were to hate your neighbour and to love your neighbour's wife.
On Moore's Life of Lord Byron. 1830.
That wonderful book, while it obtains admiration from the most fastidious critics, is loved by those who are too simple to admire it.
On Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. 1831.
The conformation of his mind was such that whatever was little seemed to him great, and whatever was great seemed to him little.
On Horace Walpole. 1833.
What a singular destiny has been that of this remarkable man!--To be regarded in his own age as a classic, and in ours as a companion! To receive from his contemporaries that full homage which men of genius have in general received only from posterity; to be more intimately known to posterity than other men are known to their contemporaries!
On Boswell's Life of Johnson (Croker's ed.). 1831.
Temple was a man of the world amongst men of letters, a man of letters amongst men of the world.[591-1]
On Sir William Temple. 1838.
She [the Roman Catholic Church] may still exist in undiminished vigour when some traveller from New Zealand shall, in the midst of a vast solitude, take his stand on a broken arch of London Bridge to sketch the ruins of St. Paul's.[591-2]
On Ranke's History of the Popes. 1840.
The chief-justice was rich, quiet, and infamous.
On Warren Hastings. 1841.
In that temple of silence and reconciliation where the enmities of twenty generations lie buried, in the great Abbey which has during many ages afforded a quiet resting-place to those whose minds and bodies have been shattered by the contentions of the Great Hall.
On Warren Hastings. 1841.
In order that he might rob a neighbour whom he had promised to defend, black men fought on the coast of Coromandel and red men scalped each other by the great lakes of North America.
On Frederic the Great. 1842.
We hardly know an instance of the strength and weakness of human nature so striking and so grotesque as the character of this haughty, vigilant, resolute, sagacious blue-stocking, half Mithridates and half Trissotin, bearing up against a world in arms, with an ounce of poison in one pocket and a quire of bad verses in the other.
On Frederic the Great. 1842.
I shall cheerfully bear the reproach of having descended below the dignity of history.[593-1]
History of England. Vol. i. Chap. i.
There were gentlemen and there were seamen in the navy of Charles II. But the seamen were not gentlemen, and the gentlemen were not seamen.
History of England. Vol. i. Chap. ii.
The Puritan hated bear-baiting, not because it gave pain to the bear, but because it gave pleasure to the spectators.[593-2]
History of England. Vol. i. Chap. iii.
I have not the Chancellor's encyclopedic mind. He is indeed a kind of semi-Solomon. He half knows everything, from the cedar to the hyssop.
Letter to Macvey Napier, Dec. 17, 1830.
To every man upon this earth Death cometh soon or late; And how can man die better Than facing fearful odds For the ashes of his fathers And the temples of his gods?
Lays of Ancient Rome. Horatius, xxvii.
How well Horatius kept the bridge In the brave days of old.
Lays of Ancient Rome. Horatius, lxx.
These be the great Twin Brethren To whom the Dorians pray.
The Battle of Lake Regillus.
The sweeter sound of woman's praise.
Lines written in August, 1847.
Ye diners-out from whom we guard our spoons.[593-3]
Political Georgics.
FOOTNOTES:
[590-1] See Butler, page 215.
[591-1] See Pope, page 331-332.
[591-2] The same image was employed by Macaulay in 1824 in the concluding paragraph of a review of Mitford's Greece, and he repeated it in his review of Mill's "Essay on Government" in 1829.
What cities, as great as this, have . . . promised themselves immortality! Posterity can hardly trace the situation of some. The sorrowful traveller wanders over the awful ruins of others. . . . Here stood their citadel, but now grown over with weeds; there their senate-house, but now the haunt of every noxious reptile; temples and theatres stood here, now only an undistinguished heap of ruins.--GOLDSMITH: The Bee, No. iv. (1759.) A City Night Piece.
Who knows but that hereafter some traveller like myself will sit down upon the banks of the Seine, the Thames, or the Zuyder Zee, where now, in the tumult of enjoyment, the heart and the eyes are too slow to take in the multitude of sensations? Who knows but he will sit down solitary amid silent ruins, and weep a people inurned and their greatness changed into an empty name?--VOLNEY: Ruins, chap. ii.
At last some curious traveller from Lima will visit England, and give a description of the ruins of St. Paul's, like the editions of Baalbec and Palmyra.--HORACE WALPOLE: Letter to Mason, Nov. 24, 1774.
Where now is Britain? . . . . . . Even as the savage sits upon the stone That marks where stood her capitols, and hears The bittern booming in the weeds, he shrinks From the dismaying solitude.
HENRY KIRKE WHITE: Time.
In the firm expectation that when London shall be a habitation of bitterns, when St. Paul and Westminster Abbey shall stand shapeless and nameless ruins in the midst of an unpeopled marsh, when the piers of Waterloo Bridge shall become the nuclei of islets of reeds and osiers, and cast the jagged shadows of their broken arches on the solitary stream, some Transatlantic commentator will be weighing in the scales of some new and now unimagined system of criticism the respective merits of the Bells and the Fudges and their historians.--SHELLEY: Dedication to Peter Bell.
[593-1] See Bolingbroke, page 304.
[593-2] Even bear-baiting was esteemed heathenish and unchristian: the sport of it, not the inhumanity, gave offence.--HUME: _History of England, vol. i. chap. lxii._
[593-3] Macaulay, in a letter, June 29, 1831, says "I sent these lines to the 'Times' about three years ago."
J. A. WADE. 1800-1875.
Meet me by moonlight alone, And then I will tell you a tale Must be told by the moonlight alone, In the grove at the end of the vale!
Meet me by Moonlight.
'T were vain to tell thee all I feel, Or say for thee I 'd die.
'T were vain to tell.
SIR HENRY TAYLOR. 1800-18--.
The world knows nothing of its greatest men.
Philip Van Artevelde. Part i. Act i. Sc. 5.
An unreflected light did never yet Dazzle the vision feminine.
Philip Van Artevelde. Part i. Act i. Sc. 5.
He that lacks time to mourn, lacks time to mend. Eternity mourns that. 'T is an ill cure For life's worst ills, to have no time to feel them. Where sorrow 's held intrusive and turned out, There wisdom will not enter, nor true power, Nor aught that dignifies humanity.
Philip Van Artevelde. Part i. Act i. Sc. 5.
We figure to ourselves The thing we like; and then we build it up, As chance will have it, on the rock or sand,-- For thought is tired of wandering o'er the world, And homebound Fancy runs her bark ashore.
Philip Van Artevelde. Part i. Act i. Sc. 5.
Such souls, Whose sudden visitations daze the world, Vanish like lightning, but they leave behind A voice that in the distance far away Wakens the slumbering ages.
Philip Van Artevelde. Part i. Act i. Sc. 7.
WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 1801-1872.
There is a higher law than the Constitution.
Speech, March 11, 1850.
It is an irrepressible conflict between opposing and enduring forces.
Speech, Oct. 25, 1858.
W. M. PRAED. 1802-1839.
Twelve years ago I was a boy, A happy boy at Drury's.
School and Schoolfellows.
Some lie beneath the churchyard stone, And some before the speaker.
School and Schoolfellows.
I remember, I remember How my childhood fleeted by,-- The mirth of its December And the warmth of its July.
I remember, I remember.
GEORGE P. MORRIS. 1802-1864.
Woodman, spare that tree! Touch not a single bough![595-1] In youth it sheltered me, And I 'll protect it now.
Woodman, spare that Tree! 1830.
A song for our banner! The watchword recall Which gave the Republic her station: "United we stand, divided we fall!" It made and preserves us a nation![595-2] The union of lakes, the union of lands, The union of States none can sever, The union of hearts, the union of hands, And the flag of our Union forever!
The Flag of our Union.
Near the lake where drooped the willow, Long time ago!
Near the Lake.
FOOTNOTES:
[595-1] See Campbell, page 516.
[595-2] See Key, page 517.
ALBERT G. GREENE. 1802-1868.
Old Grimes is dead, that good old man We never shall see more; He used to wear a long black coat All buttoned down before.[596-1]
Old Grimes.
FOOTNOTES:
[596-1] John Lee is dead, that good old man,-- We ne'er shall see him more; He used to wear an old drab coat All buttoned down before. To the memory of John Lee, who died May 21, 1823.
An Inscription in Matherne Churchyard.
Old Abram Brown is dead and gone,-- You 'll never see him more; He used to wear a long brown coat That buttoned down before.
HALLIWELL: Nursery Rhymes of England, p. 60.
LYDIA MARIA CHILD. 1802-1880.
England may as well dam up the waters of the Nile with bulrushes as to fetter the step of Freedom, more proud and firm in this youthful land than where she treads the sequestered glens of Scotland, or couches herself among the magnificent mountains of Switzerland.
Supposititious Speech of James Otis. The Rebels, Chap. iv.
DOUGLAS JERROLD. 1803-1857.
He is one of those wise philanthropists who in a time of famine would vote for nothing but a supply of toothpicks.
Douglas Jerrold's Wit.
The surest way to hit a woman's heart is to take aim kneeling.
Douglas Jerrold's Wit.
The nobleman of the garden.
The Pineapple.
That fellow would vulgarize the day of judgment.
A Comic Author.
The best thing I know between France and England is the sea.
The Anglo-French Alliance.
The life of the husbandman,--a life fed by the bounty of earth and sweetened by the airs of heaven.
The Husbandman's Life.
Some people are so fond of ill-luck that they run half-way to meet it.
Meeting Troubles Half-way.
Earth is here so kind, that just tickle her with a hoe and she laughs with a harvest.
A Land of Plenty [Australia].
The ugliest of trades have their moments of pleasure. Now, if I were a grave-digger, or even a hangman, there are some people I could work for with a great deal of enjoyment.
Ugly Trades.
A blessed companion is a book,--a book that fitly chosen is a life-long friend.
Books.
There is something about a wedding-gown prettier than in any other gown in the world.
A Wedding-gown.
He was so good he would pour rose-water on a toad.
A Charitable Man.
As for the brandy, "nothing extenuate;" and the water, put nought in in malice.
Shakespeare Grog.
Talk to him of Jacob's ladder, and he would ask the number of the steps.
A Matter-of-fact Man.
RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 1803-1882.
Nor knowest thou what argument Thy life to thy neighbor's creed has lent. All are needed by each one; Nothing is fair or good alone.
Each and All.
I wiped away the weeds and foam, I fetched my sea-born treasures home; But the poor, unsightly, noisome things Had left their beauty on the shore, With the sun and the sand and the wild uproar.
Each and All.
Not from a vain or shallow thought His awful Jove young Phidias brought.
The Problem.
Out from the heart of Nature rolled The burdens of the Bible old.
The Problem.
The hand that rounded Peter's dome, And groined the aisles of Christian Rome, Wrought in a sad sincerity; Himself from God he could not free; He builded better than he knew: The conscious stone to beauty grew.
The Problem.
Earth proudly wears the Parthenon As the best gem upon her zone.
The Problem.
Earth laughs in flowers to see her boastful boys Earth-proud, proud of the earth which is not theirs; Who steer the plough, but cannot steer their feet Clear of the grave.
Hamatreya.
Good bye, proud world! I 'm going home; Thou art not my friend, and I 'm not thine.[598-1]
Good Bye.
For what are they all in their high conceit, When man in the bush with God may meet?
Good Bye.
If eyes were made for seeing, Then Beauty is its own excuse for being.
The Rhodora.
Things are in the saddle, And ride mankind.[599-1]
Ode, inscribed to W. H. Channing.
Olympian bards who sung Divine ideas below, Which always find us young And always keep us so.
Ode to Beauty.
Heartily know, When half-gods go, The gods arrive.
Give all to Love.
Love not the flower they pluck and know it not, And all their botany is Latin names.
Blight.
The silent organ loudest chants The master's requiem.
Dirge.
By the rude bridge that arched the flood, Their flag to April's breeze unfurled, Here once the embattl'd farmers stood, And fired the shot heard round the world.[599-2]
Hymn sung at the Completion of the Battle Monument.
What potent blood hath modest May!
May-Day.
And striving to be man, the worm Mounts through all the spires of form.
May-Day.
And every man, in love or pride, Of his fate is never wide.
Nemesis.
None shall rule but the humble, And none but Toil shall have.
Boston Hymn. 1863.
Oh, tenderly the haughty day Fills his blue urn with fire.
Ode, Concord, July 4, 1857.
Go put your creed into your deed, Nor speak with double tongue.
Ode, Concord, July 4, 1857.
So nigh is grandeur to our dust, So near is God to man, When Duty whispers low, Thou must, The youth replies, I can!
Voluntaries.
Whoever fights, whoever falls, Justice conquers evermore.
Voluntaries.
Nor sequent centuries could hit Orbit and sum of Shakespeare's wit.
Solution.
Born for success he seemed, With grace to win, with heart to hold, With shining gifts that took all eyes.
In Memoriam.
Nor mourn the unalterable Days That Genius goes and Folly stays.
In Memoriam.
Fear not, then, thou child infirm; There 's no god dare wrong a worm.
Compensation.
He thought it happier to be dead, To die for Beauty, than live for bread.
Beauty.
Wilt thou seal up the avenues of ill? Pay every debt, as if God wrote the bill?
Suum Cuique.
Too busy with the crowded hour to fear to live or die.
Quatrains. Nature.
Though love repine, and reason chafe, There came a voice without reply,-- "'T is man's perdition to be safe When for the truth he ought to die."
Sacrifice.
For what avail the plough or sail, Or land or life, if freedom fail?
Boston.
If the single man plant himself indomitably on his instincts, and there abide, the huge world will come round to him.[601-1]
Nature. Addresses and Lectures. The American Scholar.
There is no great and no small[601-2] To the Soul that maketh all; And where it cometh, all things are; And it cometh everywhere.
Essays. First Series. Epigraph to History.
Time dissipates to shining ether the solid angularity of facts.
Essays. First Series. History.
Nature is a mutable cloud which is always and never the same.
Essays. First Series. History.
A man is a bundle of relations, a knot of roots, whose flower and fruitage is the world.
Essays. First Series. History.
The virtue in most request is conformity. Self-reliance is its aversion. It loves not realities and creators, but names and customs.
Essays. First Series. Self-Reliance.
A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.
Essays. First Series. Self-Reliance.
To be great is to be misunderstood.
Essays. First Series. Self-Reliance.
Discontent is the want of self-reliance: it is infirmity of will.
Essays. First Series. Self-Reliance.
Everything in Nature contains all the powers of Nature. Everything is made of one hidden stuff.
Essays. First Series. Compensation.
It is as impossible for a man to be cheated by any one but himself, as for a thing to be and not to be at the same time.
Essays. First Series. Compensation.
Proverbs, like the sacred books of each nation, are the sanctuary of the intuitions.
Essays. First Series. Compensation.
Every action is measured by the depth of the sentiment from which it proceeds.
Essays. First Series. Spiritual Laws.
All mankind love a lover.
Essays. First Series. Love.
A ruddy drop of manly blood The surging sea outweighs; The world uncertain comes and goes, The lover rooted stays.
Essays. First Series. Epigraph to Friendship.
A friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of Nature.
Essays. First Series. Friendship.
Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.
Essays. First Series. Circles.
There is nothing settled in manners, but the laws of behaviour yield to the energy of the individual.
Essays. Second Series. Manners.
And with Cæsar to take in his hand the army, the empire, and Cleopatra, and say, "All these will I relinquish if you will show me the fountain of the Nile."
New England Reformers.
He is great who is what he is from Nature, and who never reminds us of others.
Representative Men. Uses of Great Men.
Is not marriage an open question, when it is alleged, from the beginning of the world, that such as are in the institution wish to get out, and such as are out wish to get in?[602-1]
Representative Men. Montaigne.
Thought is the property of him who can entertain it, and of him who can adequately place it.
Representative Men. Shakespeare.
The hearing ear is always found close to the speaking tongue.
English Traits. Race.
I find the Englishman to be him of all men who stands firmest in his shoes.
English Traits. Manners.
A creative economy is the fuel of magnificence.
English Traits. Aristocracy.
The manly part is to do with might and main what you can do.
The Conduct of Life. Wealth.
The alleged power to charm down insanity, or ferocity in beasts, is a power behind the eye.
The Conduct of Life. Behaviour.
Fine manners need the support of fine manners in others.
The Conduct of Life. Behaviour.
Good is a good doctor, but Bad is sometimes a better.
The Conduct of Life. Considerations by the Way.
God may forgive sins, he said, but awkwardness has no forgiveness in heaven or earth.
The Conduct of Life. Society and Solitude.
Hitch your wagon to a star.
The Conduct of Life. Civilization.
I rarely read any Latin, Greek, German, Italian, sometimes not a French book, in the original, which I can procure in a good version. I like to be beholden to the great metropolitan English speech, the sea which receives tributaries from every region under heaven. I should as soon think of swimming across Charles River when I wish to go to Boston, as of reading all my books in originals when I have them rendered for me in my mother tongue.
The Conduct of Life. Books.
We do not count a man's years until he has nothing else to count.
The Conduct of Life. Old Age.
Life is not so short but that there is always time enough for courtesy.
Letters and Social Aims. Social Aims.
By necessity, by proclivity, and by delight, we all quote.
Letters and Social Aims. Quotation and Originality.
Next to the originator of a good sentence is the first quoter of it.[604-1]
Letters and Social Aims. Quotation and Originality.
When Shakespeare is charged with debts to his authors, Landor replies, "Yet he was more original than his originals. He breathed upon dead bodies and brought them into life."
Letters and Social Aims. Quotation and Originality.
In fact, it is as difficult to appropriate the thoughts of others as it is to invent.
Letters and Social Aims. Quotation and Originality.
The passages of Shakespeare that we most prize were never quoted until within this century.
Letters and Social Aims. Quotation and Originality.
Great men are they who see that spiritual is stronger than any material force; that thoughts rule the world.
Progress of Culture. Phi Beta Kappa Address, July 18, 1867.
I do not find that the age or country makes the least difference; no, nor the language the actors spoke, nor the religion which they professed, whether Arab in the desert or Frenchman in the Academy. I see that sensible men and conscientious men all over the world were of one religion.[604-2]
Lectures and Biographical Sketches. The Preacher.
FOOTNOTES:
[598-1] See Byron, page 544.
[599-1] I never could believe that Providence had sent a few men into the world ready booted and spurred to ride, and millions ready saddled and bridled to be ridden.--RUMBOLD (when on the scaffold).
[599-2] No war or battle sound Was heard the world around.
MILTON: Hymn of Christ's Nativity, line 31.
[601-1] Everything comes if a man will only wait.--DISRAELI: Tancred, book iv. chap. viii.
[601-2] See Pope, page 316.
[602-1] See Davies, page 176.
[604-1] There is not less wit nor less invention in applying rightly a thought one finds in a book, than in being the first author of that thought. Cardinal du Perron has been heard to say that the happy application of a verse of Virgil has deserved a talent.--BAYLE: vol. ii. p. 779.
Though old the thought and oft exprest, 'T is his at last who says it best.
LOWELL: For an Autograph.
[604-2] See Johnson, page 370.
RICHARD HENGEST HORNE. 1803- ----.
'T is always morning somewhere in the world.[604-3]
Orion. Book iii. Canto ii. (1843.)
FOOTNOTES:
[604-3] 'T is always morning somewhere.--LONGFELLOW: Wayside Inn. Birds of Killingworth, stanza 16.
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. 1804-1879.
My country is the world; my countrymen are mankind.[605-1]
Prospectus of the Public Liberator, 1830.
I am in earnest. I will not equivocate; I will not excuse; I will not retreat a single inch; and I will be heard!
Salutatory of the Liberator, Jan. 1, 1831.
Our country is the world; our countrymen are mankind.
Motto of the Liberator, Vol. i. No. 1, 1831.
I will be as harsh as truth and as uncompromising as justice.
The Liberator, Vol. i. No. 1, 1831.
Our country is the world; our countrymen are all mankind.
Prospectus of the Liberator, Dec. 15, 1837.
The compact which exists between the North and the South is a covenant with death and an agreement with hell.[605-2]
Resolution adopted by the Antislavery Society, Jan. 27, 1843.
FOOTNOTES:
[605-1] Socrates said he was not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the world.--PLUTARCH: On Banishment.
Diogenes, when asked from what country he came, replied, "I am a citizen of the world."--DIOGENES LAERTIUS.
My country is the world, and my religion is to do good.--THOMAS PAINE: Rights of Man, chap. v.
[605-2] We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement.--Isaiah xxviii. 15.
MARY HOWITT. 1804-1888.
Old England is our home, and Englishmen are we; Our tongue is known in every clime, our flag in every sea.
Old England is our Home.
"Will you walk into my parlour?" said a spider to a fly; "'T is the prettiest little parlour that ever you did spy."
The Spider and the Fly.
SARAH FLOWER ADAMS. 1805-1848.
Nearer, my God, to Thee! Nearer to Thee! E'en though it be a cross That raiseth me, Still all my song shall be, Nearer, my God, to Thee! Nearer to Thee!
EDWARD BULWER LYTTON. 1805-1873.
Curse away! And let me tell thee, Beausant, a wise proverb The Arabs have,--"Curses are like young chickens, And still come home to roost."
The Lady of Lyons. Act v. Sc. 2.
Beneath the rule of men entirely great, The pen is mightier than the sword.[606-1]
Richelieu. Act ii. Sc. 2.
Take away the sword; States can be saved without it.
Richelieu. Act ii. Sc. 2.
In the lexicon of youth, which fate reserves For a bright manhood, there is no such word As "fail."
Richelieu. Act ii. Sc. 2.
The brilliant chief, irregularly great, Frank, haughty, rash,--the Rupert of debate![606-2]
The New Timon. (1846.) Part i.
Alone!--that worn-out word, So idly spoken, and so coldly heard; Yet all that poets sing and grief hath known Of hopes laid waste, knells in that word ALONE!
The New Timon. (1846.) Part ii.
When stars are in the quiet skies, Then most I pine for thee; Bend on me then thy tender eyes, As stars look on the sea.
When Stars are in the quiet Skies.
Buy my flowers,--oh buy, I pray! The blind girl comes from afar.
Buy my Flowers.
The man who smokes, thinks like a sage and acts like a Samaritan.
Night and Morning. Chap. vi.
FOOTNOTES:
[606-1] See Burton, page 189.
[606-2] In April, 1844, Mr. Disraeli thus alluded to Lord Stanley: "The noble lord is the Rupert of debate."
BENJAMIN DISRAELI (EARL BEACONSFIELD). 1805-1881.
Free trade is not a principle, it is an expedient.[607-1]
On Import Duties, April 25, 1843.
The noble lord[607-2] is the Rupert of debate.[607-3]
Speech, April, 1844.
A conservative government is an organized hypocrisy.
Speech, March 17, 1845.
A precedent embalms a principle.
Speech, Feb. 22, 1848.
It is much easier to be critical than to be correct.
Speech, Jan. 24, 1860.
The characteristic of the present age is craving credulity.
Speech, Nov. 25, 1864.
Assassination has never changed the history of the world.
Speech, May, 1865.
I see before me the statue of a celebrated minister,[607-4] who said that confidence was a plant of slow growth. But I believe, however gradual may be the growth of confidence, that of credit requires still more time to arrive at maturity.
Speech, Nov. 9, 1867.
The secret of success is constancy to purpose.
Speech, June 24, 1870.
The author who speaks about his own books is almost as bad as a mother who talks about her own children.
Speech, Nov. 19, 1870.
Apologies only account for that which they do not alter.
Speech, July 28, 1871.
Increased means and increased leisure are the two civilizers of man.
Speech, April 3, 1872.
I repeat . . . that all power is a trust; that we are accountable for its exercise; that from the people and for the people all springs, and all must exist.[608-1]
Vivian Grey. Book vi. Chap. vii.
Man is not the creature of circumstances. Circumstances are the creatures of men.
Vivian Grey. Book vi. Chap. vii.
The disappointment of manhood succeeds to the delusion of youth: let us hope that the heritage of old age is not despair.
Vivian Grey. Book viii. Chap. iv.
The first favourite was never heard of, the second favourite was never seen after the distance post, all the ten-to-oners were in the rear, and a dark horse[608-2] which had never been thought of, and which the careless St. James had never even observed in the list, rushed past the grand stand in sweeping triumph.
The Young Duke. Book i. Chap. v.
Patience is a necessary ingredient of genius.
Contarini Fleming. Part iv. Chap. v.
Youth is a blunder; manhood a struggle; old age a regret.
Coningsby. Book iii. Chap. i.
But what minutes! Count them by sensation, and not by calendars, and each moment is a day, and the race a life.
Sybil. Book i. Chap. ii.
Only think of Cockie Graves having gone and done it!
Sybil. Book i. Chap. ii.
The Duke of Wellington brought to the post of first minister immortal fame,--a quality of success which would almost seem to include all others.
Sybil. Book i. Chap. iii.
The Egremonts had never said anything that was remembered, or done anything that could be recalled.
Sybil. Book i. Chap. iii.
If the history of England be ever written by one who has the knowledge and the courage,--and both qualities are equally requisite for the undertaking,--the world will be more astonished than when reading the Roman annals by Niebuhr.
Sybil. Book i. Chap. iii.
That earliest shock in one's life which occurs to all of us; which first makes us think.
Sybil. Book i. Chap. v.
To be conscious that you are ignorant is a great step to knowledge.
Sybil. Book i. Chap. v.
Principle is ever my motto, not expediency.
Sybil. Book ii. Chap. ii.
Property has its duties as well as its rights.[609-1]
Sybil. Book ii. Chap. xi.
Mr. Kremlin was distinguished for ignorance; for he had only one idea, and that was wrong.[609-2]
Sybil. Book iv. Chap. v.
Everything comes if a man will only wait.[609-3]
Tancred. Book iv. Chap. viii. (1847.)
That when a man fell into his anecdotage, it was a sign for him to retire.
Lothair. Chap. xxviii.
You know who critics are?--the men who have failed in literature and art.[609-4]
Lothair. Chap. xxxv.
His Christianity was muscular.
Endymion. Chap. xiv.
The Athanasian Creed is the most splendid ecclesiastical lyric ever poured forth by the genius of man.
Endymion. Chap. lii.
The world is a wheel, and it will all come round right.
Endymion. Chap. lxx.
"As for that," said Waldenshare, "sensible men are all of the same religion." "Pray, what is that?" inquired the Prince. "Sensible men never tell."[610-1]
Endymion. Chap. lxxxi.
The sweet simplicity of the three per cents.[610-2]
Endymion. Chap. xcvi.
FOOTNOTES:
[607-1] It is a condition which confronts us, not a theory.--GROVER CLEVELAND: _Annual Message, 1887. Reference to the Tariff._
[607-2] Lord Stanley.
[607-3] See Bulwer, page 606.
[607-4] William Pitt, Earl of Chatham.
[608-1] See Webster, page 532.
[608-2] A common political phrase in the United States.
[609-1] See Drummond, page 582.
[609-2] See Johnson, page 371.
[609-3] See Emerson, page 601.
All things come round to him who will but wait.--LONGFELLOW: Tales of a Wayside Inn. The Student's Tale. (1862.)
[609-4] See Coleridge, page 505.
[610-1] See Johnson, page 370.
An anecdote is related of Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper (1621-1683), who, in speaking of religion, said, "People differ in their discourse and profession about these matters, but men of sense are really but of one religion." To the inquiry of "What religion?" the Earl said, "Men of sense never tell it."--BURNET: History of my own Times, vol. i. p. 175, note (edition 1833).
[610-2] See Stowell, page 437.
ROBERT MONTGOMERY. 1807-1855.
And thou, vast ocean! on whose awful face Time's iron feet can print no ruin-trace.[610-3]
The Omnipresence of the Deity. Part i.
The soul aspiring pants its source to mount, As streams meander level with their fount.[610-4]
The Omnipresence of the Deity. Part i.
The solitary monk who shook the world From pagan slumber, when the gospel trump Thunder'd its challenge from his dauntless lips In peals of truth.
Luther. Man's Need and God's Supply.
And not from Nature up to Nature's God,[610-5] But down from Nature's God look Nature through.
Luther. A Landscape of Domestic Life.
FOOTNOTES:
[610-3] See Byron, page 547.
[610-4] We take this to be, on the whole, the worst similitude in the world. In the first place, no stream meanders or can possibly meander level with the fount. In the next place, if streams did meander level with their founts, no two motions can be less like each other than that of meandering level and that of mounting upwards.--MACAULAY: Review of Montgomery's Poems (Eleventh Edition). Edinburgh Review, April, 1830.
These lines were omitted in the subsequent edition of the poem.
[610-5] See Bolingbroke, page 304.
CHARLES JEFFERYS. 1807-1865.
Come o'er the moonlit sea, The waves are brightly glowing.
The Moonlit Sea.
The morn was fair, the skies were clear, No breath came o'er the sea.
The Rose of Allandale.
Meek and lowly, pure and holy, Chief among the "blessed three."
Charity.
Come, wander with me, for the moonbeams are bright On river and forest, o'er mountain and lea.
Come, wander with me.
A word in season spoken May calm the troubled breast.
A Word in Season.
The bud is on the bough again, The leaf is on the tree.
The Meeting of Spring and Summer.
I have heard the mavis singing Its love-song to the morn; I 've seen the dew-drop clinging To the rose just newly born.
Mary of Argyle.
We have lived and loved together Through many changing years; We have shared each other's gladness, And wept each other's tears.
We have lived and loved together.
LADY DUFFERIN. 1807-1867.
I 'm sitting on the stile, Mary, Where we sat side by side.
Lament of the Irish Emigrant.
I 'm very lonely now, Mary, For the poor make no new friends; But oh they love the better still The few our Father sends!
Lament of the Irish Emigrant.
HENRY W. LONGFELLOW. 1807-1882.
(From the edition of 1886.)
Look, then, into thine heart, and write![612-1]
Voices of the Night. Prelude.
Tell me not, in mournful numbers, "Life is but an empty dream!" For the soul is dead that slumbers, And things are not what they seem.[612-2]
A Psalm of Life.
Life is real! life is earnest! And the grave is not its goal; Dust thou art, to dust returnest, Was not spoken of the soul.
A Psalm of Life.
Art is long, and time is fleeting,[612-3] And our hearts, though stout and brave, Still like muffled drums are beating Funeral marches to the grave.[612-4]
A Psalm of Life.
Trust no future, howe'er pleasant! Let the dead Past bury its dead! Act, act in the living present! Heart within, and God o'erhead!
A Psalm of Life.
Lives of great men all remind us We can make our lives sublime, And departing, leave behind us Footprints on the sands of time.
A Psalm of Life.
Let us, then, be up and doing, With a heart for any fate;[612-5] Still achieving, still pursuing, Learn to labour and to wait.
A Psalm of Life.
There is a reaper whose name is Death,[613-1] And with his sickle keen He reaps the bearded grain at a breath, And the flowers that grow between.
The Reaper and the Flowers.
The star of the unconquered will.
The Light of Stars.
Oh, fear not in a world like this, And thou shalt know erelong,-- Know how sublime a thing it is To suffer and be strong.
The Light of Stars.
Spake full well, in language quaint and olden, One who dwelleth by the castled Rhine, When he called the flowers, so blue and golden, Stars, that in earth's firmament do shine.
Flowers.
The hooded clouds, like friars, Tell their beads in drops of rain.
Midnight Mass.
No tears Dim the sweet look that Nature wears.
Sunrise on the Hills.
No one is so accursed by fate, No one so utterly desolate, But some heart, though unknown, Responds unto his own.
Endymion.
For Time will teach thee soon the truth, There are no birds in last year's nest![613-2]
It is not always May.
Into each life some rain must fall, Some days must be dark and dreary.
The Rainy Day.
The prayer of Ajax was for light.[614-1]
The Goblet of Life.
O suffering, sad humanity! O ye afflicted ones, who lie Steeped to the lips in misery, Longing, yet afraid to die, Patient, though sorely tried!
The Goblet of Life.
Standing with reluctant feet Where the brook and river meet, Womanhood and childhood fleet!
Maidenhood.
O thou child of many prayers! Life hath quicksands; life hath snares!
Maidenhood.
She floats upon the river of his thoughts.[614-2]
The Spanish Student. Act ii. Sc. 3.
A banner with the strange device.
Excelsior.
This is the place. Stand still, my steed,-- Let me review the scene, And summon from the shadowy past The forms that once have been.
A Gleam of Sunshine.
The day is done, and the darkness Falls from the wings of Night, As a feather is wafted downward From an eagle in his flight.
The Day is done.
A feeling of sadness and longing That is not akin to pain, And resembles sorrow only As the mist resembles the rain.
The Day is done.
And the night shall be filled with music, And the cares that infest the day Shall fold their tents like the Arabs, And as silently steal away.
The Day is done.
Sail on, O Ship of State! Sail on, O Union, strong and great! Humanity with all its fears, With all the hopes of future years, Is hanging breathless on thy fate!
The Building of the Ship.
Our hearts, our hopes, are all with thee,-- Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears, Our faith triumphant o'er our fears, Are all with thee,--are all with thee!
The Building of the Ship.
The leaves of memory seemed to make A mournful rustling in the dark.
The Fire of Drift-wood.
There is no flock, however watched and tended, But one dead lamb is there; There is no fireside, howsoe'er defended, But has one vacant chair.
Resignation.
The air is full of farewells to the dying, And mournings for the dead.
Resignation.
But oftentimes celestial benedictions Assume this dark disguise.
Resignation.
What seem to us but sad, funereal tapers May be heaven's distant lamps.
Resignation.
There is no death! What seems so is transition; This life of mortal breath Is but a suburb of the life elysian, Whose portal we call Death.
Resignation.
Safe from temptation, safe from sin's pollution, She lives whom we call dead.
Resignation.
In the elder days of Art, Builders wrought with greatest care Each minute and unseen part; For the gods see everywhere.
The Builders.
This is the forest primeval.
Evangeline. Part i.
When she had passed, it seemed like the ceasing of exquisite music.
Evangeline. Part i. 1.
Blossomed the lovely stars, the forget-me-nots of the angels.
Evangeline. Part i. 3.
And as she looked around, she saw how Death the consoler, Laying his hand upon many a heart, had healed it forever.
Evangeline. Part ii. 5.
God had sifted three kingdoms to find the wheat for this planting.[616-1]
The Courtship of Miles Standish. iv.
Into a world unknown,--the corner-stone of a nation![616-2]
The Courtship of Miles Standish. iv.
Saint Augustine! well hast thou said, That of our vices we can frame A ladder, if we will but tread Beneath our feet each deed of shame.[616-3]
The Ladder of Saint Augustine.
The heights by great men reached and kept Were not attained by sudden flight, But they while their companions slept Were toiling upward in the night.
The Ladder of Saint Augustine.
The surest pledge of a deathless name Is the silent homage of thoughts unspoken.
The Herons of Elmwood.
He has singed the beard of the king of Spain.[616-4]
The Dutch Picture.
The love of learning, the sequestered nooks, And all the sweet serenity of books.
Morituri Salutamus.
With useless endeavour Forever, forever, Is Sisyphus rolling His stone up the mountain!
The Masque of Pandora. Chorus of the Eumenides.
All things come round to him who will but wait.[617-1]
Tales of a Wayside Inn. The Student's Tale.
Time has laid his hand Upon my heart gently, not smiting it, But as a harper lays his open palm Upon his harp, to deaden its vibrations.
The Golden Legend. iv.
Hospitality sitting with Gladness.
Translation from Frithiof's Saga.
Who ne'er his bread in sorrow ate, Who ne'er the mournful midnight hours Weeping upon his bed has sate, He knows you not, ye Heavenly Powers.
Motto, Hyperion. Book i.[617-2]
Something the heart must have to cherish, Must love and joy and sorrow learn; Something with passion clasp, or perish And in itself to ashes burn.
Hyperion. Book ii.
Alas! it is not till time, with reckless hand, has torn out half the leaves from the Book of Human Life to light the fires of passion with from day to day, that man begins to see that the leaves which remain are few in number.
Hyperion. Book iv. Chap. viii.
Hold the fleet angel fast until he bless thee.[618-1]
Kavanagh.
There is no greater sorrow Than to be mindful of the happy time In misery.[618-2]
Inferno. Canto v. Line 121.
FOOTNOTES:
[612-1] See Philip Sidney, page 34.
[612-2] Things are not always what they seem.--PHÆDRUS: _Fables, book iv. Fable 2._
[612-3] See Chaucer, page 6.
Art is long, life is short.--GOETHE: Wilhelm Meister, vii. 9.
[612-4] Our lives are but our marches to the grave.-BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER: The Humorous Lieutenant, act iii. sc. 5.
[612-5] See Byron, page 553.
[613-1] There is a Reaper whose name is death.--ARNIM AND BRENTANO: Erntelied. (From "Des Knaben Wunderhorn," ed. 1857, vol. i. p. 59.)
[613-2] Never look for birds of this year in the nests of the last.--CERVANTES: Don Quixote, part ii. chap. lxxiv.
[614-1] The light of Heaven restore; Give me to see, and Ajax asks no more.
POPE: The Iliad, book xvii. line 730.
[614-2] See Byron, page 553.
[616-1] See Stoughton, page 266.
[616-2] Plymouth rock.
[616-3] I held it truth, with him who sings To one clear harp in divers tones, That men may rise on stepping-stones Of their dead selves to higher things.
TENNYSON: In Memoriam, i.
[616-4] Sir Francis Drake entered the harbour of Cadiz, April 19, 1587, and destroyed shipping to the amount of ten thousand tons lading. To use his own expressive phrase, he had "singed the Spanish king's beard."--KNIGHT: Pictorial History of England, vol. iii. p. 215.
[617-1] See Emerson, page 601.
[617-2] Wer nie sein Brod mit Thränen ass, Wer nicht die kummervollen Nächte Auf seinem Bette weinend sass, Der kennt euch nicht, ihr himmlischen Mächte.
GOETHE: Wilhelm Meister, book ii. chap. xiii.
[618-1] Quoted from Cotton's "To-morrow." See Genesis xxx. 3.
[618-2] See Chaucer, page 5.
In omni adversitate fortunæ, infelicissimum genus est infortunii fuisse felicem (In every adversity of fortune, to have been happy is the most unhappy kind of misfortune).--BOETHIUS: De Consolatione Philosophiæ, liber ii.
This is truth the poet sings, That a sorrow's crown of sorrow is remembering happier things.
TENNYSON: Locksley Hall, line 75.
JOHN G. WHITTIER. 1807- ----.
So fallen! so lost! the light withdrawn Which once he wore; The glory from his gray hairs gone For evermore!
Ichabod!
Making their lives a prayer.
To A. K. On receiving a Basket of Sea-Mosses.
And step by step, since time began, I see the steady gain of man.
The Chapel of the Hermits.
For still the new transcends the old In signs and tokens manifold; Slaves rise up men; the olive waves, With roots deep set in battle graves!
The Chapel of the Hermits.
Give lettered pomp to teeth of Time, So "Bonnie Doon" but tarry; Blot out the epic's stately rhyme, But spare his "Highland Mary!"
Lines on Burns.
For of all sad words of tongue or pen, The saddest are these: "It might have been!"
Maud Muller.
Low stir of leaves and dip of oars And lapsing waves on quiet shores.
Snow Bound.
The hope of all who suffer, The dread of all who wrong.
The Mantle of St. John de Matha.
I know not where His islands lift Their fronded palms in air; I only know I cannot drift Beyond His love and care.
The Eternal Goodness.
SALMON P. CHASE. 1808-1873.
The Constitution, in all its provisions, looks to an indestructible Union composed of indestructible States.
Decision in Texas v. White, 7 Wallace, 725.
No more slave States; no slave Territories.
Platform of the Free Soil National Convention, 1848.
The way to resumption is to resume.
Letter to Horace Greeley, March 17, 1866.
SAMUEL FRANCIS SMITH. 1808- ----.
My country, 't is of thee, Sweet land of liberty, Of thee I sing: Land where my fathers died, Land of the pilgrims' pride, From every mountain-side Let freedom ring.
National Hymn.
Our fathers' God, to thee; Author of liberty, To thee I sing; Long may our land be bright With freedom's holy light; Protect us by thy might, Great God, our King!
National Hymn.
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING. 1809-1861.
There Shakespeare, on whose forehead climb The crowns o' the world; oh, eyes sublime With tears and laughter for all time!
A Vision of Poets.
And Chaucer, with his infantine Familiar clasp of things divine.
A Vision of Poets.
And Marlowe, Webster, Fletcher, Ben, Whose fire-hearts sowed our furrows when The world was worthy of such men.
A Vision of Poets.
Knowledge by suffering entereth, And life is perfected by death.
A Vision of Poets. Conclusion.
Oh, the little birds sang east, and the little birds sang west.
Toll slowly.
And I smiled to think God's greatness flowed around our incompleteness, Round our restlessness His rest.
Rhyme of the Duchess.
Or from Browning some "Pomegranate," which if cut deep down the middle Shows a heart within blood-tinctured, of a veined humanity.
Lady Geraldine's Courtship. xli.
But since he had The genius to be loved, why let him have The justice to be honoured in his grave.
Crowned and buried. xxvii.
Thou large-brain'd woman and large-hearted man.
To George Sand. A Desire.
By thunders of white silence.
Hiram Power's Greek Slave.
And that dismal cry rose slowly And sank slowly through the air, Full of spirit's melancholy And eternity's despair; And they heard the words it said,-- "Pan is dead! great Pan is dead! Pan, Pan is dead!"[621-1]
The Dead Pan.
Death forerunneth Love to win "Sweetest eyes were ever seen."
Catarina to Camoens. ix.
She has seen the mystery hid Under Egypt's pyramid: By those eyelids pale and close Now she knows what Rhamses knows.
Little Mattie. Stanza ii.
But so fair, She takes the breath of men away Who gaze upon her unaware.
Bianca among the Nightingales. xii.
God answers sharp and sudden on some prayers, And thrusts the thing we have prayed for in our face, A gauntlet with a gift in 't.
Aurora Leigh. Book ii.
The growing drama has outgrown such toys Of simulated stature, face, and speech: It also peradventure may outgrow The simulation of the painted scene, Boards, actors, prompters, gaslight, and costume, And take for a worthier stage the soul itself, Its shifting fancies and celestial lights, With all its grand orchestral silences To keep the pauses of its rhythmic sounds.
Aurora Leigh. Book v.
FOOTNOTES:
[621-1] Thamus . . . uttered with a loud voice his message, "The great Pan is dead."--PLUTARCH: _Why the Oracles cease to give Answers._
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 1809-1865.
I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free.
Speech, June 16, 1858.
Let us have faith that right makes might; and in that faith let us dare to do our duty as we understand it.
Address, New York City, Feb. 21, 1859.
In giving freedom to the slave we assure freedom to the free,--honorable alike in what we give and what we preserve.
Second Annual Message to Congress, Dec. 1, 1862.
That this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.[622-1]
Speech at Gettysburg, Nov. 19, 1863.
With malice towards none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right.[622-2]
Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865.
FOOTNOTES:
[622-1] See Daniel Webster, page 532.
[622-2] See J. Q. Adams, page 458.
CHARLES DARWIN. 1809-1882.
I have called this principle, by which each slight variation, if useful, is preserved, by the term Natural Selection.
The Origin of Species. Chap. iii.
We will now discuss in a little more detail the Struggle for Existence.[622-3]
The Origin of Species. Chap. iii.
The expression often used by Mr. Herbert Spencer of the Survival of the Fittest is more accurate, and is sometimes equally convenient.[622-4]
The Origin of Species. Chap. iii.
FOOTNOTES:
[622-3] The perpetual struggle for room and food.--MALTHUS: On Population. chap. iii. p. 48 (1798).
[622-4] This survival of the fittest which I have here sought to express in mechanical terms, is that which Mr. Darwin has called "natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life."--HERBERT SPENCER: Principles of Biology. Indirect Equilibration.
ALFRED TENNYSON. 1809- ----.
(From the edition of 1884.)
This laurel greener from the brows Of him that utter'd nothing base.
To the Queen.
And statesmen at her council met Who knew the seasons, when to take Occasion by the hand, and make The bounds of freedom wider yet.
To the Queen.
Broad based upon her people's will, And compassed by the inviolate sea.
To the Queen.
For it was in the golden prime Of good Haroun Alraschid.
Recollections of the Arabian Nights.
Dowered with the hate of hate, the scorn of scorn, The love of love.
The Poet.
Like glimpses of forgotten dreams.
The Two Voices. Stanza cxxvii.
Across the walnuts and the wine.
The Miller's Daughter.
O love! O fire! once he drew With one long kiss my whole soul through My lips, as sunlight drinketh dew.[623-1]
Fatima. Stanza 3.
Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control,-- These three alone lead life to sovereign power.
OEnone.
Because right is right, to follow right Were wisdom in the scorn of consequence.
OEnone.
I built my soul a lordly pleasure-house, Wherein at ease for aye to dwell.
The Palace of Art.
Her manners had not that repose Which stamps the caste of Vere de Vere.
Lady Clara Vere de Vere. Stanza 5.
From yon blue heaven above us bent, The grand old gardener and his wife[624-1] Smile at the claims of long descent.
Lady Clara Vere de Vere. Stanza 7.
Howe'er it be, it seems to me, 'T is only noble to be good.[624-2] Kind hearts are more than coronets, And simple faith than Norman blood.
Lady Clara Vere de Vere. Stanza 7.
You must wake and call me early, call me early, mother dear; To-morrow 'll be the happiest time of all the glad New Year,-- Of all the glad New Year, mother, the maddest, merriest day; For I 'm to be Queen o' the May, mother, I 'm to be queen o' the May.
The May Queen.
Ah, why Should life all labour be?
The Lotus-Eaters. iv.
A daughter of the gods, divinely tall, And most divinely fair.[624-3]
A Dream of Fair Women. Stanza xxii.
God gives us love. Something to love He lends us; but when love is grown To ripeness, that on which it throve Falls off, and love is left alone.
To J. S.
Sleep sweetly, tender heart, in peace! Sleep, holy spirit, blessed soul, While the stars burn, the moons increase, And the great ages onward roll.
To J. S.
Sleep till the end, true soul and sweet! Nothing comes to thee new or strange. Sleep full of rest from head to feet; Lie still, dry dust, secure of change.
To J. S.
More black than ash-buds in the front of March.
The Gardener's Daughter.
Of love that never found his earthly close, What sequel? Streaming eyes and breaking hearts; Or all the same as if he had not been?
Love and Duty.
The long mechanic pacings to and fro, The set, gray life, and apathetic end.
Love and Duty.
Ah, when shall all men's good Be each man's rule, and universal peace Lie like a shaft of light across the land, And like a lane of beams athwart the sea, Thro' all the circle of the golden year?
The Golden Year.
I am a part of all that I have met.[625-1]
Ulysses.
How dull it is to pause, to make an end, To rust unburnish'd, not to shine in use,-- As tho' to breathe were life!
Ulysses.
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles, And see the great Achilles whom we knew.
Ulysses.
Here at the quiet limit of the world.
Tithonus.
In the spring a livelier iris changes on the burnish'd dove; In the spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love.
Locksley Hall. Line 19.
Love took up the harp of Life, and smote on all the chords with might; Smote the chord of Self, that, trembling, pass'd in music out of sight.
Locksley Hall. Line 33.
He will hold thee, when his passion shall have spent its novel force, Something better than his dog, a little dearer than his horse.
Locksley Hall. Line 49.
This is truth the poet sings, That a sorrow's crown of sorrow is remembering happier things.[626-1]
Locksley Hall. Line 75.
Like a dog, he hunts in dreams.
Locksley Hall. Line 79.
With a little hoard of maxims preaching down a daughter's heart.
Locksley Hall. Line 94.
But the jingling of the guinea helps the hurt that Honour feels.
Locksley Hall. Line 105.
Men, my brothers, men the workers, ever reaping something new.
Locksley Hall. Line 117.
Yet I doubt not through the ages one increasing purpose runs, And the thoughts of men are widen'd with the process of the suns.
Locksley Hall. Line 137.
Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers.
Locksley Hall. Line 141.
I will take some savage woman, she shall rear my dusky race.
Locksley Hall. Line 168.
I, the heir of all the ages, in the foremost files of time.
Locksley Hall. Line 178.
Let the great world spin forever down the ringing grooves of change.
Locksley Hall. Line 182.
Better fifty years of Europe than a cycle of Cathay.
Locksley Hall. Line 184.
I waited for the train at Coventry; I hung with grooms and porters on the bridge, To watch the three tall spires; and there I shaped The city's ancient legend into this.
Godiva.
And on her lover's arm she leant, And round her waist she felt it fold, And far across the hills they went In that new world which is the old.
The Day-Dream. The Departure, i.
And o'er the hills, and far away Beyond their utmost purple rim, Beyond the night, across the day, Thro' all the world she follow'd him.
The Day-Dream. The Departure, iv.
We are ancients of the earth, And in the morning of the times.
L'Envoi.
As she fled fast through sun and shade The happy winds upon her play'd, Blowing the ringlet from the braid.
Sir Launcelot and Queen Guinevere.
For now the poet cannot die, Nor leave his music as of old, But round him ere he scarce be cold Begins the scandal and the cry.
To ----, after reading a Life and Letters.
But oh for the touch of a vanish'd hand, And the sound of a voice that is still!
Break, break, break.
But the tender grace of a day that is dead Will never come back to me.
Break, break, break.
For men may come and men may go, But I go on forever.
The Brook.
Mastering the lawless science of our law,-- That codeless myriad of precedent, That wilderness of single instances.
Aylmer's Field.
Rich in saving common-sense, And, as the greatest only are, In his simplicity sublime.
Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington. Stanza 4.
Oh good gray head which all men knew!
Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington. Stanza 4.
That tower of strength Which stood four-square to all the winds that blew.
Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington. Stanza 4.
For this is England's greatest son, He that gain'd a hundred fights, And never lost an English gun.
Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington. Stanza 6.
Not once or twice in our rough-island story The path of duty was the way to glory.
Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington. Stanza 8.
All in the valley of death Rode the six hundred.
The Charge of the Light Brigade. Stanza 1.
Some one had blunder'd: Theirs not to make reply, Theirs not to reason why, Theirs but to do and die.
The Charge of the Light Brigade. Stanza 2.
Cannon to right of them, Cannon to left of them, Cannon in front of them. . . . . Into the jaws of death,[628-1] Into the mouth of hell Rode the six hundred.
The Charge of the Light Brigade. Stanza 3.
That a lie which is half a truth is ever the blackest of lies; That a lie which is all a lie may be met and fought with outright; But a lie which is part a truth is a harder matter to fight.
The Grandmother. Stanza 8.
O Love! what hours were thine and mine, In lands of palm and southern pine; In lands of palm, of orange-blossom, Of olive, aloe, and maize and vine!
The Daisy. Stanza 1.
So dear a life your arms enfold, Whose crying is a cry for gold.
The Daisy. Stanza 24.
Read my little fable: He that runs may read.[629-1] Most can raise the flowers now, For all have got the seed.
The Flower.
In that fierce light which beats upon a throne.
Idylls of the King. Dedication.
It is the little rift within the lute That by and by will make the music mute, And ever widening slowly silence all.
Idylls of the King. Merlin and Vivien.
His honour rooted in dishonour stood, And faith unfaithful kept him falsely true.
Idylls of the King. Launcelot and Elaine.
The old order changeth, yielding place to new; And God fulfils himself in many ways, Lest one good custom should corrupt the world.
The Passing of Arthur.
I am going a long way With these thou seëst--if indeed I go (For all my mind is clouded with a doubt)-- To the island-valley of Avilion, Where falls not hail or rain or any snow, Nor ever wind blows loudly; but it lies Deep-meadow'd, happy, fair with orchard lawns And bowery hollows crown'd with summer sea, Where I will heal me of my grievous wound.
The Passing of Arthur.
With prudes for proctors, dowagers for deans, And sweet girl-graduates in their golden hair.
The Princess. Prologue. Line 141.
A rosebud set with little wilful thorns, And sweet as English air could make her, she.
The Princess. Part i. Line 153.
Jewels five-words-long, That on the stretch'd forefinger of all Time Sparkle forever.
The Princess. Part ii. Line 355.
Blow, bugle, blow! set the wild echoes flying! Blow, bugle! answer, echoes! dying, dying, dying.
The Princess. Part iii. Line 352.
O Love! they die in yon rich sky, They faint on hill or field or river: Our echoes roll from soul to soul, And grow forever and forever. Blow, bugle, blow! set the wild echoes flying! And answer, echoes, answer! dying, dying, dying.
The Princess. Part iii. Line 360.
There sinks the nebulous star we call the sun.
The Princess. Part iv. Line 1.
Tears, idle tears, I know not what they mean. Tears from the depth of some divine despair Rise in the heart and gather to the eyes, In looking on the happy autumn-fields, And thinking of the days that are no more.
The Princess. Part iv. Line 21.
Unto dying eyes The casement slowly grows a glimmering square.
The Princess. Part iv. Line 33.
Dear as remember'd kisses after death, And sweet as those by hopeless fancy feign'd On lips that are for others; deep as love,-- Deep as first love, and wild with all regret. Oh death in life, the days that are no more!
The Princess. Part iv. Line 36.
Sweet is every sound, Sweeter thy voice, but every sound is sweet; Myriads of rivulets hurrying thro' the lawn, The moan of doves in immemorial elms, And murmuring of innumerable bees.
The Princess. Part vii. Line 203.
Happy he With such a mother! faith in womankind Beats with his blood, and trust in all things high Comes easy to him; and tho' he trip and fall, He shall not blind his soul with clay.
The Princess. Part vii. Line 308.
Faultily faultless, icily regular, splendidly null.
Maud. Part i. ii.
That jewell'd mass of millinery, That oil'd and curl'd Assyrian Bull.
Maud. Part i. vi. Stanza 6.
Gorgonized me from head to foot, With a stony British stare.
Maud. Part i. xiii. Stanza 2.
Come into the garden, Maud, For the black bat, night, has flown; Come into the garden, Maud, I am here at the gate alone.
Maud. Part i. xxii. Stanza 1.
Queen rose of the rosebud garden of girls.
Maud. Part i. xxii. Stanza 9.
Ah, Christ, that it were possible For one short hour to see The souls we loved, that they might tell us What and where they be.
Maud. Part ii. iv. Stanza 3.
Let knowledge grow from more to more.
In Memoriam. Prologue. Line 25.
I held it truth, with him who sings[631-1] To one clear harp in divers tones, That men may rise on stepping-stones Of their dead selves to higher things.[631-2]
In Memoriam. i. Stanza 1.
But for the unquiet heart and brain A use in measured language lies; The sad mechanic exercise Like dull narcotics numbing pain.
In Memoriam. v. Stanza 2.
Never morning wore To evening, but some heart did break.
In Memoriam. vi. Stanza 2.
And topples round the dreary west A looming bastion fringed with fire.
In Memoriam. xv. Stanza 5.
And from his ashes may be made The violet of his native land.[632-1]
In Memoriam. xviii. Stanza 1.
I do but sing because I must, And pipe but as the linnets sing.[632-2]
In Memoriam. xxi. Stanza 6.
The shadow cloak'd from head to foot.
In Memoriam. xxiii. Stanza 1.
Who keeps the keys of all the creeds.
In Memoriam. xxiii. Stanza 2.
And Thought leapt out to wed with Thought Ere Thought could wed itself with Speech.
In Memoriam. xxiii. Stanza 4.
'T is better to have loved and lost Than never to have loved at all.[632-3]
In Memoriam. xxvii. Stanza 4.
Her eyes are homes of silent prayer.
In Memoriam. xxxii. Stanza 1.
Whose faith has centre everywhere, Nor cares to fix itself to form.
In Memoriam. xxxiii. Stanza 1.
Short swallow-flights of song, that dip Their wings in tears, and skim away.
In Memoriam. xlviii. Stanza 4.
Hold thou the good; define it well; For fear divine Philosophy Should push beyond her mark, and be Procuress to the Lords of Hell.
In Memoriam. liii. Stanza 4.
Oh yet we trust that somehow good Will be the final goal of ill.
In Memoriam. liv. Stanza 1.
But what am I? An infant crying in the night: An infant crying for the light, And with no language but a cry.
In Memoriam. liv. Stanza 5.
So careful of the type she seems, So careless of the single life.
In Memoriam. lv. Stanza 2.
The great world's altar-stairs, That slope through darkness up to God.
In Memoriam. lv. Stanza 4.
Who battled for the True, the Just.
In Memoriam. lvi. Stanza 5.
And grasps the skirts of happy chance, And breasts the blows of circumstance.
In Memoriam. lxiv. Stanza 2.
And lives to clutch the golden keys, To mould a mighty state's decrees, And shape the whisper of the throne.
In Memoriam. lxiv. Stanza 3.
So many worlds, so much to do, So little done, such things to be.
In Memoriam. lxxiii. Stanza 1.
Thy leaf has perish'd in the green, And while we breathe beneath the sun, The world, which credits what is done, Is cold to all that might have been.
In Memoriam. lxxv. Stanza 4.
O last regret, regret can die!
In Memoriam. lxxviii. Stanza 5.
There lives more faith in honest doubt, Believe me, than in half the creeds.
In Memoriam. xcvi. Stanza 3.
He seems so near, and yet so far.
In Memoriam. xcvii. Stanza 6.
Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky!
In Memoriam. cv. Stanza 1.
Ring out the old, ring in the new, Ring, happy bells, across the snow!
In Memoriam. cv. Stanza 2.
Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes, But ring the fuller minstrel in!
In Memoriam. cv. Stanza 5.
Ring out old shapes of foul disease, Ring out the narrowing lust of gold; Ring out the thousand wars of old, Ring in the thousand years of peace!
In Memoriam. cv. Stanza 7.
Ring in the valiant man and free, The larger heart, the kindlier hand! Ring out the darkness of the land, Ring in the Christ that is to be!
In Memoriam. cv. Stanza 8.
And thus he bore without abuse The grand old name of gentleman, Defamed by every charlatan, And soil'd with all ignoble use.
In Memoriam. cxi. Stanza 6.
Some novel power Sprang up forever at a touch, And hope could never hope too much In watching thee from hour to hour.
In Memoriam. cxii. Stanza 3.
Large elements in order brought, And tracts of calm from tempest made, And world-wide fluctuation sway'd, In vassal tides that follow'd thought.
In Memoriam. cxii. Stanza 4.
Wearing all that weight Of learning lightly like a flower.
In Memoriam. Conclusion. Stanza 10.
One God, one law, one element, And one far-off divine event To which the whole creation moves.
In Memoriam. Conclusion. Stanza 36.
FOOTNOTES:
[623-1] See Marlowe, page 41.
[624-1] This line stands in Moxon's edition of 1842,--
"The gardener Adam and his wife,"--
and has been restored by the author in his edition of 1873.
[624-2] See Chapman, page 37.
[624-3] See Pope, page 340.
[625-1] See Byron, page 543.
[626-1] See Longfellow, page 618.
[628-1] Jaws of death.--SHAKESPEARE: _Twelfth Night, act iii. sc. 4._ DU BARTAS: Weekes and Workes, day i. part 4.
[629-1] See Cowper, page 422.
[631-1] The poet alluded to is Goethe. I know this from Lord Tennyson himself, although he could not identify the passage; and when I submitted to him a small book of mine on his marvellous poem, he wrote, "It is Goethe's creed," on this very passage.--Rev. Dr. GETTY (vicar of Ecclesfield, Yorkshire).
[631-2] See Longfellow, page 616.
[632-1] See Shakespeare, page 144.
[632-2] I sing but as the linnet sings.--GOETHE: Wilhelm Meister, book ii. chap. xi.
[632-3] See Crabbe, page 444.
RICHARD MONCKTON MILNES (LORD HOUGHTON). 1809-1885.
But on and up, where Nature's heart Beats strong amid the hills.
Tragedy of the Lac de Gaube. Stanza 2.
Great thoughts, great feelings came to them, Like instincts, unawares.
The Men of Old.
A man's best things are nearest him, Lie close about his feet.
The Men of Old.
I wandered by the brookside, I wandered by the mill; I could not hear the brook flow, The noisy wheel was still.
The Brookside.
The beating of my own heart Was all the sound I heard.
The Brookside.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 1809- ----.
Ay, tear her tattered ensign down! Long has it waved on high, And many an eye has danced to see That banner in the sky.
Old Ironsides.
Nail to the mast her holy flag, Set every threadbare sail, And give her to the god of storms, The lightning and the gale!
Old Ironsides.
Like sentinel and nun, they keep Their vigil on the green.
The Cambridge Churchyard.
The mossy marbles rest On the lips that he has prest In their bloom; And the names he loved to hear Have been carved for many a year On the tomb.
The Last Leaf.
I know it is a sin For me to sit and grin At him here; But the old three-cornered hat, And the breeches, and all that, Are so queer!
The Last Leaf.
Thou say'st an undisputed thing In such a solemn way.
To an Insect.
Their discords sting through Burns and Moore, Like hedgehogs dressed in lace.
The Music-Grinders.
You think they are crusaders sent From some infernal clime, To pluck the eyes of sentiment And dock the tail of Rhyme, To crack the voice of Melody And break the legs of Time.
The Music-Grinders.
And since, I never dare to write As funny as I can.
The Height of the Ridiculous.
When the last reader reads no more.
The Last Reader.
The freeman casting with unpurchased hand The vote that shakes the turrets of the land.
Poetry, a Metrical Essay.
'T is the heart's current lends the cup its glow, Whate'er the fountain whence the draught may flow.
A Sentiment.
Yes, child of suffering, thou mayst well be sure He who ordained the Sabbath loves the poor!
A Rhymed Lesson. Urania.
And when you stick on conversation's burrs, Don't strew your pathway with those dreadful urs.
A Rhymed Lesson. Urania.
Thine eye was on the censer, And not the hand that bore it.
Lines by a Clerk.
Where go the poet's lines? Answer, ye evening tapers! Ye auburn locks, ye golden curls, Speak from your folded papers!
The Poet's Lot.
A few can touch the magic string, And noisy Fame is proud to win them; Alas for those that never sing, But die with all their music in them!
The Voiceless.
O hearts that break and give no sign Save whitening lip and fading tresses!
The Voiceless.
Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul, As the swift seasons roll! Leave thy low-vaulted past! Let each new temple, nobler than the last, Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast, Till thou at length art free, Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea!
The Chambered Nautilus.
His home! the Western giant smiles, And twirls the spotty globe to find it; This little speck, the British Isles? 'T is but a freckle,--never mind it.
A Good Time going.
But Memory blushes at the sneer, And Honor turns with frown defiant, And Freedom, leaning on her spear, Laughs louder than the laughing giant.
A Good Time going.
You hear that boy laughing?--you think he 's all fun; But the angels laugh, too, at the good he has done; The children laugh loud as they troop to his call, And the poor man that knows him laughs loudest of all.
The Boys.
Good to the heels the well-worn slipper feels When the tired player shuffles off the buskin; A page of Hood may do a fellow good After a scolding from Carlyle or Ruskin.
How not to settle it.
A thought is often original, though you have uttered it a hundred times.
The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table. i.
People that make puns are like wanton boys that put coppers on the railroad tracks.
The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table. i.
Everybody likes and respects self-made men. It is a great deal better to be made in that way than not to be made at all.
The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table. i.
Sin has many tools, but a lie is the handle which fits them all.
The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table. vi.
There is that glorious epicurean paradox uttered by my friend the historian,[637-1] in one of his flashing moments: "Give us the luxuries of life, and we will dispense with its necessaries." To this must certainly be added that other saying of one of the wittiest of men:[638-1] "Good Americans when they die go to Paris."
The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table. vi.
Boston State-house is the hub of the solar system. You could n't pry that out of a Boston man if you had the tire of all creation straightened out for a crow-bar.
The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table. vi.
The axis of the earth sticks out visibly through the centre of each and every town or city.
The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table. vi.
The world's great men have not commonly been great scholars, nor its great scholars great men.
The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table. vi.
Knowledge and timber should n't be much used till they are seasoned.
The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table. vi.
The hat is the ultimum moriens of respectability.
The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table. viii.
To be seventy years young is sometimes far more cheerful and hopeful than to be forty years old.
On the Seventieth Birthday of Julia Ward Howe (May 27, 1889).
FOOTNOTES:
[637-1] John Lothrop Motley.
Said Scopas of Thessaly, "We rich men count our felicity and happiness to lie in these superfluities, and not in those necessary things."--PLUTARCH: On the Love of Wealth.
[638-1] Thomas G. Appleton.
ROBERT C. WINTHROP. 1809- ----.
Our Country,--whether bounded by the St. John's and the Sabine, or however otherwise bounded or described, and be the measurements more or less,--still our Country, to be cherished in all our hearts, to be defended by all our hands.
Toast at Faneuil Hall on the Fourth of July, 1845.
A star for every State, and a State for every star.
Address on Boston Common in 1862.
There are no points of the compass on the chart of true patriotism.
Letter to Boston Commercial Club in 1879.
The poor must be wisely visited and liberally cared for, so that mendicity shall not be tempted into mendacity, nor want exasperated into crime.
Yorktown Oration in 1881.
Slavery is but half abolished, emancipation is but half completed, while millions of freemen with votes in their hands are left without education. Justice to them, the welfare of the States in which they live, the safety of the whole Republic, the dignity of the elective franchise,--all alike demand that the still remaining bonds of ignorance shall be unloosed and broken, and the minds as well as the bodies of the emancipated go free.
Yorktown Oration in 1881.
JAMES ALDRICH. 1810-1856.
Her suffering ended with the day, Yet lived she at its close, And breathed the long, long night away In statue-like repose.
A Death-Bed.
But when the sun in all his state Illumed the eastern skies, She passed through Glory's morning-gate, And walked in Paradise.
A Death-Bed.
THEODORE PARKER. 1810-1860.
There is what I call the American idea. . . . This idea demands, as the proximate organization thereof, a democracy,--that is, a government of all the people, by all the people, for all the people; of course, a government of the principles of eternal justice, the unchanging law of God. For shortness' sake I will call it the idea of Freedom.[639-1]
Speech at the N. E. Antislavery Convention, Boston, May 29, 1850.
FOOTNOTES:
[639-1] See Daniel Webster, page 532.
EDMUND H. SEARS. 1810-1876.
Calm on the listening ear of night Come Heaven's melodious strains, Where wild Judea stretches far Her silver-mantled plains.
Christmas Song.
It came upon the midnight clear, That glorious song of old.
The Angels' Song.
MARTIN F. TUPPER. 1810-1889.
A babe in a house is a well-spring of pleasure.
Of Education.
God, from a beautiful necessity, is Love.
Of Immortality.
EDGAR A. POE. 1811-1849.
Perched upon a bust of Pallas, just above my chamber door,-- Perched, and sat, and nothing more.
The Raven.
Whom unmerciful disaster Followed fast and followed faster.
The Raven.
Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door! Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."
The Raven.
And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor Shall be lifted--Nevermore!
The Raven.
To the glory that was Greece And the grandeur that was Rome.
To Helen.
WENDELL PHILLIPS. 1811-1884.
Revolutions are not made; they come.
Speech, Jan. 28, 1852.
What the Puritans gave the world was not thought, but action.
Speech, Dec. 21, 1855.
One on God's side is a majority.
Speech, Nov. 1, 1859.
Every man meets his Waterloo at last.
Speech, Nov. 1, 1859.
Revolutions never go backward.
Speech, Feb. 12, 1861.
FRANCES ANNE KEMBLE. 1811- ----.
A sacred burden is this life ye bear: Look on it, lift it, bear it solemnly, Stand up and walk beneath it steadfastly. Fail not for sorrow, falter not for sin, But onward, upward, till the goal ye win.
Lines addressed to the Young Gentlemen leaving the Lenox Academy, Mass.
Better trust all, and be deceived, And weep that trust and that deceiving, Than doubt one heart, that if believed Had blessed one's life with true believing.
Faith.
BARTHOLOMEW DOWLING.
Ho! stand to your glasses steady! 'T is all we have left to prize. A cup to the dead already,-- Hurrah for the next that dies![641-1]
Revelry in India.
FOOTNOTES:
[641-1] This quatrain appears with variations in several stanzas. "The poem," says Mr. Rossiter Johnson in "Famous Single and Fugitive Poems," "is persistently attributed to Alfred Domett; but in a letter to me, Feb. 6, 1879, he says: 'I did not write that poem, and was never in India in my life. I am as ignorant of the authorship as you can be.'"
ALFRED DOMETT. 1811- ----.
It was the calm and silent night! Seven hundred years and fifty-three Had Rome been growing up to might, And now was queen of land and sea. No sound was heard of clashing wars, Peace brooded o'er the hushed domain; Apollo, Pallas, Jove, and Mars Held undisturbed their ancient reign In the solemn midnight, Centuries ago.
Christmas Hymn.
JULIA A. FLETCHER (NOW MRS. CARNEY).
Little drops of water, little grains of sand, Make the mighty ocean and the pleasant land. So the little minutes, humble though they be, Make the mighty ages of eternity.
Little Things, 1845.
Little deeds of kindness, little words of love, Help to make earth happy like the heaven above.
Little Things, 1845.
AUSTEN H. LAYARD. ---- -1894.
I have always believed that success would be the inevitable result if the two services, the army and the navy, had fair play, and if we sent the right man to fill the right place.[642-1]
Speech in Parliament, Jan. 15, 1855.[642-2]
FOOTNOTES:
[642-1] See Sydney Smith, page 461.
[642-2] This speech is reported in Hansard's Parliamentary Debates, Third Series, vol. cxxxviii. p. 2077.
ROBERT BROWNING. 1812-1890.
Any nose May ravage with impunity a rose.
Sordello. Book vi.
That we devote ourselves to God, is seen In living just as though no God there were.
Paracelsus. Part i.
Be sure that God Ne'er dooms to waste the strength he deigns impart.
Paracelsus. Part i.
I see my way as birds their trackless way. I shall arrive,--what time, what circuit first, I ask not; but unless God send his hail Or blinding fire-balls, sleet or stifling snow, In some time, his good time, I shall arrive: He guides me and the bird. In his good time.
Paracelsus. Part i.
Are there not, dear Michal, Two points in the adventure of the diver,-- One, when a beggar he prepares to plunge; One, when a prince he rises with his pearl? Festus, I plunge.
Paracelsus. Part i.
God is the perfect poet, Who in his person acts his own creations.
Paracelsus. Part ii.
The sad rhyme of the men who proudly clung To their first fault, and withered in their pride.
Paracelsus. Part iv.
I give the fight up: let there be an end, A privacy, an obscure nook for me. I want to be forgotten even by God.
Paracelsus. Part v.
Progress is The law of life: man is not Man as yet.
Paracelsus. Part v.
Say not "a small event!" Why "small"? Costs it more pain that this ye call A "great event" should come to pass From that? Untwine me from the mass Of deeds which make up life, one deed Power shall fall short in or exceed!
Pippa Passes. Introduction.
God 's in his heaven: All 's right with the world.
Pippa Passes. Part i.
Some unsuspected isle in the far seas,-- Some unsuspected isle in far-off seas.
Pippa Passes. Part ii.
In the morning of the world, When earth was nigher heaven than now.
Pippa Passes. Part iii.
All service ranks the same with God,-- With God, whose puppets, best and worst, Are we: there is no last nor first.
Pippa Passes. Part iv.
I trust in Nature for the stable laws Of beauty and utility. Spring shall plant And Autumn garner to the end of time. I trust in God,--the right shall be the right And other than the wrong, while he endures. I trust in my own soul, that can perceive The outward and the inward,--Nature's good And God's.
A Soul's Tragedy. Act i.
Ever judge of men by their professions. For though the bright moment of promising is but a moment, and cannot be prolonged, yet if sincere in its moment's extravagant goodness, why, trust it, and know the man by it, I say,--not by his performance; which is half the world's work, interfere as the world needs must with its accidents and circumstances: the profession was purely the man's own. I judge people by what they might be,--not are, nor will be.
A Soul's Tragedy. Act ii.
There 's a woman like a dewdrop, she 's so purer than the purest.
A Blot in the 'Scutcheon. Act i. Sc. iii.
When is man strong until he feels alone?
Colombe's Birthday. Act iii.
When the fight begins within himself, A man 's worth something.
Men and Women. Bishop Blougram's Apology.
The sprinkled isles, Lily on lily, that o'erlace the sea.
Cleon.
And I have written three books on the soul, Proving absurd all written hitherto, And putting us to ignorance again.
Cleon.
Sappho survives, because we sing her songs; And Æschylus, because we read his plays!
Cleon.
Rafael made a century of sonnets.
One Word More. ii.
Other heights in other lives, God willing.
One Word More. xii.
God be thanked, the meanest of his creatures Boasts two soul-sides,--one to face the world with, One to show a woman when he loves her!
One Word More. xvii.
Oh their Rafael of the dear Madonnas, Oh their Dante of the dread Inferno, Wrote one song--and in my brain I sing it; Drew one angel--borne, see, on my bosom!
One Word More. xix.
The lie was dead And damned, and truth stood up instead.
Count Gismond. xiii.
Over my head his arm he flung Against the world.
Count Gismond. xix.
Just my vengeance complete, The man sprang to his feet, Stood erect, caught at God's skirts, and prayed! So, I was afraid!
Instans Tyrannus. vii.
Oh never star Was lost here but it rose afar.
Waring. ii.
Sing, riding 's a joy! For me I ride.
The last Ride together. vii.
When the liquor 's out, why clink the cannikin?
The Flight of the Duchess. xvi.
That low man seeks a little thing to do, Sees it and does it; This high man, with a great thing to pursue, Dies ere he knows it. That low man goes on adding one to one,-- His hundred 's soon hit; This high man, aiming at a million, Misses an unit. That has the world here--should he need the next, Let the world mind him! This throws himself on God, and unperplexed Seeking shall find him.
A Grammarian's Funeral.
Lofty designs must close in like effects.
A Grammarian's Funeral.
I hear you reproach, "But delay was best, For their end was a crime." Oh, a crime will do As well, I reply, to serve for a test As a virtue golden through and through, Sufficient to vindicate itself And prove its worth at a moment's view! . . . . . . Let a man contend to the uttermost For his life's set prize, be it what it will! The counter our lovers staked was lost As surely as if it were lawful coin; And the sin I impute to each frustrate ghost Is--the unlit lamp and the ungirt loin, Though the end in sight was a vice, I say.
The Statue and the Bust.
Lost, lost! one moment knelled the woe of years.
Childe Roland to the Dark Tower came. xxxiii.
Just for a handful of silver he left us, Just for a riband to stick in his coat.
The Lost Leader. i.
We shall march prospering,--not thro' his presence; Songs may inspirit us,--not from his lyre; Deeds will be done,--while he boasts his quiescence, Still bidding crouch whom the rest bade aspire.
The Lost Leader. ii.
They are perfect; how else?--they shall never change: We are faulty; why not?--we have time in store.
Old Pictures in Florence. xvi.
What 's come to perfection perishes. Things learned on earth we shall practise in heaven; Works done least rapidly Art most cherishes.
Old Pictures in Florence. xvii.
Italy, my Italy! Queen Mary's saying serves for me (When fortune's malice Lost her Calais): "Open my heart, and you will see Graved inside of it 'Italy.'"
De Gustibus. ii.
That 's the wise thrush; he sings each song twice over, Lest you should think he never could recapture The first fine careless rapture.
Home-Thoughts from Abroad. ii.
God made all the creatures, and gave them our love and our fear, To give sign we and they are his children, one family here.
Saul. vi.
How good is man's life, the mere living! how fit to employ All the heart and the soul and the senses forever in joy!
Saul. ix.
'T is not what man does which exalts him, but what man would do.
Saul. xvii.
O woman-country![647-1] wooed not wed, Loved all the more by earth's male-lands, Laid to their hearts instead.
By the Fireside. vi.
That great brow And the spirit-small hand propping it.
By the Fireside. xxiii.
If two lives join, there is oft a scar. They are one and one, with a shadowy third; One near one is too far.
By the Fireside. xlvi.
Only I discern Infinite passion, and the pain Of finite hearts that yearn.
Two in the Campagna. xii.
Round and round, like a dance of snow In a dazzling drift, as its guardians, go Floating the women faded for ages, Sculptured in stone on the poet's pages.
Women and Roses.
How he lies in his rights of a man! Death has done all death can. And absorbed in the new life he leads, He recks not, he heeds Nor his wrong nor my vengeance; both strike On his senses alike, And are lost in the solemn and strange Surprise of the change.
After.
Ah, did you once see Shelley plain, And did he stop and speak to you, And did you speak to him again? How strange it seems, and new!
Memorabilia. i.
He who did well in war just earns the right To begin doing well in peace.
Luria. Act ii.
And inasmuch as feeling, the East's gift, Is quick and transient,--comes, and lo! is gone, While Northern thought is slow and durable.
Luria. Act v.
A people is but the attempt of many To rise to the completer life of one; And those who live as models for the mass Are singly of more value than they all.
Luria. Act v.
I count life just a stuff To try the soul's strength on.
In a Balcony.
Was there nought better than to enjoy? No feat which, done, would make time break, And let us pent-up creatures through Into eternity, our due? No forcing earth teach heaven's employ?
Dîs Aliter Visum; or, Le Byron de nos Jours.
There shall never be one lost good! What was, shall live as before; The evil is null, is nought, is silence implying sound; What was good shall be good, with for evil so much good more; On the earth the broken arcs; in the heaven, a perfect round.
Abt Vogler. ix.
Then welcome each rebuff That turns earth's smoothness rough, Each sting that bids nor sit nor stand, but go! Be our joys three-parts pain! Strive, and hold cheap the strain; Learn, nor account the pang; dare, never grudge the throe!
Rabbi Ben Ezra.
What I aspired to be, And was not, comforts me.
Rabbi Ben Ezra.
Earth changes, but thy soul and God stand sure.
Rabbi Ben Ezra.
For life, with all it yields of joy and woe, And hope and fear (believe the aged friend), Is just our chance o' the prize of learning love,-- How love might be, hath been indeed, and is.
A Death in the Desert.
The body sprang At once to the height, and stayed; but the soul,--no!
A Death in the Desert.
What? Was man made a wheel-work to wind up, And be discharged, and straight wound up anew? No! grown, his growth lasts; taught, he ne'er forgets: May learn a thousand things, not twice the same.
A Death in the Desert.
For I say this is death and the sole death,-- When a man's loss comes to him from his gain, Darkness from light, from knowledge ignorance, And lack of love from love made manifest.
A Death in the Desert.
Progress, man's distinctive mark alone, Not God's, and not the beasts: God is, they are; Man partly is, and wholly hopes to be.
A Death in the Desert.
The ultimate, angels' law, Indulging every instinct of the soul There where law, life, joy, impulse are one thing!
A Death in the Desert.
How sad and bad and mad it was! But then, how it was sweet!
Confessions. ix.
So may a glory from defect arise.
Deaf and Dumb.
This could but have happened once,-- And we missed it, lost it forever.
Youth and Art. xvii.
Fear death?--to feel the fog in my throat, The mist in my face. . . . . . . . No! let me taste the whole of it, fare like my peers, The heroes of old; Bear the brunt, in a minute pay glad life's arrears Of pain, darkness, and cold.
Prospice.
It 's wiser being good than bad; It 's safer being meek than fierce; It 's fitter being sane than mad. My own hope is, a sun will pierce The thickest cloud earth ever stretched; That after Last returns the First, Though a wide compass round be fetched; That what began best can't end worst, Nor what God blessed once prove accurst.
Apparent Failure. vii.
In the great right of an excessive wrong.
The Ring and the Book. The other Half-Rome. Line 1055.
Was never evening yet But seemed far beautifuller than its day.
The Ring and the Book. Pompilia. Line 357.
The curious crime, the fine Felicity and flower of wickedness.
The Ring and the Book. The Pope. Line 590.
Of what I call God, And fools call Nature.
The Ring and the Book. The Pope. Line 1073.
Why comes temptation, but for man to meet And master and make crouch beneath his foot, And so be pedestaled in triumph?
The Ring and the Book. The Pope. Line 1185.
White shall not neutralize the black, nor good Compensate bad in man, absolve him so: Life's business being just the terrible choice.
The Ring and the Book. The Pope. Line 1236.
It is the glory and good of Art That Art remains the one way possible Of speaking truth,--to mouths like mine, at least.
The Book and the Ring. The Pope. Line 842.
Thy[651-1] rare gold ring of verse (the poet praised) Linking our England to his Italy.
The Ring and the Book. The Pope. Line 873.
But how carve way i' the life that lies before, If bent on groaning ever for the past?
Balaustion's Adventure.
Better have failed in the high aim, as I, Than vulgarly in the low aim succeed,-- As, God be thanked! I do not.
The Inn Album. iv.
Have you found your life distasteful? My life did, and does, smack sweet. Was your youth of pleasure wasteful? Mine I saved and hold complete. Do your joys with age diminish? When mine fail me, I 'll complain. Must in death your daylight finish? My sun sets to rise again.
At the "Mermaid." Stanza 10.
"With this same key Shakespeare unlocked his heart"[652-1] once more! Did Shakespeare? If so, the less Shakespeare he!
House. x.
God's justice, tardy though it prove perchance, Rests never on the track until it reach Delinquency.[652-2]
Cenciaja.
FOOTNOTES:
[647-1] Italy.
[651-1] Mrs. Browning.
[652-1] See Wordsworth, page 485.
[652-2] See Herbert, page 206.
CHARLES DICKENS. 1812-1870.
A demd, damp, moist, unpleasant body!
Nicholas Nickleby. Chap. xxxiv.
My life is one demd horrid grind.
Nicholas Nickleby. Chap. lxiv.
In a Pickwickian sense.
Pickwick Papers. Chap. i.
Oh, a dainty plant is the ivy green, That creepeth o'er ruins old! Of right choice food are his meals, I ween, In his cell so lone and cold. Creeping where no life is seen, A rare old plant is the ivy green.
Pickwick Papers. Chap. vi.
He 's tough, ma'am,--tough is J. B.; tough and devilish sly.
Dombey and Son. Chap. vii.
When found, make a note of.
Dombey and Son. Chap. xv.
The bearings of this observation lays in the application on it.
Dombey and Son. Chap. xxiii.
Barkis is willin'.
David Copperfield. Chap. v.
Papa, potatoes, poultry, prunes and prism, all very good words for the lips,--especially prunes and prism.
Little Dorrit. Book ii. Chap. v.
Whatever was required to be done, the Circumlocution Office was beforehand with all the public departments in the art of perceiving HOW NOT TO DO IT.
Little Dorrit. Book ii. Chap. x.
In came Mrs. Fezziwig, one vast substantial smile.
Christmas Carol. Stave 2.
CHRISTOPHER P. CRANCH. 1813- ----.
Thought is deeper than all speech, Feeling deeper than all thought; Souls to souls can never teach What unto themselves was taught.
Stanzas.
We are spirits clad in veils; Man by man was never seen; All our deep communing fails To remove the shadowy screen.
Stanzas.
F. W. FABER. 1814-1863.
For right is right, since God is God,[653-1] And right the day must win; To doubt would be disloyalty, To falter would be sin.
The Right must win.
Labour itself is but a sorrowful song, The protest of the weak against the strong.
The Sorrowful World.
FOOTNOTES:
[653-1] See Crabbe, page 444.
CHARLES MACKAY. 1814- ----.
Cleon hath a million acres,--ne'er a one have I; Cleon dwelleth in a palace,--in a cottage I.
Cleon and I.
But the sunshine aye shall light the sky, As round and round we run; And the truth shall ever come uppermost, And justice shall be done.
Eternal Justice. Stanza 4.
Aid the dawning, tongue and pen; Aid it, hopes of honest men!
Clear the Way.
Some love to roam o'er the dark sea's foam, Where the shrill winds whistle free.
Some love to roam.
There 's a good time coming, boys! A good time coming.
The Good Time coming.
Old Tubal Cain was a man of might In the days when earth was young.
Tubal Cain.
ELLEN STURGIS HOOPER. 1816-1841.
I slept, and dreamed that life was Beauty; I woke, and found that life was Duty. Was thy dream then a shadowy lie? Toil on, poor heart, unceasingly; And thou shalt find thy dream to be A truth and noonday light to thee.
Life a Duty.
PHILIP JAMES BAILEY. 1816- ----.
We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths; In feelings, not in figures on a dial. We should count time by heart-throbs. He most lives Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best. Life 's but a means unto an end; that end Beginning, mean, and end to all things,--God.
Festus. Scene, A Country Town.
Poets are all who love, who feel great truths, And tell them; and the truth of truths is love.
Scene, Another and a Better World.
America! half-brother of the world! With something good and bad of every land.
Scene, The Surface.
ELIZA COOK. 1817- ----.
I love it, I love it, and who shall dare To chide me for loving that old arm-chair?
The Old Arm-Chair.
How cruelly sweet are the echoes that start When memory plays an old tune on the heart!
Old Dobbin.
NATHANIEL P. WILLIS. 1817-1867.
At present there is no distinction among the upper ten thousand of the city.[655-1]
Necessity for a Promenade Drive.
For it stirs the blood in an old man's heart, And makes his pulses fly, To catch the thrill of a happy voice And the light of a pleasant eye.
Saturday Afternoon.
It is the month of June, The month of leaves and roses, When pleasant sights salute the eyes, And pleasant scents the noses.
The Month of June.
Let us weep in our darkness, but weep not for him! Not for him who, departing, leaves millions in tears! Not for him who has died full of honor and years! Not for him who ascended Fame's ladder so high From the round at the top he has stepped to the sky.
The Death of Harrison.
FOOTNOTES:
[655-1] See Haliburton, page 580.
WILLIAM ELLERY CHANNING. 1817- ----.
I laugh, for hope hath happy place with me; If my bark sinks, 't is to another sea.
A Poet's Hope.
I sing New England, as she lights her fire In every Prairie's midst; and where the bright Enchanting stars shine pure through Southern night, She still is there, the guardian on the tower, To open for the world a purer hour.
New England.
Most joyful let the Poet be; It is through him that all men see.
The Poet of the Old and New Times.
JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL. 1819-1891.
Earth's noblest thing,--a woman perfected.
Irené.
Be noble! and the nobleness that lies In other men, sleeping but never dead, Will rise in majesty to meet thine own.
Sonnet iv.
Great truths are portions of the soul of man; Great souls are portions of eternity.
Sonnet vi.
To win the secret of a weed's plain heart.
Sonnet xxv.
Two meanings have our lightest fantasies,-- One of the flesh, and of the spirit one.
Sonnet xxxiv. (Ed. 1844.)
All thoughts that mould the age begin Deep down within the primitive soul.
An Incident in a Railroad Car.
It may be glorious to write Thoughts that shall glad the two or three High souls, like those far stars that come in sight Once in a century.
An Incident in a Railroad Car.
No man is born into the world whose work Is not born with him. There is always work, And tools to work withal, for those who will; And blessed are the horny hands of toil.
A Glance behind the Curtain.
They are slaves who fear to speak For the fallen and the weak. . . . . . They are slaves who dare not be In the right with two or three.
Stanzas on Freedom.
Endurance is the crowning quality, And patience all the passion of great hearts.
Columbus.
One day with life and heart Is more than time enough to find a world.
Columbus.
Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide, In the strife of Truth with Falsehood, for the good or evil side; Some great cause, God's new Messiah offering each the bloom or blight, Parts the goats upon the left hand, and the sheep upon the right; And the choice goes by forever 'twixt that darkness and that light.
The Present Crisis.
Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne.
The Present Crisis.
Then to side with Truth is noble when we share her wretched crust, Ere her cause bring fame and profit, and 't is prosperous to be just; Then it is the brave man chooses, while the coward stands aside, Doubting in his abject spirit, till his Lord is crucified.
The Present Crisis.
Before man made us citizens, great Nature made us men.
On the Capture of Fugitive Slaves near Washington.
Dear common flower, that grow'st beside the way, Fringing the dusty road with harmless gold.
To the Dandelion.
This child is not mine as the first was; I cannot sing it to rest; I cannot lift it up fatherly, And bless it upon my breast.
Yet it lies in my little one's cradle, And sits in my little one's chair, And the light of the heaven she 's gone to Transfigures its golden hair.
The Changeling.
The thing we long for, that we are For one transcendent moment.
Longing.
She doeth little kindnesses Which most leave undone, or despise.
My Love. iv.
Not only around our infancy Doth heaven with all its splendors lie; Daily, with souls that cringe and plot, We Sinais climb and know it not.
The Vision of Sir Launfal. Prelude to Part First.
'T is heaven alone that is given away; 'T is only God may be had for the asking.
The Vision of Sir Launfal. Prelude to Part First.
And what is so rare as a day in June? Then, if ever, come perfect days; Then Heaven tries the earth if it be in tune, And over it softly her warm ear lays.
The Vision of Sir Launfal. Prelude to Part First.
Now the heart is so full that a drop overfills it; We are happy now because God wills it.
The Vision of Sir Launfal. Prelude to Part First.
Joy comes, grief goes, we know not how.
The Vision of Sir Launfal. Prelude to Part First.
Who gives himself with his alms feeds three,-- Himself, his hungering neighbor, and me.
The Vision of Sir Launfal. Part Second. viii.
There comes Emerson first, whose rich words, every one, Are like gold nails in temples to hang trophies on.
A Fable for Critics.
Nature fits all her children with something to do.
A Fable for Critics.
Ez fer war, I call it murder,-- There you hev it plain an' flat; I don't want to go no furder Than my Testyment fer that. . . . . . An' you 've gut to git up airly Ef you want to take in God.
The Biglow Papers. First Series. No. i.
Laborin' man an' laborin' woman Hev one glory an' one shame; Ev'y thin' thet 's done inhuman Injers all on 'em the same.
The Biglow Papers. First Series. No. i.
This goin' ware glory waits ye haint one agreeable feetur.[659-1]
The Biglow Papers. First Series. No. ii.
Gineral C. is a dreffle smart man; He 's ben on all sides thet give places or pelf; But consistency still wuz a part of his plan,-- He 's ben true to one party, an' thet is himself.
The Biglow Papers. First Series. No. ii.
We kind o' thought Christ went agin war an' pillage.
The Biglow Papers. First Series. No. iii.
But John P. Robinson, he Sez they did n't know everythin' down in Judee.
The Biglow Papers. First Series. No. iii.
I don't believe in princerple, But oh I du in interest.
The Biglow Papers. First Series. No. vi.
Of my merit On thet pint you yourself may jedge; All is, I never drink no sperit, Nor I haint never signed no pledge.
The Biglow Papers. First Series. No. vii.
Ez to my princerples, I glory In hevin' nothin' o' the sort.
The Biglow Papers. First Series. No. vii.
Zekle crep' up quite unbeknown An' peeked in thru' the winder, An' there sot Huldy all alone, 'Ith no one nigh to hender.
The Biglow Papers. Second Series. The Courtin'.
The very room, coz she was in, Seemed warm from floor to ceilin'.
The Biglow Papers. Second Series. The Courtin'.
'T was kin' o' kingdom-come to look On sech a blessed cretur.
The Biglow Papers. Second Series. The Courtin'.
His heart kep' goin' pity-pat, But hern went pity-Zekle.
The Biglow Papers. Second Series. The Courtin'.
All kin' o' smily round the lips, An' teary round the lashes.
The Biglow Papers. Second Series. The Courtin'.
Like streams that keep a summer mind Snow-hid in Jenooary.
The Biglow Papers. Second Series. The Courtin'.
Our Pilgrim stock wuz pithed with hardihood.
The Biglow Papers. Second Series. No. vi.
Soft-heartedness, in times like these, Shows sof'ness in the upper story.
The Biglow Papers. Second Series. No. vii.
Earth's biggest country 's gut her soul, An' risen up earth's greatest nation.
The Biglow Papers. Second Series. No. vii.
Under the yaller pines I house, When sunshine makes 'em all sweet-scented, An' hear among their furry boughs The baskin' west-wind purr contented.
The Biglow Papers. Second Series. No. x.
Wut 's words to them whose faith an' truth On war's red techstone rang true metal; Who ventered life an' love an' youth For the gret prize o' death in battle?
The Biglow Papers. Second Series. No. x.
From lower to the higher next, Not to the top, is Nature's text; And embryo Good, to reach full stature, Absorbs the Evil in its nature.
Festina Lente. Moral.
Though old the thought and oft exprest, 'T is his at last who says it best.[660-1]
For an Autograph.
Nature, they say, doth dote, And cannot make a man Save on some worn-out plan, Repeating us by rote.
Ode at the Harvard Commemoration, July 21, 1865.
Here was a type of the true elder race, And one of Plutarch's men talked with us face to face.
Ode at the Harvard Commemoration, July 21, 1865.
Safe in the hallowed quiets of the past.
The Cathedral.
The one thing finished in this hasty world.
The Cathedral.
These pearls of thought in Persian gulfs were bred, Each softly lucent as a rounded moon; The diver Omar plucked them from their bed, Fitzgerald strung them on an English thread.
In a copy of Omar Khayyám.
The clear, sweet singer with the crown of snow Not whiter than the thoughts that housed below.
To George William Curtis.
But life is sweet, though all that makes it sweet Lessen like sound of friends' departing feet; And Death is beautiful as feet of friend Coming with welcome at our journey's end. For me Fate gave, whate'er she else denied, A nature sloping to the southern side; I thank her for it, though when clouds arise Such natures double-darken gloomy skies.
To George William Curtis.
In life's small things be resolute and great To keep thy muscle trained: know'st thou when Fate Thy measure takes, or when she 'll say to thee, "I find thee worthy; do this deed for me"?
Epigram.
In vain we call old notions fudge, And bend our conscience to our dealing; The Ten Commandments will not budge, And stealing will continue stealing.
Motto of the American Copyright League (written Nov. 20, 1885).
Solitude is as needful to the imagination as society is wholesome for the character.
Among my Books. First Series. Dryden.
A wise scepticism is the first attribute of a good critic.
Among my Books. First Series. Shakespeare Once More.
One thorn of experience is worth a whole wilderness of warning.
Among my Books. First Series. Shakespeare Once More.
Aspiration sees only one side of every question; possession many.
Among my Books. First Series. New England Two Centuries ago.
Truly there is a tide in the affairs of men; but there is no gulf-stream setting forever in one direction.
Among my Books. First Series. New England Two Centuries ago.
There is no better ballast for keeping the mind steady on its keel, and saving it from all risk of crankiness, than business.
Among my Books. First Series. New England Two Centuries ago.
Puritanism, believing itself quick with the seed of religious liberty, laid, without knowing it, the egg of democracy.
Among my Books. First Series. New England Two Centuries ago.
It was in making education not only common to all, but in some sense compulsory on all, that the destiny of the free republics of America was practically settled.
Among my Books. First Series. New England Two Centuries ago.
Talent is that which is in a man's power; genius is that in whose power a man is.
Among my Books. First Series. Rousseau and the Sentimentalists.
There is no work of genius which has not been the delight of mankind, no word of genius to which the human heart and soul have not sooner or later responded.
Among my Books. First Series. Rousseau and the Sentimentalists.
Every man feels instinctively that all the beautiful sentiments in the world weigh less than a single lovely action.
Among my Books. First Series. Rousseau and the Sentimentalists.
Sentiment is intellectualized emotion,--emotion precipitated, as it were, in pretty crystals by the fancy.
Among my Books. First Series. Rousseau and the Sentimentalists.
No man can produce great things who is not thoroughly sincere in dealing with himself.
Among my Books. First Series. Rousseau and the Sentimentalists.
In all literary history there is no such figure as Dante, no such homogeneousness of life and works, such loyalty to ideas, such sublime irrecognition of the unessential.
Among my Books. Second Series. Dante.
Whoever can endure unmixed delight, whoever can tolerate music and painting and poetry all in one, whoever wishes to be rid of thought and to let the busy anvils of the brain be silent for a time, let him read in the "Faery Queen."
Among my Books. Second Series. Spenser.
The only faith that wears well and holds its color in all weathers, is that which is woven of conviction and set with the sharp mordant of experience.
My Study Windows. Abraham Lincoln, 1864.
It is by presence of mind in untried emergencies that the native metal of a man is tested.
My Study Windows. Abraham Lincoln, 1864.
What a sense of security in an old book which Time has criticised for us!
Library of Old Authors.
There is no good in arguing with the inevitable. The only argument available with an east wind is to put on your overcoat.
Democracy and Addresses.
Let us be of good cheer, however, remembering that the misfortunes hardest to bear are those which never come.
Democracy and Addresses.
The soil out of which such men as he are made is good to be born on, good to live on, good to die for and to be buried in.
Garfield.
A great man is made up of qualities that meet or make great occasions.
Garfield.
It ["The Ancient Mariner"] is marvellous in its mastery over that delightfully fortuitous inconsequence that is the adamantine logic of dreamland.
Coleridge.
He gives us the very quintessence of perception,--the clearly crystalized precipitation of all that is most precious in the ferment of impression after the impertinent and obtrusive particulars have evaporated from the memory.
Coleridge.
If I were asked what book is better than a cheap book, I should answer that there is one book better than a cheap book,--and that is a book honestly come by.
Before the U. S. Senate Committee on Patents, Jan. 29, 1886.
FOOTNOTES:
[659-1] See Moore, page 519.
[660-1] See Emerson, page 604.
CHARLES KINGSLEY. 1819-1875.
O Mary, go and call the cattle home, And call the cattle home, And call the cattle home, Across the sands o' Dee!
The Sands of Dee.
Men must work, and women must weep.
The Three Fishers.
Be good, sweet maid, and let who will be clever; Do noble things, not dream them, all day long: And so make life, death, and that vast forever One grand sweet song.
A Farewell.
The world goes up and the world goes down, And the sunshine follows the rain; And yesterday's sneer and yesterday's frown Can never come over again.
Dolcino to Margaret.
ULYSSES S. GRANT. 1822-1885.
No other terms than unconditional and immediate surrender. I propose to move immediately upon your works.
To Gen. S. B. Buckner, Fort Donelson, Feb. 16, 1862.
I propose to fight it out on this line, if it takes all summer.
Despatch to Washington. Before Spottsylvania Court House, May 11, 1864.
Let us have peace.
Accepting a Nomination for the Presidency, May 29, 1868.
I know no method to secure the repeal of bad or obnoxious laws so effectual as their strict construction.
From the Inaugural Address, March 4, 1869.
Let no guilty man escape, if it can be avoided. No personal considerations should stand in the way of performing a duty.
Indorsement of a Letter relating to the Whiskey Ring, July 29, 1875.
MATTHEW ARNOLD. 1822-1888.
Others abide our question. Thou art free. We ask and ask. Thou smilest and art still, Out-topping knowledge.
Shakespeare.
Strew on her roses, roses, And never a spray of yew! In quiet she reposes; Ah, would that I did too!
Requiescat.
To hear the world applaud the hollow ghost Which blamed the living man.
Growing Old.
Time may restore us in his course Goethe's sage mind and Byron's force; But where will Europe's latter hour Again find Wordsworth's healing power?
Memorial Verses.
Wandering between two worlds,--one dead, The other powerless to be born.
Stanzas from the Grande Chartreuse.
The kings of modern thought are dumb.
Stanzas from the Grande Chartreuse.
Philistine must have originally meant, in the mind of those who invented the nickname, a strong, dogged, unenlightened opponent of the children of the light.
Essays in Criticism. Heinrich Heine.
There is no better motto which it [culture] can have than these words of Bishop Wilson, "To make reason and the will of God prevail."
Culture and Anarchy. P. 8.
RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 1822- ----.
He serves his party best who serves the country best.[665-1]
Inaugural Address, March 5, 1877.
FOOTNOTES:
[665-1] See Pope, page 339.
LEONARD HEATH.
On a lone barren isle, where the wild roaring billows Assail the stern rock, and the loud tempests rave, The hero lies still, while the dew-drooping willows, Like fond weeping mourners, lean over his grave. The lightnings may flash and the loud thunders rattle; He heeds not, he hears not, he 's free from all pain; He sleeps his last sleep, he has fought his last battle; No sound can awake him to glory again![666-1]
The Grave of Bonaparte.
Yet spirit immortal, the tomb cannot bind thee, But like thine own eagle that soars to the sun Thou springest from bondage and leavest behind thee A name which before thee no mortal hath won. Tho' nations may combat, and war's thunders rattle, No more on thy steed wilt thou sweep o'er the plain: Thou sleep'st thy last sleep, thou hast fought thy last battle, No sound can awake thee to glory again.
The Grave of Bonaparte.
FOOTNOTES:
[666-1] This song was composed and set to music, about 1842, by Leonard Heath, of Nashua, who died a few years ago.--BELA CHAPIN: The Poets of New Hampshire, 1883, p. 760.
BAYARD TAYLOR. 1825-1878.
Till the sun grows cold, And the stars are old, And the leaves of the Judgment Book unfold.
Bedouin Song.
They sang of love, and not of fame; Forgot was Britain's glory; Each heart recall'd a different name, But all sang Annie Lawrie.
The Song of the Camp.
The bravest are the tenderest,-- The loving are the daring.
The Song of the Camp.
DINAH M. MULOCK. 1826- ----.
Two hands upon the breast, And labour 's done;[667-1] Two pale feet crossed in rest, The race is won.
Now and Afterwards.
FOOTNOTES:
[667-1] Two hands upon the breast, and labour is past.--Russian Proverb.
ALEXANDER SMITH. 1830-1867.
Like a pale martyr in his shirt of fire.
A Life Drama. Sc. ii.
In winter, when the dismal rain Comes down in slanting lines, And Wind, that grand old harper, smote His thunder-harp of pines.
A Life Drama. Sc. ii.
A poem round and perfect as a star.
A Life Drama. Sc. ii.
H. F. CHORLEY. 1831-1872.
A song to the oak, the brave old oak, Who hath ruled in the greenwood long!
The Brave Old Oak.
Then here 's to the oak, the brave old oak, Who stands in his pride alone! And still flourish he a hale green tree When a hundred years are gone!
The Brave Old Oak.
ELIZABETH AKERS ALLEN. 1832- ----.
Backward, turn backward, O Time, in your flight! Make me a child again, just for to-night!
Rock me to sleep.
Backward, flow backward, O tide of the years! I am so weary of toil and of tears,-- Toil without recompense, tears all in vain! Take them, and give me my childhood again!
Rock me to sleep.
BISHOP HENRY C. POTTER. 1835- ----.
We have exchanged the Washingtonian dignity for the Jeffersonian simplicity, which was in truth only another name for the Jacksonian vulgarity.
Address at the Washington Centennial Service in St. Paul's Chapel, New York, April 30, 1889.
If there be no nobility of descent, all the more indispensable is it that there should be nobility of ascent,--a character in them that bear rule so fine and high and pure that as men come within the circle of its influence they involuntarily pay homage to that which is the one pre-eminent distinction, the royalty of virtue.
Address at the Washington Centennial Service in St. Paul's Chapel, New York, April 30, 1889.
FRANCIS M. FINCH.
Under the sod and the dew, Waiting the judgment day; Love and tears for the Blue, Tears and love for the Gray.[668-1]
The Blue and the Gray.
FOOTNOTES:
[668-1] This poem first appeared in the "Atlantic Monthly."
GROVER CLEVELAND. 1837- ----.
After an existence of nearly twenty years of almost innocuous desuetude these laws are brought forth.
Message, March 1, 1886.
It is a condition which confronts us--not a theory.[669-1]
Annual Message, 1887.
I have considered the pension list of the republic a roll of honor.
Veto of Dependent Pension Bill, July 5, 1888.
Party honesty is party expediency.
Interview in New York Commercial Advertiser, Sept. 19, 1889.
FOOTNOTES:
[669-1] See Disraeli, page 607.
FRANCIS BRET HARTE. 1839- ----.
Which I wish to remark,-- And my language is plain,-- That for ways that are dark And for tricks that are vain, The heathen Chinee is peculiar.
Plain Language from Truthful James.
Ah Sin was his name.
Plain Language from Truthful James.
With the smile that was childlike and bland.
Plain Language from Truthful James.
FRANCIS W. BOURDILLON. 1852- ----.
The night has a thousand eyes, And the day but one; Yet the light of the bright world dies With the dying sun. The mind has a thousand eyes, And the heart but one; Yet the light of a whole life dies When love is done.
Light.
MISCELLANEOUS.
It may well wait a century for a reader, as God has waited six thousand years for an observer.
JOHN KEPLER (1571-1630). Martyrs of Science (Brewster). P. 197.
Needle in a bottle of hay.
FIELD (---- -1641): A Woman's a Weathercock. (Reprint, 1612, p. 20.)
He is a fool who thinks by force or skill To turn the current of a woman's will.
SAMUEL TUKE (---- -1673): Adventures of Five Hours. Act v. Sc. 3.
Laugh and be fat.
JOHN TAYLOR (1580?-1684). Title of a Tract, 1615.
Diamond cut diamond.
JOHN FORD (1586-1639): The Lover's Melancholy. Act i. Sc. 1.
A liberty to that only which is good, just, and honest.
JOHN WINTHROP (1588-1649): Life and Letters. Vol. ii. p. 341.
I preached as never sure to preach again, And as a dying man to dying men.
RICHARD BAXTER (1615-1691): Love breathing Thanks and Praise.
Though this may be play to you, 'T is death to us.
ROGER L' ESTRANGE (1616-1704): Fables from Several Authors. Fable 398.
And there 's a lust in man no charm can tame Of loudly publishing our neighbour's shame; On eagles' wings immortal scandals fly, While virtuous actions are but born and die.
STEPHEN HARVEY (circa 1627): Juvenal, Satire ix.
May I govern my passion with absolute sway, And grow wiser and better as my strength wears away.
WALTER POPE (1630-1714): The Old Man's Wish.
When change itself can give no more, 'T is easy to be true.
CHARLES SEDLEY (1639-1701): Reasons for Constancy.
The real Simon Pure.
SUSANNAH CENTLIVRE (1667-1723): A bold Stroke for a Wife.
When all the blandishments of life are gone, The coward sneaks to death, the brave live on.
GEORGE SEWELL (---- -1726): The Suicide.
Studious of ease, and fond of humble things.
AMBROSE PHILLIPS (1671-1749): From Holland to a Friend in England.
My galligaskins, that have long withstood The winter's fury, and encroaching frosts, By time subdued (what will not time subdue!), A horrid chasm disclosed.
JOHN PHILIPS (1676-1708): The Splendid Shilling. Line 121.
For twelve honest men have decided the cause, Who are judges alike of the facts and the laws.
WILLIAM PULTENEY (1682-1764): The Honest Jury.
Farewell to Lochaber, farewell to my Jean, Where heartsome wi' thee I hae mony days been; For Lochaber no more, Lochaber no more, We 'll maybe return to Lochaber no more.
ALLAN RAMSAY (1686-1758): Lochaber no More.
Busy, curious, thirsty fly, Drink with me, and drink as I.
WILLIAM OLDYS (1696-1761): On a Fly drinking out of a Cup of Ale.
Thus Raleigh, thus immortal Sidney shone (Illustrious names!) in great Eliza's days.
THOMAS EDWARDS (1699-1757): Canons of Criticism.
One kind kiss before we part, Drop a tear and bid adieu; Though we sever, my fond heart Till we meet shall pant for you.
ROBERT DODSLEY (1703-1764): The Parting Kiss.
A charge to keep I have, A God to glorify; A never dying soul to save, And fit it for the sky.
CHARLES WESLEY: Christian Fidelity.
Love divine, all love excelling, Joy of heaven to earth come down.
Divine Love.
Of right and wrong he taught Truths as refined as ever Athens heard; And (strange to tell!) he practised what he preached.
JOHN ARMSTRONG (1709-1779): The Art of Preserving Health. Book iv. Line 301.
Gentle shepherd, tell me where.
SAMUEL HOWARD (1710-1782).
Pray, Goody, please to moderate the rancour of your tongue! Why flash those sparks of fury from your eyes? Remember, when the judgment 's weak the prejudice is strong.
KANE O'HARA (---- -1782): Midas. Act i. Sc. 4.
Where passion leads or prudence points the way.
ROBERT LOWTH (1710-1787): Choice of Hercules, i.
And he that will this health deny, Down among the dead men let him lie.
---- DYER (published in the early part of the reign of George I.).
Each cursed his fate that thus their project crossed; How hard their lot who neither won nor lost!
RICHARD GRAVES (1715-1804): The Festoon (1767).
Cease, rude Boreas, blustering railer! List, ye landsmen all, to me; Messmates, hear a brother sailor Sing the dangers of the sea.
GEORGE A. STEVENS (1720-1784): The Storm.
That man may last, but never lives, Who much receives, but nothing gives; Whom none can love, whom none can thank,-- Creation's blot, creation's blank.
THOMAS GIBBONS (1720-1785): When Jesus dwelt.
In this awfully stupendous manner, at which Reason stands aghast, and Faith herself is half confounded, was the grace of God to man at length manifested.
RICHARD HURD (1720-1808): Sermons. Vol. ii. p. 287.
There is such a choice of difficulties that I am myself at a loss how to determine.
JAMES WOLFE (1726-1759): Despatch to Pitt, Sept. 2, 1759.
Kathleen mavourneen! the grey dawn is breaking, The horn of the hunter is heard on the hill.
ANNE CRAWFORD (1734-1801): Kathleen Mavourneen.
Who can refute a sneer?
WILLIAM PALEY (1743-1805): Moral Philosophy. Vol. ii. Book v. Chap. 9.
Why should the Devil have all the good tunes?
ROWLAND HILL (1744-1833).
Ho! why dost thou shiver and shake, Gaffer Grey? And why does thy nose look so blue?
THOMAS HOLCROFT (1745-1809): Gaffer Grey.
Millions for defence, but not one cent for tribute.
CHARLES COTESWORTH PINCKNEY (1746-1825),--when Ambassador to the French Republic, 1796.
And ye sall walk in silk attire, And siller hae to spare, Gin ye 'll consent to be his bride, Nor think o' Donald mair.
SUSANNA BLAMIRE (1747-1794): The Siller Croun.
A glass is good, and a lass is good, And a pipe to smoke in cold weather; The world is good, and the people are good, And we 're all good fellows together.
JOHN O'KEEFE (1747-1833): Sprigs of Laurel. Act ii. Sc. 1.
The moon had climb'd the highest hill Which rises o'er the source of Dee, And from the eastern summit shed Her silver light on tower and tree.
JOHN LOWE (1750- ----): Mary's Dream.
Columbia, Columbia, to glory arise, The queen of the world and child of the skies! Thy genius commands thee; with rapture behold, While ages on ages thy splendors unfold.
TIMOTHY DWIGHT (1752-1817): Columbia.
Lord, dismiss us with thy blessing, Hope, and comfort from above; Let us each, thy peace possessing, Triumph in redeeming love.
ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): Benediction.
Roy's wife of Aldivalloch, Wat ye how she cheated me, As I came o'er the braes of Balloch?
ANNE GRANT (1755-1838): Roy's Wife.
Bounding billows, cease your motion, Bear me not so swiftly o'er.
MARY ROBINSON (1758-1799): Bounding Billows.
While Thee I seek, protecting Power, Be my vain wishes stilled; And may this consecrated hour With better hopes be filled.
HELEN MARIA WILLIAMS (1762-1827): Trust in Providence.
The glory dies not, and the grief is past.
SAMUEL EGERTON BRYDGES (1762-1837): Sonnet on the Death of Sir Walter Scott.
Oh swiftly glides the bonnie boat, Just parted from the shore, And to the fisher's chorus-note Soft moves the dipping oar.
JOANNA BAILLIE (1762-1857): Oh swiftly glides the Bonnie Boat.
'T was whisper'd in heaven, 't was mutter'd in hell, And echo caught faintly the sound as it fell; On the confines of earth 't was permitted to rest, And the depths of the ocean its presence confess'd.
CATHERINE M. FANSHAWE (1764-1834): Enigma. The letter H.
Oh, it 's a snug little island! A right little, tight little island.
THOMAS DIBDIN (1771-1841): The snug little Island.
And ne'er shall the sons of Columbia be slaves, While the earth bears a plant or the sea rolls its waves.
ROBERT TREAT PAINE (1772-1811): Adams and Liberty.
They [the blacks] had no rights which the white man was bound to respect.
ROGER B. TANEY (1777-1864): The Dred Scott Case (Howard, Rep. 19, p. 407).
To make a mountain of a mole-hill.
HENRY ELLIS (1777-1869): Original Letters. Second Series, p. 312.
March to the battle-field, The foe is now before us; Each heart is Freedom's shield, And heaven is shining o'er us.
B. E. O'MEARA (1778-1836): March to the Battle-Field.
Our country! In her intercourse with foreign nations may she always be in the right; but our country, right or wrong.
STEPHEN DECATUR (1779-1820): Toast given at Norfolk, April, 1816.
Here shall the Press the People's right maintain, Unaw'd by influence and unbrib'd by gain; Here patriot Truth her glorious precepts draw, Pledg'd to Religion, Liberty, and Law.
JOSEPH STORY (1779-1845): Motto of the "Salem Register." (Life of Story, Vol. i. p. 127.)
Let there be no inscription upon my tomb; let no man write my epitaph: no man can write my epitaph.
ROBERT EMMET (1780-1803): Speech on his Trial and Conviction for High Treason, September, 1803.
Imitation is the sincerest flattery.
C. C. COLTON (1780-1832): The Lacon.
Behold how brightly breaks the morning! Though bleak our lot, our hearts are warm.
JAMES KENNEY (1780-1849): Behold how brightly breaks.
Unthinking, idle, wild, and young, I laugh'd and danc'd and talk'd and sung.
PRINCESS AMELIA (1783-1810).
A sound so fine, there 's nothing lives 'Twixt it and silence.
JAMES SHERIDAN KNOWLES (1784-1862): Virginius, Act v. Sc. 2.
We have met the enemy, and they are ours.
OLIVER H. PERRY (1785-1820): Letter to General Harrison (dated "United States Brig Niagara. Off the Western Sisters. Sept. 10, 1813, 4 P. M.").
Not she with trait'rous kiss her Saviour stung, Not she denied him with unholy tongue; She, while apostles shrank, could danger brave, Last at his cross and earliest at his grave.
EATON S. BARRETT (1785-1820): Woman, Part i. (ed. 1822).
They see nothing wrong in the rule that to the victors belong the spoils of the enemy.
WILLIAM L. MARCY (1786-1857): Speech in the United States Senate, January, 1832.
Say to the seceded States, "Wayward sisters, depart in peace."
WINFIELD SCOTT (1786-1861): Letter to W. H. Seward, March 3, 1861.
Rock'd in the cradle of the deep, I lay me down in peace to sleep.
EMMA WILLARD (1787-1870): The Cradle of the Deep.
Right as a trivet.
R. H. BARHAM (1788-1845): The Ingoldsby Legends. Auto-da-fe.
My life is like the summer rose That opens to the morning sky, But ere the shades of evening close Is scattered on the ground--to die.
RICHARD HENRY WILDE (1789-1847): My Life is like the Summer Rose.
Grand, gloomy, and peculiar, he sat upon the throne a sceptred hermit, wrapped in the solitude of his own originality.
CHARLES PHILLIPS (1789-1859): The Character of Napoleon.
Rise up, rise up, Xarifa! lay your golden cushion down; Rise up! come to the window, and gaze with all the town.
JOHN G. LOCKHART (1794-1854): The Bridal of Andalla.
By the margin of fair Zurich's waters Dwelt a youth, whose fond heart, night and day, For the fairest of fair Zurich's daughters In a dream of love melted away.
CHARLES DANCE (1794-1863): Fair Zurich's Waters.
I saw two clouds at morning Tinged by the rising sun, And in the dawn they floated on And mingled into one.
JOHN G. C. BRAINARD (1795-1828): I saw Two Clouds at Morning.
On thy fair bosom, silver lake, The wild swan spreads his snowy sail, And round his breast the ripples break As down he bears before the gale.
JAMES G. PERCIVAL (1795-1856): To Seneca Lake.
What fairy-like music steals over the sea, Entrancing our senses with charmed melody?
MRS. C. B. WILSON (---- -1846): What Fairy-like Music.
Her very frowns are fairer far Than smiles of other maidens are.
HARTLEY COLERIDGE (1796-1849): She is not Fair.
I would not live alway: I ask not to stay Where storm after storm rises dark o'er the way.
WILLIAM A. MUHLENBERG (1796-1877): I would not live alway.
Oh, leave the gay and festive scenes, The halls of dazzling light.
H. S. VANDYK (1798-1828): The Light Guitar.
If any one attempts to haul down the American flag, shoot him on the spot.
JOHN A. DIX (1798-1879): An Official Despatch, Jan. 29, 1861.
I envy them, those monks of old; Their books they read, and their beads they told.
G. P. R. JAMES (1801-1860): The Monks of Old.
A place in thy memory, dearest, Is all that I claim; To pause and look back when thou hearest The sound of my name.
GERALD GRIFFIN (1803-1840): A Place in thy Memory.
Sparkling and bright in liquid light Does the wine our goblets gleam in; With hue as red as the rosy bed Which a bee would choose to dream in.
CHARLES FENNO HOFFMAN (1806-1884): Sparkling and Bright.
The very mudsills of society. . . . We call them slaves. . . . But I will not characterize that class at the North with that term; but you have it. It is there, it is everywhere; it is eternal.
JAMES H. HAMMOND (1807-1864): Speech in the U. S. Senate, March, 1858.
It would be superfluous in me to point out to your Lordship that this is war.
CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS (1807-1886): Despatch to Earl Russell, Sept. 5, 1863.
We are swinging round the circle.
ANDREW JOHNSON (1808-1875): On the Presidential Reconstruction Tour, August, 1866.
We have been friends together In sunshine and in shade.
CAROLINE E. S. NORTON (1808-1877): We have been Friends.
All we ask is to be let alone.
JEFFERSON DAVIS (1808-1889): First Message to the Confederate Congress, March, 1861.
'T is said that absence conquers love; But oh believe it not! I 've tried, alas! its power to prove, But thou art not forgot.
FREDERICK W. THOMAS (1808- ----): Absence conquers Love.
Oh would I were a boy again, When life seemed formed of sunny years, And all the heart then knew of pain Was wept away in transient tears!
MARK LEMON (1809-1870): Oh would I were a Boy again.
Wee Willie Winkie rins through the toun, Upstairs and dounstairs, in his nicht-goun, Tirlin' at the window, cryin' at the lock, "Are the weans in their bed? for it 's nou ten o'clock."
WILLIAM MILLER (1810-1872): Willie Winkie.
We are Republicans, and don't propose to leave our party and identify ourselves with the party whose antecedents have been Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion.
SAMUEL D. BURCHARD (1812- ----),--one of the deputation visiting Mr. Blaine, Oct. 29, 1884.
A life on the ocean wave! A home on the rolling deep, Where the scattered waters rave, And the winds their revels keep!
EPES SARGENT (1813-1881): Life on the Ocean Wave.
What are the wild waves saying, Sister, the whole day long, That ever amid our playing I hear but their low, lone song?
JOSEPH E. CARPENTER (1813- ----): What are the wild Waves saying?
Well, General, we have not had many dead cavalrymen lying about lately.
JOSEPH HOOKER (1813-1879): A remark to General Averill, November, 1862.
Come in the evening, or come in the morning; Come when you 're looked for, or come without warning.
THOMAS O. DAVIS (1814-1845): The Welcome.
But whether on the scaffold high Or in the battle's van, The fittest place where man can die Is where he dies for man!
MICHAEL J. BARRY (Circa 1815): The Dublin Nation, Sept. 28, 1844, Vol. ii. p. 809.
Oh the heart is a free and a fetterless thing,-- A wave of the ocean, a bird on the wing!
JULIA PARDOE (1816-1862): The Captive Greek Girl.
Let wealth and commerce, laws and learning die, But leave us still our old nobility.
LORD JOHN MANNERS (1818- ----): England's Trust. Part iii. Line 227.
Why thus longing, thus forever sighing For the far-off, unattain'd, and dim, While the beautiful all round thee lying Offers up its low, perpetual hymn?
HARRIET W. SEWALL (1819-1889): Why thus longing?
Don't you remember sweet Alice, Ben Bolt? Sweet Alice, whose hair was so brown; Who wept with delight when you gave her a smile, And trembl'd with fear at your frown!
THOMAS DUNN ENGLISH (1819- ----): Ben Bolt.
The Survival of the Fittest.
HERBERT SPENCER (1820- ----): Principles of Biology, Vol. i. Chap. xii. (American edition, 1867.)
Who fears to speak of Ninety-eight? Who blushes at the name? When cowards mock the patriot's fate, Who hangs his head for shame?
JOHN K. INGRAM (1820- ----): The Dublin Nation, April 1, 1843, Vol. ii. p. 339.
On Fame's eternal camping-ground Their silent tents are spread, And Glory guards with solemn round The bivouac of the dead.
THEODORE O'HARA (1820-1867): The Bivouac of the Dead. (August, 1847.)
Hold the fort! I am coming!
WILLIAM T. SHERMAN (1820-1891),--signalled to General Corse in Allatoona from the top of Kenesaw, Oct. 5, 1864.
For every wave with dimpled face That leap'd upon the air, Had caught a star in its embrace And held it trembling there.
AMELIA B. WELBY (1821-1852): Musings. Stanza 4.
To look up and not down, To look forward and not back, To look out and not in, and To lend a hand.
EDWARD EVERETT HALE (1822- ----): Rule of the "Harry Wadsworth Club" (from "Ten Times One is Ten," 1870).
Listen! John A. Logan is the Head Centre, the Hub, the King Pin, the Main Spring, Mogul, and Mugwump of the final plot by which partisanship was installed in the Commission.
ISAAC H. BROMLEY (1833- ----): Editorial in the "New York Tribune," Feb. 16, 1877.
A mugwump is a person educated beyond his intellect.
HORACE PORTER (1837- ----), --a bon-mot in the Cleveland-Blaine campaign of 1884.
I never could believe that Providence had sent a few men into the world, ready booted and spurred to ride, and millions ready saddled and bridled to be ridden.
RICHARD RUMBOLD, on the scaffold, 1685. History of England (Macaulay), Chap. v.
The last link is broken That bound me to thee, And the words thou hast spoken Have render'd me free.
FANNY STEERS: Song.
Old Simon the cellarer keeps a rare store Of Malmsey and Malvoisie.
G. W. BELLAMY: Simon the Cellarer.
Babylon in all its desolation is a sight not so awful as that of the human mind in ruins.[682-1]
SCROPE DAVIES: Letter to Thomas Raikes, May 25, 1835.
She 's all my fancy painted her; She 's lovely, she 's divine.
WILLIAM MEE: Alice Gray.
Stately and tall he moves in the hall, The chief of a thousand for grace.
KATE FRANKLIN: Life at Olympus, Lady's Book, Vol. xxiii. p. 33.
When the sun's last rays are fading Into twilight soft and dim.
THEODORE L. BARKER: Thou wilt think of me again.
Thou hast wounded the spirit that loved thee And cherish'd thine image for years; Thou hast taught me at last to forget thee, In secret, in silence, and tears.
MRS. (DAVID) PORTER: Thou hast wounded the Spirit.
Rattle his bones over the stones! He 's only a pauper, whom nobody owns!
THOMAS NOEL: The Pauper's Ride.
In the days when we went gypsying A long time ago; The lads and lassies in their best Were dress'd from top to toe.
EDWIN RANSFORD: In the Days when we went Gypsying.
Speak gently! 't is a little thing Dropp'd in the heart's deep well; The good, the joy, that it may bring Eternity shall tell.
G. W. LANGFORD: Speak gently.
Hope tells a flattering tale,[683-1] Delusive, vain, and hollow. Ah! let not hope prevail, Lest disappointment follow.
MISS ---- WROTHER: The Universal Songster. Vol. ii. p. 86.
Nose, nose, nose, nose! And who gave thee that jolly red nose? Sinament and Ginger, Nutmegs and Cloves, And that gave me my jolly red nose.
RAVENSCROFT: Deuteromela, Song No. 7.[683-2] (1609.)
The mother said to her daughter, "Daughter, bid thy daughter tell her daughter that her daughter's daughter hath a daughter."
GEORGE HAKEWILL: Apologie. Book iii. Chap. v. Sect. 9.[683-3]
Betwixt the stirrup and the ground, Mercy I ask'd; mercy I found.[684-1]
WILLIAM CAMDEN: Remains.
Begone, dull Care! I prithee begone from me! Begone, dull Care! thou and I shall never agree.
PLAYFORD: Musical Companion. (1687.)
Much of a muchness.
VANBRUGH: The Provoked Husband, Act i. Sc. 1.
Mathew, Mark, Luke, and John, The bed be blest that I lye on.
THOMAS ADY: A Candle in the Dark, p. 58. (London, 1656.)
Junius, Aprilis, Septémq; Nouemq; tricenos, Vnum plus reliqui, Februs tenet octo vicenos, At si bissextus fuerit superadditur vnus.
WILLIAM HARRISON: Description of Britain (prefixed to Holinshed's "Chronicle," 1577).
Thirty dayes hath Nouember, Aprill, June, and September, February hath xxviii alone, And all the rest have xxxi.
RICHARD GRAFTON: Chronicles of England. (1590.)
Thirty days hath September, April, June, and November, February has twenty-eight alone, All the rest have thirty-one; Excepting leap year,--that 's the time When February's days are twenty-nine.
The Return from Parnassus. (London, 1606.)
Thirty days hath September, April, June, and November; All the rest have thirty-one, Excepting February alone, Which hath but twenty-eight, in fine, Till leap year gives it twenty-nine.
Common in the New England States.
Fourth, eleventh, ninth, and sixth, Thirty days to each affix; Every other thirty-one Except the second month alone.
Common in Chester County, Penn., among the Friends.
"Be of good comfort, Master Ridley," Latimer cried at the crackling of the flames. "Play the man! We shall this day light such a candle, by God's grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out."[685-1]
There is a garden in her face, Where roses and white lilies show; A heavenly paradise is that place, Wherein all pleasant fruits do grow. There cherries hang that none may buy, Till cherry ripe themselves do cry.
An Howres Recreation in Musike. (1606. Set to music by Richard Alison. Oliphant's "La Messa Madrigalesca," p. 229.)
Those cherries fairly do enclose Of orient pearl a double row; Which when her lovely laughter shows, They look like rosebuds filled with snow.
An Howres Recreation in Musike. (1606. Set to music by Richard Alison. Oliphant's "La Messa Madrigalesca," p. 229.)
A vest as admired Voltiger had on, Which from this Island's foes his grandsire won, Whose artful colour pass'd the Tyrian dye, Obliged to triumph in this legacy.[685-2]
The British Princes, p. 96. (1669.)
When Adam dolve, and Eve span, Who was then the gentleman?
Lines used by John Ball in Wat Tyler's Rebellion.[685-3]
Now bething the, gentilman, How Adam dalf, and Eve span.[686-1]
MS. of the Fifteenth Century (British Museum).
Use three Physicians,-- Still-first Dr. Quiet; Next Dr. Mery-man, And Dr. Dyet.[686-2]
Regimen Sanitatis Salernitanum (edition of 1607).
The King of France went up the hill With twenty thousand men; The King of France came down the hill, And ne'er went up again.
Pigges Corantoe, or Newes from the North.[686-3]
* * * * *
From The New England Primer.[686-4]
In Adam's fall We sinned all.
My Book and Heart Must never part.
Young Obadias, David, Josias,-- All were pious.
Peter denyed His Lord, and cryed.
Young Timothy Learnt sin to fly.
Xerxes did die, And so must I.
Zaccheus he Did climb the tree Our Lord to see.
Our days begin with trouble here, Our life is but a span, And cruel death is always near, So frail a thing is man.
Now I lay me down to take my sleep,[687-1] I pray the Lord my soul to keep; If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.
His wife, with nine small children and one at the breast, following him to the stake.
Martyrdom of John Rogers. Burned at Smithfield, Feb. 14, 1554.[687-2]
* * * * *
And shall Trelawny die? Here 's twenty thousand Cornish men Will know the reason why.[687-3]
Mater ait natæ, dic natæ, natam Ut moneat natæ, plangere filiolam.
The mother to her daughter spake: "Daughter," said she, "arise! Thy daughter to her daughter take, Whose daughter's daughter cries."
A Distich, according to Zwingler, on a Lady of the Dalburg Family who saw her descendants to the sixth generation.
A woman's work, grave sirs, is never done.
Poem spoken by Mr. Eusden at a Cambridge Commencement.[688-1]
Count that day lost whose low descending sun Views from thy hand no worthy action done.[688-2]
Author unknown.[688-3]
The gloomy companions of a disturbed imagination, the melancholy madness of poetry without the inspiration.[688-4]
Letters of Junius. Letter vii. To Sir W. Draper.
I do not give you to posterity as a pattern to imitate, but as an example to deter.
Letters of Junius. Letter xii. To the Duke of Grafton.
The Americans equally detest the pageantry of a king and the supercilious hypocrisy of a bishop.[688-5]
Letters of Junius. Letter xxxv.
The heart to conceive, the understanding to direct, or the hand to execute.[688-6]
Letters of Junius. Letter xxxvii. City Address, and the King's Answer.
Private credit is wealth; public honour is security. The feather that adorns the royal bird supports its flight; strip him of his plumage, and you fix him to the earth.
Letters of Junius. Letter xlii. Affair of the Falkland Islands.
'T is well to be merry and wise, 'T is well to be honest and true; 'T is well to be off with the old love Before you are on with the new.
Lines used by Maturin as the motto to "Bertram," produced at Drury Lane, 1816.
Still so gently o'er me stealing, Mem'ry will bring back the feeling, Spite of all my grief revealing, That I love thee,--that I dearly love thee still.
Opera of La Sonnambula.
Happy am I; from care I 'm free! Why ar' n't they all contented like me?
Opera of La Bayadère.
It is so soon that I am done for, I wonder what I was begun for.
Epitaph on a child who died at the age of three weeks (Cheltenham Churchyard).
An Austrian army, awfully array'd, Boldly by battery besiege Belgrade; Cossack commanders cannonading come, Deal devastation's dire destructive doom; Ev'ry endeavour engineers essay, For fame, for freedom, fight, fierce furious fray. Gen'rals 'gainst gen'rals grapple,--gracious God! How honors Heav'n heroic hardihood! Infuriate, indiscriminate in ill, Just Jesus, instant innocence instill! Kinsmen kill kinsmen, kindred kindred kill. Labour low levels longest, loftiest lines; Men march 'midst mounds, motes, mountains, murd'rous mines. Now noisy, noxious numbers notice nought, Of outward obstacles o'ercoming ought; Poor patriots perish, persecution's pest! Quite quiet Quakers "Quarter, quarter" quest; Reason returns, religion, right, redounds, Suwarrow stop such sanguinary sounds! Truce to thee, Turkey, terror to thy train! Unwise, unjust, unmerciful Ukraine! Vanish vile vengeance, vanish victory vain! Why wish we warfare? wherefore welcome won Xerxes, Xantippus, Xavier, Xenophon? Yield, ye young Yaghier yeomen, yield your yell! Zimmerman's, Zoroaster's, Zeno's zeal Again attract; arts against arms appeal. All, all ambitious aims, avaunt, away! Et cætera, et cætera, et cætera.
Alliteration, or the Siege of Belgrade: a Rondeau.[690-1]
But were it to my fancy given To rate her charms, I 'd call them heaven; For though a mortal made of clay, Angels must love Ann Hathaway; She hath a way so to control, To rapture the imprisoned soul, And sweetest heaven on earth display, That to be heaven Ann hath a way; She hath a way, Ann Hathaway,-- To be heaven's self Ann hath a way.
Attributed to Shakespeare.[690-2]
FOOTNOTES:
[682-1] Babylon in ruins is not so melancholy a spectacle (as a distracted person). ADDISON: Spectator, No. 421.
[683-1] Hope told a flattering tale, That Joy would soon return; Ah! naught my sighs avail, For Love is doomed to mourn.
ANONYMOUS (air by Giovanni Paisiello, 1741-1816): Universal Songster, vol. i. p. 320.
[683-2] BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER: _The Knight of the Burning Pestle, act i. sc. 3._
[683-3] Hakewill translated this from the "Theatrum Vitæ Humanæ," vol. iii.
[684-1] Altered by Johnson (1783),--
Between the stirrup and the ground, I mercy ask'd; I mercy found.
[685-1] I shall light a candle of understanding in thine heart, which shall not be put out.--2 Esdras xiv. 25.
[685-2] The oft-quoted lines,--
A painted vest Prince Voltiger had on, Which from a naked Pict his grandsire won,
have been ascribed to Blackmore, but suppressed in the later editions of his poems.
[685-3] HUME: History of England, vol. i. chap. xvii. note 8.
[686-1] The same proverb existed in German:--
So Adam reutte, und Eva span, Wer war da ein eddelman?
AGRICOLA: Proverbs. No. 254.
[686-2] See Swift, page 293.
[686-3] A quarto tract printed in London in 1642, p. 3. This is called "Old Tarlton's Song."
[686-4] As early as 1691, Benjamin Harris, of Boston, advertised as in press the second impression of the New England Primer. The oldest copy known to be extant is 1737.
[687-1] It is said that in the earliest edition of the New England Primer this prayer is given as above, which is copied from the reprint of 1777. In the edition of 1784 it is altered to "Now I lay me down to sleep." In the edition of 1814 the second line of the prayer reads, "I pray thee, Lord, my soul to keep."
[687-2] The true date of his death is Feb. 4, 1555.
[687-3] Robert Stephen Hawker incorporated these lines into "The Song of the Western Men," written by him in 1825. It was praised by Sir Walter Scott and Macaulay under the impression that it was the ancient song. It has been a popular proverb throughout Cornwall ever since the imprisonment by James II. of the seven bishops,--one of them Sir Jonathan Trelawny.
[688-1] It was printed for the second time, in London, 1714.
[688-2] In the Preface to Mr. Nichols's work on Autographs, among other albums noticed by him as being in the British Museum is that of David Krieg, with James Bobart's autograph (Dec. 8, 1697) and the verses,--
Virtus sui gloria. "Think that day lost whose descending sun Views from thy hand no noble action done."
Bobart died about 1726. He was a son of the celebrated botanist of that name. The verses are given as an early instance of their use.
[688-3] This is found in Staniford's "Art of Reading," third edition, p. 27 (Boston, 1803).
[688-4] See Burke, page 412.
[688-5] See Choate, page 588.
[688-6] See Clarendon, page 255.
[690-1] These lines having been incorrectly printed in a London publication, we have been favoured by the author with an authentic copy of them.--Wheeler's Magazine, vol. i. p. 244. (Winchester, England, 1828.)
[690-2] This poem entire may be found in Rossiter Johnson's "Famous Single and Fugitive Poems."
TRANSLATIONS.
PILPAY (OR BIDPAI.)[691-1]
We ought to do our neighbour all the good we can. If you do good, good will be done to you; but if you do evil, the same will be measured back to you again.[691-2]
Dabschelim and Pilpay. Chap. i.
It has been the providence of Nature to give this creature [the cat] nine lives instead of one.[691-3]
The Greedy and Ambitious Cat. Fable iii.
There is no gathering the rose without being pricked by the thorns.[691-4]
The Two Travellers. Chap. ii. Fable vi.
Wise men say that there are three sorts of persons who are wholly deprived of judgment,--they who are ambitious of preferments in the courts of princes; they who make use of poison to show their skill in curing it; and they who intrust women with their secrets.
The Two Travellers. Chap. ii. Fable vi.
Men are used as they use others.
The King who became Just. Fable ix.
What is bred in the bone will never come out of the flesh.[691-5]
The Two Fishermen. Fable xiv.
Guilty consciences always make people cowards.[691-6]
The Prince and his Minister. Chap. iii. Fable iii.
Whoever . . . prefers the service of princes before his duty to his Creator, will be sure, early or late, to repent in vain.
The Prince and his Minister. Chap. iii. Fable iii.
There are some who bear a grudge even to those that do them good.
A Religious Doctor. Fable vi.
There was once, in a remote part of the East, a man who was altogether void of knowledge and experience, yet presumed to call himself a physician.
The Ignorant Physician. Fable viii.
He that plants thorns must never expect to gather roses.[692-1]
The Ignorant Physician. Fable viii.
Honest men esteem and value nothing so much in this world as a real friend. Such a one is as it were another self, to whom we impart our most secret thoughts, who partakes of our joy, and comforts us in our affliction; add to this, that his company is an everlasting pleasure to us.
Choice of Friends. Chap. iv.
That possession was the strongest tenure of the law.[692-2]
The Cat and the two Birds. Chap. v. Fable iv.
FOOTNOTES:
[691-1] Pilpay is supposed to have been a Brahmin gymnosophist, and to have lived several centuries before Christ. The earliest form in which his Fables appear is in the Pancha-tantra and Hitopadesa of the Sanskrit. The first translation was into the Pehlvi language, and thence into the Arabic, about the seventh century. The first English translation appeared in 1570.
[691-2] And with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.--Matthew vii. 2.
[691-3] See Heywood, page 16.
[691-4] See Herrick, page 203.
[691-5] See Heywood, page 19.
[691-6] See Shakespeare, page 136.
[692-1] See Butler, page 214.
[692-2] See Cibber, page 296.
HESIOD. Circa 720 (?) B. C.
(Translation by J. Banks, M. A., with a few alterations.[692-3])
We know to tell many fictions like to truths, and we know, when we will, to speak what is true.
The Theogony. Line 27.
On the tongue of such an one they shed a honeyed dew,[692-4] and from his lips drop gentle words.
The Theogony. Line 82.
Night, having Sleep, the brother of Death.[692-5]
The Theogony. Line 754.
From whose eyelids also as they gazed dropped love.[693-1]
The Theogony. Line 910.
Both potter is jealous of potter and craftsman of craftsman; and poor man has a grudge against poor man, and poet against poet.[693-2]
Works and Days. Line 25.
Fools! they know not how much half exceeds the whole.[693-3]
Works and Days. Line 40.
For full indeed is earth of woes, and full the sea; and in the day as well as night diseases unbidden haunt mankind, silently bearing ills to men, for all-wise Zeus hath taken from them their voice. So utterly impossible is it to escape the will of Zeus.
Works and Days. Line 101.
They died, as if o'ercome by sleep.
Works and Days. Line 116.
Oft hath even a whole city reaped the evil fruit of a bad man.[693-4]
Works and Days. Line 240.
For himself doth a man work evil in working evils for another.
Works and Days. Line 265.
Badness, look you, you may choose easily in a heap: level is the path, and right near it dwells. But before Virtue the immortal gods have put the sweat of man's brow; and long and steep is the way to it, and rugged at the first.
Works and Days. Line 287.
This man, I say, is most perfect who shall have understood everything for himself, after having devised what may be best afterward and unto the end.
Works and Days. Line 293.
Let it please thee to keep in order a moderate-sized farm, that so thy garners may be full of fruits in their season.
Works and Days. Line 304.
Invite the man that loves thee to a feast, but let alone thine enemy.
Work and Days. Line 342.
A bad neighbour is as great a misfortune as a good one is a great blessing.
Works and Days. Line 346.
Gain not base gains; base gains are the same as losses.
Works and Days. Line 353.
If thou shouldst lay up even a little upon a little, and shouldst do this often, soon would even this become great.
Works and Days. Line 360.
At the beginning of the cask and at the end take thy fill, but be saving in the middle; for at the bottom saving comes too late. Let the price fixed with a friend be sufficient, and even dealing with a brother call in witnesses, but laughingly.
Works and Days. Line 366.
Diligence increaseth the fruit of toil. A dilatory man wrestles with losses.
Works and Days. Line 412.
The morn, look you, furthers a man on his road, and furthers him too in his work.
Works and Days. Line 579.
Observe moderation. In all, the fitting season is best.
Works and Days. Line 694.
Neither make thy friend equal to a brother; but if thou shalt have made him so, be not the first to do him wrong.
Works and Days. Line 707.
FOOTNOTES:
[692-3] Bohn's Classical Library.
[692-4] See Coleridge, page 500.
[692-5] See Shelley, page 567.
[693-1] See Milton, page 246.
[693-2] See Gay, page 349.
[693-3] Pittacus said that half was more than the whole.--DIOGENES LAERTIUS: Pittacus, ii.
[693-4] One man's wickedness may easily become all men's curse.--PUBLIUS SYRUS: Maxim 463.
THEOGNIS. 570(?)-490(?) B. C.
Wine is wont to show the mind of man.
Maxims. Line 500.
No one goes to Hades with all his immense wealth.[694-1]
Maxims. Line 725.
FOOTNOTES:
[694-1] For when he dieth he shall carry nothing away, his glory shall not descend after him.--Psalm xlix. 17.
[These selections from the most famous gnomic sayings of the great tragic writers of Greece--Æschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides--are chiefly from the fragments and not from their complete plays. The numbers of the fragments refer to the edition of Nauck. They are selected and translated by M. H. Morgan, Ph. D., of Harvard University.]
ÆSCHYLUS. 525-456 B. C.
I would far rather be ignorant than wise in the foreboding of evil.[695-1]
Suppliants, 453.
"Honour thy father and thy mother" stands written among the three laws of most revered righteousness.[695-2]
Suppliants, 707.
Words are the physicians of a mind diseased.[695-3]
Prometheus, 378.
Time as he grows old teaches many lessons.
Prometheus, 981.
God's mouth knows not to utter falsehood, but he will perform each word.[695-4]
Prometheus, 1032.
Learning is ever in the freshness of its youth, even for the old.[695-5]
Agamemnon, 584.
Few men have the natural strength to honour a friend's success without envy. . . . I well know that mirror of friendship, shadow of a shade.
Agamemnon, 832.
Exiles feed on hope.
Agamemnon, 1668.
Success is man's god.
Choephoræ, 59.
So in the Libyan fable it is told That once an eagle, stricken with a dart, Said, when he saw the fashion of the shaft, "With our own feathers, not by others' hands, Are we now smitten."[696-1]
Frag. 135 (trans. by Plumptre).
Of all the gods, Death only craves not gifts: Nor sacrifice, nor yet drink-offering poured Avails; no altars hath he, nor is soothed By hymns of praise. From him alone of all The powers of heaven Persuasion holds aloof.
Frag. 146 (trans. by Plumptre).
O Death the Healer, scorn thou not, I pray, To come to me: of cureless ills thou art The one physician. Pain lays not its touch Upon a corpse.
Frag. 250 (trans. by Plumptre).
A prosperous fool is a grievous burden.
Frag. 383.
Bronze is the mirror of the form; wine, of the heart.
Frag. 384.
It is not the oath that makes us believe the man, but the man the oath.
Frag. 385.
FOOTNOTES:
[695-1] See Gray, page 382.
[695-2] The three great laws ascribed to Triptolemus are referred to,--namely, to honour parents; to worship the gods with the fruits of the earth; to hurt no living creature. The first two laws are also ascribed to the centaur Cheiron.
[695-3] Apt words have power to suage The tumours of a troubl'd mind.
MILTON: Samson Agonistes.
[695-4] God is not a man that he should lie; . . . hath he said, and shall he not do it?--Numbers xxiii. 19.
[695-5] See Shakespeare, page 64.
[696-1] See Waller, page 219.
SOPHOCLES. 496-406 B. C.
Think not that thy word and thine alone must be right.
Antigone, 706.
Death is not the worst evil, but rather when we wish to die and cannot.
Electra, 1007.
There is an ancient saying, famous among men, that thou shouldst not judge fully of a man's life before he dieth, whether it should be called blest or wretched.[696-2]
Trachiniæ, 1.
In a just cause the weak o'ercome the strong.[696-3]
OEdipus Coloneus, 880.
A lie never lives to be old.
Acrisius. Frag. 59.
Nobody loves life like an old man.
Acrisius. Frag. 63.
A short saying oft contains much wisdom.[697-1]
Aletes. Frag. 99.
Do nothing secretly; for Time sees and hears all things, and discloses all.
Hipponous. Frag. 280.
It is better not to live at all than to live disgraced.
Peleus. Frag. 445.
War loves to seek its victims in the young.
Scyrii. Frag. 507.
If it were possible to heal sorrow by weeping and to raise the dead with tears, gold were less prized than grief.
Scyrii. Frag. 510.
Children are the anchors that hold a mother to life.
Phædra. Frag. 619.
The truth is always the strongest argument.
Phædra. Frag. 737.
The dice of Zeus fall ever luckily.
Phædra. Frag. 809.
Fortune is not on the side of the faint-hearted.
Phædra. Frag. 842.
No oath too binding for a lover.
Phædra. Frag. 848.
Thoughts are mightier than strength of hand.
Phædra. Frag. 854.
A wise player ought to accept his throws and score them, not bewail his luck.
Phædra. Frag. 862.
If I am Sophocles, I am not mad; and if I am mad, I am not Sophocles.
Vit. Anon. p. 64 (Plumptre's Trans.).
FOOTNOTES:
[696-2] The saying "Call no man happy before he dies" was ascribed to Solon. Herodotus, i. 32.
[696-3] See Marlowe, page 40.
[697-1] See Shakespeare, page 133.
EURIPIDES. 484-406 B. C.
Old men's prayers for death are lying prayers, in which they abuse old age and long extent of life. But when death draws near, not one is willing to die, and age no longer is a burden to them.
Alcestis. 669.
The gifts of a bad man bring no good with them.
Medea. 618.
Moderation, the noblest gift of Heaven.
Medea. 636.
I know, indeed, the evil of that I purpose; but my inclination gets the better of my judgment.[698-1]
Medea. 1078.
There is in the worst of fortune the best of chances for a happy change.[698-2]
Iphigenia in Tauris. 721.
Slowly but surely withal moveth the might of the gods.[698-3]
Bacchæ. 882.
Thou didst bring me forth for all the Greeks in common, not for thyself alone.
Iphigenia in Aulis. 1386.
Slight not what 's near through aiming at what 's far.[698-4]
Rhesus. 482.
The company of just and righteous men is better than wealth and a rich estate.
Ægeus. Frag. 7.
A bad beginning makes a bad ending.
Æolus. Frag. 32.
Time will explain it all. He is a talker, and needs no questioning before he speaks.
Æolus. Frag. 38.
Waste not fresh tears over old griefs.
Alexander. Frag. 44.
The nobly born must nobly meet his fate.[698-5]
Alcmene. Frag. 100.
Woman is woman's natural ally.
Alope. Frag. 109.
Man's best possession is a sympathetic wife.
Antigone. Frag. 164.
Ignorance of one's misfortunes is clear gain.[698-6]
Antiope. Frag. 204.
Try first thyself, and after call in God; For to the worker God himself lends aid.[699-1]
Hippolytus. Frag. 435.
Second thoughts are ever wiser.[699-2]
Hippolytus. Frag. 436.
Toil, says the proverb, is the sire of fame.
Licymnius. Frag. 477.
Cowards do not count in battle; they are there, but not in it.
Meleager. Frag. 523.
A woman should be good for everything at home, but abroad good for nothing.
Meleager. Frag. 525.
Silver and gold are not the only coin; virtue too passes current all over the world.
OEdipus. Frag. 546.
When good men die their goodness does not perish, But lives though they are gone. As for the bad, All that was theirs dies and is buried with them.
Temenidæ. Frag. 734.
Every man is like the company he is wont to keep.
Phoenix. Frag. 809.
Who knows but life be that which men call death,[699-3] And death what men call life?
Phrixus. Frag. 830.
Whoso neglects learning in his youth, loses the past and is dead for the future.
Phrixus. Frag. 927.
The gods visit the sins of the fathers upon the children.
Phrixus. Frag. 970.
FOOTNOTES:
[698-1] See Shakespeare, page 60. Also Garth, page 295.
[698-2] The darkest hour is that before the dawn.--HAZLITT: English Proverbs.
[698-3] See Herbert, page 206.
[698-4] See Heywood, page 15.
[698-5] Noblesse oblige.--BOHN: Foreign Proverbs.
[698-6] See Davenant, page 217.
[699-1] See Herbert, page 206.
[699-2] See Henry, page 283.
[699-3] See Diogenes Laertius, page 766.
MIMNERMUS (TRAGEDIAN).
We are all clever enough at envying a famous man while he is yet alive, and at praising him when he is dead.
Frag. 1.
HIPPOCRATES. 460-359 B. C.
Life is short and the art long.[700-1]
Aphorism i.
Extreme remedies are very appropriate for extreme diseases.[700-2]
Aphorism i.
FOOTNOTES:
[700-1] See Chaucer, page 6.
[700-2] See Shakespeare, page 141.
For a desperate disease a desperate cure.--MONTAIGNE: Chap. iii. The Custom of the Isle of Cea.
DIONYSIUS THE ELDER. 430-367 B. C.
Let thy speech be better than silence, or be silent.
Frag. 6.
PLAUTUS. 254(?)-184 B. C.
(Translated by Henry Thomas Riley, B. A., with a few variations. The references are to the text of Ritschl's second edition.[700-3])
What is yours is mine, and all mine is yours.[700-4]
Trinummus. Act ii. Sc. 2, 48. (329.)
Not by years but by disposition is wisdom acquired.
Trinummus. Act ii. Sc. 2, 88. (367.)
These things are not for the best, nor as I think they ought to be; but still they are better than that which is downright bad.
Trinummus. Act ii. Sc. 2, 111. (392.)
He whom the gods favour dies in youth.[700-5]
Bacchides. Act iv. Sc. 7, 18. (816.)
You are seeking a knot in a bulrush.[701-1]
Menæchmi. Act ii. Sc. 1, 22. (247.)
In the one hand he is carrying a stone, while he shows the bread in the other.[701-2]
Aulularia. Act ii. Sc. 2, 18. (195.)
I had a regular battle with the dunghill-cock.
Aulularia. Act iii. Sc. 4, 13. (472.)
It was not for nothing that the raven was just now croaking on my left hand.[701-3]
Aulularia. Act iv. Sc. 3, 1. (624.)
There are occasions when it is undoubtedly better to incur loss than to make gain.
Captivi. Act ii. Sc. 2, 77. (327.)
Patience is the best remedy for every trouble.[701-4]
Rudens. Act ii. Sc. 5, 71.
If you are wise, be wise; keep what goods the gods provide you.
Rudens. Act iv. Sc. 7, 3. (1229.)
Consider the little mouse, how sagacious an animal it is which never entrusts its life to one hole only.[701-5]
Truculentus. Act iv. Sc. 4, 15. (868.)
Nothing is there more friendly to a man than a friend in need.[701-6]
Epidicus. Act iii. Sc. 3, 44. (425.)
Things which you do not hope happen more frequently than things which you do hope.[701-7]
Mostellaria. Act i. Sc. 3, 40. (197.)
To blow and swallow at the same moment is not easy.
Mostellaria. Act iii. Sc. 2, 104. (791.)
Each man reaps on his own farm.
Mostellaria. Act iii. Sc. 2, 112. (799.)
FOOTNOTES:
[700-3] Bohn's Classical Library.
[700-4] See Shakespeare, page 50.
[700-5] See Wordsworth, page 479.
[701-1] A proverbial expression implying a desire to create doubts and difficulties where there really were none. It occurs in Terence, the "Andria," act v. sc. 4, 38; also in Ennius, "Saturæ," 46.
[701-2] What man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone?--Matthew vii. 9.
[701-3] See Gay, page 349.
[701-4] Patience is a remedy for every sorrow.--PUBLIUS SYRUS: Maxim 170.
[701-5] See Chaucer, page 4.
[701-6] A friend in need is a friend indeed.--HAZLITT: English Proverbs.
[701-7] The unexpected always happens.--A common proverb.
TERENCE. 185-159 B. C.
(From the translation of Henry Thomas Riley, B. A., with occasional corrections. The references are to the text of Umpfenbach.[702-1])
Do not they bring it to pass by knowing that they know nothing at all?
Andria. The Prologue. 17.
Of surpassing beauty and in the bloom of youth.
Andria. Act i. Sc. 1, 45. (72.)
Hence these tears.
Andria. Act i. Sc. 1, 99. (126.)
That is a true proverb which is wont to be commonly quoted, that "all had rather it were well for themselves than for another."
Andria. Act ii. Sc. 5, 15. (426.)
The quarrels of lovers are the renewal of love.[702-2]
Andria. Act iii. Sc. 3, 23. (555.)
Look you, I am the most concerned in my own interests.[702-3]
Andria. Act iv. Sc. 1, 12. (636.)
In fine, nothing is said now that has not been said before.
Eunuchus. The Prologue. 41.
It is up with you; all is over; you are ruined.
Eunuchus. Act i. Sc. 1, 9. (54.)
If I could believe that this was said sincerely, I could put up with anything.
Eunuchus. Act i. Sc. 2, 96. (176.)
Immortal gods! how much does one man excel another! What a difference there is between a wise person and a fool!
Eunuchus. Act ii. Sc. 2, 1. (232.)
I have everything, yet have nothing; and although I possess nothing, still of nothing am I in want.[702-4]
Eunuchus. Act ii. Sc. 2, 12. (243.)
There are vicissitudes in all things.
Eunuchus. Act ii. Sc. 2, 45. (276.)
The very flower of youth.
Eunuchus. Act ii. Sc. 3, 28. (319.)
I did not care one straw.
Eunuchus. Act iii. Sc. 1, 21. (411.)
Jupiter, now assuredly is the time when I could readily consent to be slain,[703-1] lest life should sully this ecstasy with some disaster.
Eunuchus. Act iii. Sc. 5, 2. (550.)
This and a great deal more like it I have had to put up with.
Eunuchus. Act iv. Sc. 6, 8. (746.)
Take care and say this with presence of mind.[703-2]
Eunuchus. Act iv. Sc. 6, 31. (769.)
It behooves a prudent person to make trial of everything before arms.
Eunuchus. Act iv. Sc. 7, 19. (789.)
I know the disposition of women: when you will, they won't; when you won't, they set their hearts upon you of their own inclination.
Eunuchus. Act iv. Sc. 7, 42. (812.)
I took to my heels as fast as I could.
Eunuchus. Act v. Sc. 2, 5. (844.)
Many a time, . . . from a bad beginning great friendships have sprung up.
Eunuchus. Act v. Sc. 2, 34. (873.)
I only wish I may see your head stroked down with a slipper.[703-3]
Eunuchus. Act v. Sc. 7, 4. (1028.)
I am a man, and nothing that concerns a man do I deem a matter of indifference to me.[703-4]
Heautontimoroumenos. Act i. Sc. 1, 25. (77.)
This is a wise maxim, "to take warning from others of what may be to your own advantage."
Heautontimoroumenos. Act i. Sc. 2, 36. (210.)
That saying which I hear commonly repeated,--that time assuages sorrow.
Heautontimoroumenos. Act iii. Sc. 1, 12. (421.)
Really, you have seen the old age of an eagle,[704-1] as the saying is.
Heautontimoroumenos. Act iii. Sc. 2, 9. (520.)
Many a time a man cannot be such as he would be, if circumstances do not admit of it.
Heautontimoroumenos. Act iv. Sc. 1, 53. (666.)
Nothing is so difficult but that it may be found out by seeking.
Heautontimoroumenos. Act iv. Sc. 2, 8. (675.)
What now if the sky were to fall?[704-2]
Heautontimoroumenos. Act iv. Sc. 3, 41. (719.)
Rigorous law is often rigorous injustice.[704-3]
Heautontimoroumenos. Act iv. Sc. 5, 48. (796.)
There is nothing so easy but that it becomes difficult when you do it with reluctance.
Heautontimoroumenos. Act iv. Sc. 6, 1. (805.)
How many things, both just and unjust, are sanctioned by custom!
Heautontimoroumenos. Act iv. Sc. 7, 11. (839.)
Fortune helps the brave.[704-4]
Phormio. Act i. Sc. 4, 25. (203.)
It is the duty of all persons, when affairs are the most prosperous,[704-5] then in especial to reflect within themselves in what way they are to endure adversity.
Phormio. Act ii. Sc. 1, 11. (241.)
As many men, so many minds; every one his own way.
Phormio. Act ii. Sc. 4, 14. (454.)
As the saying is, I have got a wolf by the ears.[705-1]
Phormio. Act iii. Sc. 2, 21. (506.)
I bid him look into the lives of men as though into a mirror, and from others to take an example for himself.
Adelphoe. Act iii. Sc. 3, 61. (415.)
According as the man is, so must you humour him.
Adelphoe. Act iii. Sc. 3, 77. (431.)
It is a maxim of old that among themselves all things are common to friends.[705-2]
Adelphoe. Act v. Sc. 3, 18. (803.)
What comes from this quarter, set it down as so much gain.
Adelphoe. Act v. Sc. 3, 30. (816.)
It is the common vice of all, in old age, to be too intent upon our interests.[705-3]
Adelphoe. Act v. Sc. 8, 30. (953.)
FOOTNOTES:
[702-1] Bonn's Classical Library.
[702-2] See Edwards, page 21.
[702-3] Equivalent to our sayings, "Charity begins at home;" "Take care of Number One."
[702-4] See Wotton, page 174.
[703-1] If it were now to die, 'T were now to be most happy.
SHAKESPEARE: Othello, act ii. sc. 1.
[703-2] Literally, "with a present mind,"--equivalent to Cæsar's præsentia animi (De Bello Gallico, v. 43, 4).
[703-3] According to Lucian, there was a story that Omphale used to beat Hercules with her slipper or sandal.
[703-4] Cicero quotes this passage in De Officiis, i. 30.
[704-1] This was a proverbial expression, signifying a hale and vigorous old age.
[704-2] See Heywood, page 11.
Some ambassadors from the Celtæ, being asked by Alexander what in the world they dreaded most, answered, that they feared lest the sky should fall upon them.--ARRIANUS: lib. i. 4.
[704-3] Extreme law, extreme injustice, is now become a stale proverb in discourse.--CICERO: De Officiis, i. 33.
Une extrême justice est souvent une injure (Extreme justice is often injustice).--RACINE: Frères Ennemies, act iv. sc. 3.
Mais l'extrême justice est une extrême injure.--VOLTAIRE: OEdipus, act iii. sc. 3.
[704-4] Pliny the Younger says (book vi. letter xvi.) that Pliny the Elder said this during the eruption of Vesuvius: "Fortune favours the brave."
[704-5] CICERO: Tusculan Questions, book iii. 30.
[705-1] A proverbial expression, which, according to Suetonius, was frequently in the mouth of Tiberius Cæsar.
[705-2] All things are in common among friends.--DIOGENES LAERTIUS: Diogenes, vi.
[705-3] Cicero quotes this passage (Tusculan Questions, book iii.), and the maxim was a favourite one with the Stoic philosophers.
CICERO. 106-43 B. C.
For as lack of adornment is said to become some women, so this subtle oration, though without embellishment, gives delight.[705-4]
De Oratore. 78.
Thus in the beginning the world was so made that certain signs come before certain events.[705-5]
De Divinatione. i. 118.
He is never less at leisure than when at leisure.[705-6]
De Officiis. iii. 1.
While the sick man has life there is hope.[705-7]
Epistolarum ad Atticum. ix. 10, 4.
FOOTNOTES:
[705-4] See Thomson, page 356.
[705-5] See Coleridge, page 504.
[705-6] See Rogers, page 455.
[705-7] See Gay, page 349.
LUCRETIUS. 95-55 B. C.
Continual dropping wears away a stone.[706-1]
De Rerum Natura. i. 313.
What is food to one man may be fierce poison to others.[706-2]
De Rerum Natura. iv. 637.
In the midst of the fountain of wit there arises something bitter, which stings in the very flowers.[706-3]
De Rerum Natura. iv. 1133.
FOOTNOTES:
[706-1] See Lyly, page 32.
[706-2] See Beaumont and Fletcher, page 199.
[706-3] See Byron, page 540.
HORACE. 65-8 B. C.
Brave men were living before Agamemnon.[706-4]
Odes. iv. 9, 25.
In peace, as a wise man, he should make suitable preparation for war.[706-5]
Satires, ii. 2. (111.)
You may see me, fat and shining, with well-cared-for hide, . . . a hog from Epicurus's herd.[706-6]
Satires, ii. 4, 15.
What the discordant harmony of circumstances would and could effect.[706-7]
Epistles, i. 12, 19.
If you wish me to weep, you yourself must feel grief.[706-8]
Ars Poetica. 102.
The mountains will be in labour; an absurd mouse will be born.[706-9]
Ars Poetica. 139.
Even the worthy Homer sometimes nods.[706-10]
Ars Poetica. 359.
FOOTNOTES:
[706-4] See Byron, page 555.
[706-5] See Washington, page 425.
[706-6] See Mason, page 393.
[706-7] See Burke, page 409.
[706-8] See Churchill, page 412.
[706-9] A mountain was in labour, sending forth dreadful groans, and there was in the region the highest expectation. After all, it brought forth a mouse.--PHÆDRUS: Fables, iv. 22, 1.
The old proverb was now made good: "The mountain had brought forth a mouse."--PLUTARCH: Life of Agesilaus II.
[706-10] See Pope, page 323.
OVID. 43 B. C.-18 A. D.
They come to see; they come that they themselves may be seen.[707-1]
The Art of Love. i. 99.
Nothing is stronger than custom.
The Art of Love. ii. 345.
Then the omnipotent Father with his thunder made Olympus tremble, and from Ossa hurled Pelion.[707-2]
Metamorphoses. i.
It is the mind that makes the man, and our vigour is in our immortal soul.[707-3]
Metamorphoses. xiii.
The mind, conscious of rectitude, laughed to scorn the falsehood of report.[707-4]
Fasti. iv. 311.
FOOTNOTES:
[707-1] See Chaucer, page 3.
[707-2] See Pope, page 344.
I would have you call to mind the strength of the ancient giants, that undertook to lay the high mountain Pelion on the top of Ossa, and set among those the shady Olympus.--RABELAIS: Works, book iv. chap. xxxviii.
[707-3] See Watts, page 303.
[707-4] And the mind conscious of virtue may bring to thee suitable rewards.--VIRGIL: Æneid, i. 604.
OF UNKNOWN AUTHORSHIP.
Love thyself, and many will hate thee.
Frag. 146.
Practice in time becomes second nature.[707-5]
Frag. 227.
When God is planning ruin for a man, He first deprives him of his reason.[707-6]
Frag. 379.
When I am dead let fire destroy the world; It matters not to me, for I am safe.
Frag. 430.
Toil does not come to help the idle.
Frag. 440.
FOOTNOTES:
[707-5] Custom is almost a second nature.--PLUTARCH: _Rules for the Preservation of Health, 18._
[707-6] See Dryden, page 269.
This may have been the original of the well known (but probably post-classical) line, "Quem Jupiter vult perdere, dementat prius." Publius Syrus has, "Stultum facit fortuna quem vult perdere."
PUBLIUS SYRUS.[708-1] 42 B. C.
(Translation by Darius Lyman. The numbers are those of the translator.)
As men, we are all equal in the presence of death.
Maxim 1.
To do two things at once is to do neither.
Maxim 7.
We are interested in others when they are interested in us.[708-2]
Maxim 16.
Every one excels in something in which another fails.
Maxim 17.
The anger of lovers renews the strength of love.[708-3]
Maxim 24.
A god could hardly love and be wise.[708-4]
Maxim 25.
The loss which is unknown is no loss at all.[708-5]
Maxim 38.
He sleeps well who knows not that he sleeps ill.
Maxim 77.
A good reputation is more valuable than money.[708-6]
Maxim 108.
It is well to moor your bark with two anchors.
Maxim 119.
Learn to see in another's calamity the ills which you should avoid.[708-7]
Maxim 120.
An agreeable companion on a journey is as good as a carriage.
Maxim 143.
Society in shipwreck is a comfort to all.[708-8]
Maxim 144.
Many receive advice, few profit by it.
Maxim 149.
Patience is a remedy for every sorrow.[709-1]
Maxim 170.
While we stop to think, we often miss our opportunity.
Maxim 185.
Whatever you can lose, you should reckon of no account.
Maxim 191.
Even a single hair casts its shadow.
Maxim 228.
It is sometimes expedient to forget who we are.
Maxim 233.
We may with advantage at times forget what we know.
Maxim 234.
You should hammer your iron when it is glowing hot.[709-2]
Maxim 262.
What is left when honour is lost?
Maxim 265.
A fair exterior is a silent recommendation.
Maxim 267.
Fortune is not satisfied with inflicting one calamity.
Maxim 274.
When Fortune is on our side, popular favour bears her company.
Maxim 275.
When Fortune flatters, she does it to betray.
Maxim 277.
Fortune is like glass,--the brighter the glitter, the more easily broken.
Maxim 280.
It is more easy to get a favour from fortune than to keep it.
Maxim 282.
His own character is the arbiter of every one's fortune.[709-3]
Maxim 283.
There are some remedies worse than the disease.[709-4]
Maxim 301.
Powerful indeed is the empire of habit.[709-5]
Maxim 305.
Amid a multitude of projects, no plan is devised.[709-6]
Maxim 319.
It is easy for men to talk one thing and think another.
Maxim 322.
When two do the same thing, it is not the same thing after all.
Maxim 338.
A cock has great influence on his own dunghill.[710-1]
Maxim 357.
Any one can hold the helm when the sea is calm.[710-2]
Maxim 358.
No tears are shed when an enemy dies.
Maxim 376.
The bow too tensely strung is easily broken.
Maxim 388.
Treat your friend as if he might become an enemy.
Maxim 401.
No pleasure endures unseasoned by variety.[710-3]
Maxim 406.
The judge is condemned when the criminal is acquitted.[710-4]
Maxim 407.
Practice is the best of all instructors.[710-5]
Maxim 439.
He who is bent on doing evil can never want occasion.
Maxim 459.
One man's wickedness may easily become all men's curse.
Maxim 463.
Never find your delight in another's misfortune.
Maxim 467.
It is a bad plan that admits of no modification.
Maxim 469.
It is better to have a little than nothing.
Maxim 484.
It is an unhappy lot which finds no enemies.
Maxim 499.
The fear of death is more to be dreaded than death itself.[711-1]
Maxim 511.
A rolling stone gathers no moss.[711-2]
Maxim 524.
Never promise more than you can perform.
Maxim 528.
A wise man never refuses anything to necessity.[711-3]
Maxim 540.
No one should be judge in his own cause.[711-4]
Maxim 545.
Necessity knows no law except to conquer.[711-5]
Maxim 553.
Nothing can be done at once hastily and prudently.[711-6]
Maxim 557.
We desire nothing so much as what we ought not to have.
Maxim 559.
It is only the ignorant who despise education.
Maxim 571.
Do not turn back when you are just at the goal.[711-7]
Maxim 580.
It is not every question that deserves an answer.
Maxim 581.
No man is happy who does not think himself so.[711-8]
Maxim 584.
Never thrust your own sickle into another's corn.[711-9]
Maxim 593.
You cannot put the same shoe on every foot.
Maxim 596.
He bids fair to grow wise who has discovered that he is not so.
Maxim 598.
A guilty conscience never feels secure.[712-1]
Maxim 617.
Every day should be passed as if it were to be our last.[712-2]
Maxim 633.
Familiarity breeds contempt.[712-3]
Maxim 640.
Money alone sets all the world in motion.
Maxim 656.
He who has plenty of pepper will pepper his cabbage.
Maxim 673.
You should go to a pear-tree for pears, not to an elm.[712-4]
Maxim 674.
It is a very hard undertaking to seek to please everybody.
Maxim 675.
We should provide in peace what we need in war.[712-5]
Maxim 709.
Look for a tough wedge for a tough log.
Maxim 723.
How happy the life unembarrassed by the cares of business!
Maxim 725.
They who plough the sea do not carry the winds in their hands.[712-6]
Maxim 759.
He gets through too late who goes too fast.
Maxim 767.
In every enterprise consider where you would come out.[712-7]
Maxim 777.
It takes a long time to bring excellence to maturity.
Maxim 780.
The highest condition takes rise in the lowest.
Maxim 781.
It matters not what you are thought to be, but what you are.
Maxim 785.
No one knows what he can do till he tries.
Maxim 786.
The next day is never so good as the day before.
Maxim 815.
He is truly wise who gains wisdom from another's mishap.
Maxim 825.
Good health and good sense are two of life's greatest blessings.
Maxim 827.
It matters not how long you live, but how well.
Maxim 829.
It is vain to look for a defence against lightning.[713-1]
Maxim 835.
No good man ever grew rich all at once.[713-2]
Maxim 837.
Everything is worth what its purchaser will pay for it.[713-3]
Maxim 847.
It is better to learn late than never.[713-4]
Maxim 864.
Better be ignorant of a matter than half know it.[713-5]
Maxim 865.
Better use medicines at the outset than at the last moment.
Maxim 866.
Prosperity makes friends, adversity tries them.
Maxim 872.
Whom Fortune wishes to destroy she first makes mad.[713-6]
Maxim 911.
Let a fool hold his tongue and he will pass for a sage.
Maxim 914.
He knows not when to be silent who knows not when to speak.
Maxim 930.
You need not hang up the ivy-branch over the wine that will sell.[714-1]
Maxim 968.
It is a consolation to the wretched to have companions in misery.[714-2]
Maxim 995.
Unless degree is preserved, the first place is safe for no one.[714-3]
Maxim 1042.
Confession of our faults is the next thing to innocency.
Maxim 1060.
I have often regretted my speech, never my silence.[714-4]
Maxim 1070.
Keep the golden mean[714-5] between saying too much and too little.
Maxim 1072.
Speech is a mirror of the soul: as a man speaks, so is he.
Maxim 1073.
FOOTNOTES:
[708-1] Commonly called Publius, but spelled Publilius by Pliny (Natural History, 35, sect. 199).
[708-2] We always like those who admire us.--ROCHEFOUCAULD: Maxim 294.
[708-3] See Edwards, page 21.
[708-4] It is impossible to love and be wise.--BACON: Of Love (quoted).
[708-5] See Shakespeare, page 154.
[708-6] A good name is better than riches.--CERVANTES: _Don Quixote, part ii. book ii. chap. xxxiii._
[708-7] The best plan is, as the common proverb has it, to profit by the folly of others.--PLINY: _Natural History, book xviii. sect. 31._
[708-8] See Maxim 995.
[709-1] See Plautus, page 701.
[709-2] See Heywood, page 10.
[709-3] See Bacon, page 167.
[709-4] See Bacon, page 165.
Marius said, "I see the cure is not worth the pain."--PLUTARCH: Life of Caius Marius.
[709-5] Habit is second nature.--MONTAIGNE: _Essays, book iii. chap. x._
[709-6] He that hath many irons in the fire, some of them will cool.--HAZLITT: English Proverbs.
[710-1] See Heywood, page 14.
[710-2] The sea being smooth, How many shallow bauble boats dare sail Upon her patient breast.
SHAKESPEARE: Troilus and Cressida, act i. sc. 3.
[710-3] See Cowper, page 419.
[710-4] Judex damnatur cum nocens absolvitur,--the motto adopted for the "Edinburgh Review."
[710-5] Practice makes perfect.--Proverb.
[711-1] See Shakespeare, page 48.
[711-2] See Heywood, page 14.
[711-3] Yet do I hold that mortal foolish who strives against the stress of necessity.--EURIPIDES: Hercules Furens, line 281.
[711-4] It is not permitted to the most equitable of men to be a judge in his own cause.--PASCAL: Thoughts, chap. iv. 1.
[711-5] See Milton, page 232.
[711-6] See Chaucer, page 3.
[711-7] When men are arrived at the goal, they should not turn back.--PLUTARCH: Of the Training of Children.
[711-8] No man can enjoy happiness without thinking that he enjoys it.--JOHNSON: The Rambler, p. 150.
[711-9] Did thrust as now in others' corn his sickle.--DU BARTAS: Divine Weekes and Workes, part ii. Second Weeke.
Not presuming to put my sickle in another man's corn.--NICHOLAS YONGE: Musica Transalpini. Epistle Dedicatory. 1588.
[712-1] See Shakespeare, page 136.
[712-2] Thou wilt find rest from vain fancies if thou doest every act in life as though it were thy last.--MARCUS AURELIUS: Meditations, ii. 5.
[712-3] See Shakespeare, page 45.
[712-4] You may as well expect pears from an elm.--CERVANTES: Don Quixote, part ii. book ii. chap. xl.
[712-5] See Washington, page 425.
[712-6] The pilot cannot mitigate the billows or calm the winds.--PLUTARCH: Of the Tranquillity of the Mind.
[712-7] In every affair consider what precedes and what follows, and then undertake it.--EPICTETUS: _That everything is to be undertaken with circumspection, chap. xv._
[713-1] Syrus was not a contemporary of Franklin.
[713-2] No just man ever became rich all at once.--MENANDER: Fragment.
[713-3] See Butler, page 213.
[713-4] See Shakespeare, page 64.
[713-5] See Bacon, page 166.
[713-6] See Dryden, page 269.
[714-1] See Shakespeare, page 72.
[714-2] See Maxim 144.
[714-3] See Shakespeare, page 102.
[714-4] Simonides said "that he never repented that he held his tongue, but often that he had spoken."--PLUTARCH: Rules for the Preservation of Health.
SENECA. 8 B. C.-65 A. D.
Not lost, but gone before.[714-6]
Epistolæ. 63, 16.
Whom they have injured they also hate.[714-7]
De Ira. ii. 33.
Fire is the test of gold; adversity, of strong men.[714-8]
De Providentia. 5, 9.
There is no great genius without a tincture of madness.[714-9]
De Tranquillitate Animi. 17.
Do you seek Alcides' equal? None is, except himself.[714-10]
Hercules Furens. i. 1, 84.
Successful and fortunate crime is called virtue.[715-1]
Hercules Furens. 255.
A good man possesses a kingdom.[715-2]
Thyestes. 380.
I do not distinguish by the eye, but by the mind, which is the proper judge of the man.[715-3]
On a Happy Life. 2. (L' Estrange's Abstract, Chap. i.)
FOOTNOTES:
[714-5] See Cowper, page 424.
[714-6] See Rogers, page 455.
[714-7] See Dryden, page 275.
[714-8] See Beaumont and Fletcher, page 197.
[714-9] See Dryden, page 267.
[714-10] See Theobald, page 352.
[715-1] See Harrington, page 39.
[715-2] See Dyer, page 22.
[715-3] See Watts, page 303.
PHÆDRUS. 8 A. D.
(Translation by H. T. Riley, B. A.[715-4])
Submit to the present evil, lest a greater one befall you.
Book i. Fable 2, 31.
He who covets what belongs to another deservedly loses his own.
Book i. Fable 4, 1.
That it is unwise to be heedless ourselves while we are giving advice to others, I will show in a few lines.
Book i. Fable 9, 1.
Whoever has even once become notorious by base fraud, even if he speaks the truth, gains no belief.
Book i. Fable 10, 1.
By this story [The Fox and the Raven] it is shown how much ingenuity avails, and how wisdom is always an overmatch for strength.
Book i. Fable 13, 13.
No one returns with good-will to the place which has done him a mischief.
Book i. Fable 18, 1.
It has been related that dogs drink at the river Nile running along, that they may not be seized by the crocodiles.[715-5]
Book i. Fable 25, 3.
Every one is bound to bear patiently the results of his own example.
Book i. Fable 26, 12.
Come of it what may, as Sinon said.
Book iii. The Prologue, 27.
Things are not always what they seem.[716-1]
Book iv. Fable 2, 5.
Jupiter has loaded us with a couple of wallets: the one, filled with our own vices, he has placed at our backs; the other, heavy with those of others, he has hung before.[716-2]
Book iv. Fable 10, 1.
A mountain was in labour, sending forth dreadful groans, and there was in the region the highest expectation. After all, it brought forth a mouse.[716-3]
Book iv. Fable 23, 1.
A fly bit the bare pate of a bald man, who in endeavouring to crush it gave himself a hard slap. Then said the fly jeeringly, "You wanted to revenge the sting of a tiny insect with death; what will you do to yourself, who have added insult to injury?"
Book v. Fable 3, 1.
"I knew that before you were born." Let him who would instruct a wiser man consider this as said to himself.
Book v. Fable 9, 4.
FOOTNOTES:
[715-4] Bohn's Classical Library.
[715-5] Pliny in his "Natural History," book viii. sect. 148, and Ælian in his "Various Histories" relate the same fact as to the dogs drinking from the Nile. "To treat a thing as the dogs do the Nile" was a common proverb with the ancients, signifying to do it superficially.
[716-1] See Longfellow, page 612.
[716-2] Also alluded to by Horace, Satires, ii. 3, 299; Catullus, 22, 21; and Persius, 4, 24.
[716-3] See Horace, page 706.
PLINY THE ELDER. 23-79 A. D.
(Translation by J. Bostock, M. D., and H. T. Riley, B. A., with slight alterations.[716-4])
In comparing various authors with one another, I have discovered that some of the gravest and latest writers have transcribed, word for word, from former works, without making acknowledgment.
Natural History. Book i. Dedication, Sect. 22.
The world, and whatever that be which we call the heavens, by the vault of which all things are enclosed, we must conceive to be a deity, to be eternal, without bounds, neither created nor subject at any time to destruction. To inquire what is beyond it is no concern of man; nor can the human mind form any conjecture concerning it.
Natural History. Book ii. Sect. 1.
It is ridiculous to suppose that the great head of things, whatever it be, pays any regard to human affairs.
Natural History. Book ii. Sect. 20.
Everything is soothed by oil, and this is the reason why divers send out small quantities of it from their mouths, because it smooths every part which is rough.[717-1]
Natural History. Book ii. Sect. 234.
It is far from easy to determine whether she [Nature] has proved to him a kind parent or a merciless stepmother.[717-2]
Natural History. Book vii. Sect. 1.
Man alone at the very moment of his birth, cast naked upon the naked earth, does she abandon to cries and lamentations.[717-3]
Natural History. Book vii. Sect. 2.
To laugh, if but for an instant only, has never been granted to man before the fortieth day from his birth, and then it is looked upon as a miracle of precocity.[718-1]
Natural History, Book vii. Sect. 2.
Man is the only one that knows nothing, that can learn nothing without being taught. He can neither speak nor walk nor eat, and in short he can do nothing at the prompting of nature only, but weep.[718-2]
Natural History, Book vii. Sect. 4.
With man, most of his misfortunes are occasioned by man.[718-3]
Natural History, Book vii. Sect. 5.
Indeed, what is there that does not appear marvellous when it comes to our knowledge for the first time?[718-4] How many things, too, are looked upon as quite impossible until they have been actually effected?
Natural History, Book vii. Sect. 6.
The human features and countenance, although composed of but some ten parts or little more, are so fashioned that among so many thousands of men there are no two in existence who cannot be distinguished from one another.[718-5]
Natural History, Book vii. Sect. 8.
All men possess in their bodies a poison which acts upon serpents; and the human saliva, it is said, makes them take to flight, as though they had been touched with boiling water. The same substance, it is said, destroys them the moment it enters their throat.[718-6]
Natural History, Book vii. Sect. 15.
It has been observed that the height of a man from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot is equal to the distance between the tips of the middle fingers of the two hands when extended in a straight line.
Natural History. Book vii. Sect. 77.
When a building is about to fall down, all the mice desert it.[719-1]
Natural History. Book viii. Sect. 103.
Bears when first born are shapeless masses of white flesh a little larger than mice, their claws alone being prominent. The mother then licks them gradually into proper shape.[719-2]
Natural History. Book viii. Sect. 126.
It is asserted that the dogs keep running when they drink at the Nile, for fear of becoming a prey to the voracity of the crocodile.[719-3]
Natural History. Book viii. Sect. 148.
It has become quite a common proverb that in wine there is truth.[719-4]
Natural History. Book xiv. Sect. 141.
Cincinnatus was ploughing his four jugera of land upon the Vaticanian Hill,--the same that are still known as the Quintian Meadows,--when the messenger brought him the dictatorship, finding him, the tradition says, stripped to the work.
Natural History. Book xviii. Sect. 20.
The agricultural population, says Cato, produces the bravest men, the most valiant soldiers, and a class of citizens the least given of all to evil designs. . . . A bad bargain is always a ground for repentance.
Natural History. Book xviii. Sect. 26.
The best plan is, as the common proverb has it, to profit by the folly of others.[720-1]
Natural History. Book xviii. Sect. 31.
Always act in such a way as to secure the love of your neighbour.[720-2]
Natural History. Book xviii. Sect. 44.
It is a maxim universally agreed upon in agriculture, that nothing must be done too late; and again, that everything must be done at its proper season; while there is a third precept which reminds us that opportunities lost can never be regained.
Natural History. Book xviii. Sect. 44.
The bird of passage known to us as the cuckoo.
Natural History. Book xviii. Sect. 249.
Let not things, because they are common, enjoy for that the less share of our consideration.
Natural History. Book xix. Sect. 59.
Why is it that we entertain the belief that for every purpose odd numbers are the most effectual?[720-3]
Natural History. Book xxviii. Sect. 23.
It was a custom with Apelles, to which he most tenaciously adhered, never to let any day pass, however busy he might be, without exercising himself by tracing some outline or other,--a practice which has now passed into a proverb.[720-4] It was also a practice with him, when he had completed a work, to exhibit it to the view of the passers-by in his studio, while he himself, concealed behind the picture, would listen to the criticisms. . . . Under these circumstances, they say that he was censured by a shoemaker for having represented the shoes with one latchet too few. The next day, the shoemaker, quite proud at seeing the former error corrected, thanks to his advice, began to criticise the leg; upon which Apelles, full of indignation, popped his head out and reminded him that a shoemaker should give no opinion beyond the shoes,[721-1]--a piece of advice which has equally passed into a proverbial saying.
Natural History. Book xxxv. Sect. 84.
FOOTNOTES:
[716-4] Bohn's Classical Library.
[717-1] Why does pouring oil on the sea make it clear and calm? Is it for that the winds, slipping the smooth oil, have no force, nor cause any waves?--PLUTARCH: Natural Questions, ix.
The venerable Bede relates that Bishop Adain (A. D. 651) gave to a company about to take a journey by sea "some holy oil, saying, 'I know that when you go abroad you will meet with a storm and contrary wind; but do you remember to cast this oil I give you into the sea, and the wind shall cease immediately.'"--Ecclesiastical History, book iii. chap. xiv.
In Sparks's edition of Franklin's Works, vol. vi. p. 354, there are letters between Franklin, Brownrigg, and Parish on the stilling of waves by means of oil.
[717-2] To man the earth seems altogether No more a mother, but a step-dame rather.
DU BARTAS: Divine Weekes and Workes, first week, third day.
[717-3] He is born naked, and falls a whining at the first.--BURTON: _Anatomy of Melancholy, part i. sect. 2, mem. 3, subsect. 10._
And when I was born I drew in the common air, and fell upon the earth, which is of like nature; and the first voice which I uttered was crying, as all others do.--The Wisdom of Solomon, vii. 3.
It was the custom among the ancients to place the new-born child upon the ground immediately after its birth.
[718-1] This term of forty days is mentioned by Aristotle in his Natural History, as also by some modern physiologists.
[718-2] See Tennyson, page 632.
[718-3] See Burns, page 446.
[718-4] Omne ignotum pro magnifico (Everything that is unknown is taken to be grand).--TACITUS: Agricola, 30.
[718-5] See Sir Thomas Browne, page 218.
[718-6] Madame d'Abrantes relates that when Bonaparte was in Cairo he sent for a serpent-detecter (Psylli) to remove two serpents that had been seen in his house. He having enticed one of them from his hiding-place, caught it in one hand, just below the jaw-bone, in such a manner as to oblige the mouth to open, when spitting into it, the effect was like magic: the reptile appeared struck with instant death.--Memoirs, vol. i. chap. lix.
[719-1] This is alluded to by Cicero in his letters to Atticus, and is mentioned by Ælian (Animated Nature, book vi. chap. 41). It is like our proverb, "Rats leave a sinking ship."
[719-2] See Burton, page 186.
Not unlike the bear which bringeth forth In the end of thirty dayes a shapeless birth; But after licking, it in shape she drawes, And by degrees she fashions out the pawes, The head, and neck, and finally doth bring To a perfect beast that first deformed thing.
DU BARTAS: Divine Weekes and Workes, first week, first day.
[719-3] See Phædrus, page 715.
[719-4] See Shakespeare, page 152.
[720-1] See Publius Syrus, page 708.
[720-2] A maxim of Cato.
[720-3] See Shakespeare, page 46. Also Lover, page 583.
Numero deus impare gaudet (The god delights in odd numbers).--VIRGIL: Eclogæ, 8, 75.
[720-4] Nulla dies abeat, quin linea ducta supersit.--ERASMUS.
The form generally quoted, "Nulla dies sine linea" (No day without a line), is not attested.
[721-1] Ne supra crepidam sutor judicaret (Let not a shoemaker judge above his shoe).
QUINTILIAN. 42-118 A. D.
We give to necessity the praise of virtue.[721-2]
Institutiones Oratoriæ, i. 8, 14.
A liar should have a good memory.[721-3]
Institutiones Oratoriæ, iv. 2, 91.
Vain hopes are often like the dreams of those who wake.[721-4]
Institutiones Oratoriæ, vi. 2, 30.
Those who wish to appear wise among fools, among the wise seem foolish.[721-5]
Institutiones Oratoriæ, x. 7, 21.
FOOTNOTES:
[721-2] See Chaucer, page 3.
[721-3] See Sidney, page 264.
[721-4] See Prior, page 288.
[721-5] See Pope, page 332.
JUVENAL. 47-138 A. D.
No man ever became extremely wicked all at once.[721-6]
Satire ii. 83.
Grammarian, orator, geometrician; painter, gymnastic teacher, physician; fortune-teller, rope-dancer, conjuror,--he knew everything.[721-7]
Satire iii. 76.
Nobility is the one only virtue.[721-8]
Satire viii. 20.
FOOTNOTES:
[721-6] See Beaumont and Fletcher, page 197.
[721-7] See Dryden, page 268.
[721-8] See Percy, page 406.
MARTIAL. 40-102 A. D.
I do not love thee, Sabidius, nor can I say why; this only I can say, I do not love thee.[722-1]
Epigram i. 32.
The good man prolongs his life; to be able to enjoy one's past life is to live twice.[722-2]
Epigram x. 23, 7.
The bee enclosed and through the amber shown Seems buried in the juice which was his own.[722-3]
Book iv. 32.
Neither fear, nor wish for, your last day.[722-4]
Book x. 47, 13.
FOOTNOTES:
[722-1] See Brown, page 286.
[722-2] See Pope, page 336.
[722-3] See Bacon, page 168.
[722-4] See Milton, page 240.
PLUTARCH. 46(?)-120(?) A. D.
(From Dryden's translation of Plutarch's Lives, corrected and revised by A. H. Clough.)
As geographers, Sosius, crowd into the edges of their maps parts of the world which they do not know about, adding notes in the margin to the effect that beyond this lies nothing but sandy deserts full of wild beasts, and unapproachable bogs.[722-5]
Life of Theseus.
From Themistocles began the saying, "He is a second Hercules."
Life of Theseus.
The most perfect soul, says Heraclitus, is a dry light, which flies out of the body as lightning breaks from a cloud.
Life of Romulus.
Anacharsis coming to Athens, knocked at Solon's door, and told him that he, being a stranger, was come to be his guest, and contract a friendship with him; and Solon replying, "It is better to make friends at home," Anacharsis replied, "Then you that are at home make friendship with me."
Life of Solon.
Themistocles said that he certainly could not make use of any stringed instrument; could only, were a small and obscure city put into his hands, make it great and glorious.
Life of Themistocles.
Eurybiades lifting up his staff as if he were going to strike, Themistocles said, "Strike, if you will; but hear."[723-1]
Life of Themistocles.
Themistocles said to Antiphales, "Time, young man, has taught us both a lesson."
Life of Themistocles.
Laughing at his own son, who got his mother, and by his mother's means his father also, to indulge him, he told him that he had the most power of any one in Greece: "For the Athenians command the rest of Greece, I command the Athenians, your mother commands me, and you command your mother."[723-2]
Life of Themistocles.
"You speak truth," said Themistocles; "I should never have been famous if I had been of Seriphus;[723-3] nor you, had you been of Athens."
Life of Themistocles.
Themistocles said that a man's discourse was like to a rich Persian carpet, the beautiful figures and patterns of which can be shown only by spreading and extending it out; when it is contracted and folded up, they are obscured and lost.[723-4]
Life of Themistocles.
When he was in great prosperity, and courted by many, seeing himself splendidly served at his table, he turned to his children and said: "Children, we had been undone, if we had not been undone."
Life of Themistocles.
Moral good is a practical stimulus; it is no sooner seen than it inspires an impulse to practise.
Life of Pericles.
For ease and speed in doing a thing do not give the work lasting solidity or exactness of beauty.[724-1]
Life of Pericles.
So very difficult a matter is it to trace and find out the truth of anything by history.
Life of Pericles.
Be ruled by time, the wisest counsellor of all.
Life of Pericles.
To conduct great matters and never commit a fault is above the force of human nature.
Life of Fabius.
Menenius Agrippa concluded at length with the celebrated fable: "It once happened that all the other members of a man mutinied against the stomach, which they accused as the only idle, uncontributing part in the whole body, while the rest were put to hardships and the expense of much labour to supply and minister to its appetites."
Life of Coriolanus.
Knowledge of divine things for the most part, as Heraclitus says, is lost to us by incredulity.
Life of Coriolanus.
A Roman divorced from his wife, being highly blamed by his friends, who demanded, "Was she not chaste? Was she not fair? Was she not fruitful?" holding out his shoe, asked them whether it was not new and well made. "Yet," added he, "none of you can tell where it pinches me."
Life of Æmilius Paulus.
The saying of old Antigonus, who when he was to fight at Andros, and one told him, "The enemy's ships are more than ours," replied, "For how many then wilt thou reckon me?"[725-1]
Life of Pelopidas.
Archimedes had stated, that given the force, any given weight might be moved; and even boasted that if there were another earth, by going into it he could remove this.
Life of Marcellus.
It is a difficult task, O citizens, to make speeches to the belly, which has no ears.[725-2]
Life of Marcus Cato.
Cato used to assert that wise men profited more by fools than fools by wise men; for that wise men avoided the faults of fools, but that fools would not imitate the good examples of wise men.
Life of Marcus Cato.
He said that in his whole life he most repented of three things: one was that he had trusted a secret to a woman; another, that he went by water when he might have gone by land; the third, that he had remained one whole day without doing any business of moment.
Life of Marcus Cato.
Marius said, "I see the cure is not worth the pain."[725-3]
Life of Caius Marius.
Extraordinary rains pretty generally fall after great battles.[725-4]
Life of Caius Marius.
Lysander said that the law spoke too softly to be heard in such a noise of war.
Life of Caius Marius.
As it is in the proverb, played Cretan against Cretan.[725-5]
Life of Lysander.
Did you not know, then, that to-day Lucullus sups with Lucullus?
Life of Lucullus.
It is no great wonder if in long process of time, while fortune takes her course hither and thither, numerous coincidences should spontaneously occur. If the number and variety of subjects to be wrought upon be infinite, it is all the more easy for fortune, with such an abundance of material, to effect this similarity of results.[726-1]
Life of Sertorius.
Perseverance is more prevailing than violence; and many things which cannot be overcome when they are together, yield themselves up when taken little by little.
Life of Sertorius.
Agesilaus being invited once to hear a man who admirably imitated the nightingale, he declined, saying he had heard the nightingale itself.[726-2]
Life of Agesilaus II.
It is circumstance and proper measure that give an action its character, and make it either good or bad.
Life of Agesilaus II.
The old proverb was now made good, "the mountain had brought forth a mouse."[726-3]
Life of Agesilaus II.
Pompey bade Sylla recollect that more worshipped the rising than the setting sun.[726-4]
Life of Pompey.
When some were saying that if Cæsar should march against the city they could not see what forces there were to resist him, Pompey replied with a smile, bidding them be in no concern, "for whenever I stamp my foot in any part of Italy there will rise up forces enough in an instant, both horse and foot."
Life of Pompey.
The most glorious exploits do not always furnish us with the clearest discoveries of virtue or vice in men.
Life of Alexander.
Whenever Alexander heard Philip had taken any town of importance, or won any signal victory, instead of rejoicing at it altogether, he would tell his companions that his father would anticipate everything, and leave him and them no opportunities of performing great and illustrious actions.[727-1]
Life of Alexander.
Alexander said, "I assure you I had rather excel others in the knowledge of what is excellent, than in the extent of my power and dominion."
Life of Alexander.
When Alexander asked Diogenes whether he wanted anything, "Yes," said he, "I would have you stand from between me and the sun."
Life of Alexander.
When asked why he parted with his wife, Cæsar replied, "I wished my wife to be not so much as suspected."[727-2]
Life of Cæsar.
For my part, I had rather be the first man among these fellows than the second man in Rome.[727-3]
Life of Cæsar.
Using the proverb frequently in their mouths who enter upon dangerous and bold attempts, "The die is cast," he took the river.[727-4]
Life of Cæsar.
"And this," said Cæsar, "you know, young man, is more disagreeable for me to say than to do."[728-1]
Life of Cæsar.
Go on, my friend, and fear nothing; you carry Cæsar and his fortunes in your boat.[728-2]
Life of Cæsar.
Cæsar said to the soothsayer, "The ides of March are come;" who answered him calmly, "Yes, they are come, but they are not past."[728-3]
Life of Cæsar.
Even a nod from a person who is esteemed is of more force than a thousand arguments or studied sentences from others.
Life of Phocion.
Demosthenes told Phocion, "The Athenians will kill you some day when they once are in a rage." "And you," said he, "if they are once in their senses."[728-4]
Life of Phocion.
Pythias once, scoffing at Demosthenes, said that his arguments smelt of the lamp.
Life of Demosthenes.
Demosthenes overcame and rendered more distinct his inarticulate and stammering pronunciation by speaking with pebbles in his mouth.
Life of Demosthenes.
In his house he had a large looking-glass, before which he would stand and go through his exercises.
Life of Demosthenes.
Cicero called Aristotle a river of flowing gold, and said of Plato's Dialogues, that if Jupiter were to speak, it would be in language like theirs.
Life of Cicero.
(From Plutarch's Morals. Translated by several hands; corrected and revised by W. W. Goodwin, Ph.D., Harvard University.)
For water continually dropping will wear hard rocks hollow.[728-5]
Of the Training of Children.
It is a true proverb, that if you live with a lame man you will learn to halt.
Of the Training of Children.
The very spring and root of honesty and virtue lie in the felicity of lighting on good education.
Of the Training of Children.
It is indeed a desirable thing to be well descended, but the glory belongs to our ancestors.
Of the Training of Children.
According to the proverb, the best things are the most difficult.
Of the Training of Children.
To sing the same tune, as the saying is, is in everything cloying and offensive; but men are generally pleased with variety.
Of the Training of Children.
Children are to be won to follow liberal studies by exhortations and rational motives, and on no account to be forced thereto by whipping.
Of the Training of Children.
Nothing made the horse so fat as the king's eye.
Of the Training of Children.
Democritus said, words are but the shadows of actions.
Of the Training of Children.
'T is a wise saying, Drive on your own track.
Of the Training of Children.
It is a point of wisdom to be silent when occasion requires, and better than to speak, though never so well.
Of the Training of Children.
Eat not thy heart; which forbids to afflict our souls, and waste them with vexatious cares.[729-1]
Of the Training of Children.
Abstain from beans; that is, keep out of public offices, for anciently the choice of the officers of state was made by beans.
Of the Training of Children.
When men are arrived at the goal, they should not turn back.[729-2]
Of the Training of Children.
The whole life of man is but a point of time; let us enjoy it, therefore, while it lasts, and not spend it to no purpose.
Of the Training of Children.
An old doting fool, with one foot already in the grave.[729-3]
Of the Training of Children.
Xenophanes said, "I confess myself the greatest coward in the world, for I dare not do an ill thing."
Of Bashfulness.
One made the observation of the people of Asia that they were all slaves to one man, merely because they could not pronounce that syllable No.
Of Bashfulness.
Euripides was wont to say, "Silence is an answer to a wise man."
Of Bashfulness.
Zeno first started that doctrine that knavery is the best defence against a knave.[730-1]
Of Bashfulness.
Alexander wept when he heard from Anaxarchus that there was an infinite number of worlds; and his friends asking him if any accident had befallen him, he returns this answer: "Do you not think it a matter worthy of lamentation that when there is such a vast multitude of them, we have not yet conquered one?"
On the Tranquillity of the Mind.
Like the man who threw a stone at a bitch, but hit his step-mother, on which he exclaimed, "Not so bad!"
On the Tranquillity of the Mind.
Pittacus said, "Every one of you hath his particular plague, and my wife is mine; and he is very happy who hath this only."
On the Tranquillity of the Mind.
He was a man, which, as Plato saith, is a very inconstant creature.[730-2]
On the Tranquillity of the Mind.
The pilot cannot mitigate the billows or calm the winds.[730-3]
On the Tranquillity of the Mind.
I, for my own part, had much rather people should say of me that there neither is nor ever was such a man as Plutarch, than that they should say, "Plutarch is an unsteady, fickle, froward, vindictive, and touchy fellow."
Of Superstition.
Scilurus on his death-bed, being about to leave fourscore sons surviving, offered a bundle of darts to each of them, and bade them break them. When all refused, drawing out one by one, he easily broke them,--thus teaching them that if they held together, they would continue strong; but if they fell out and were divided, they would become weak.
Apophthegms of Kings and Great Commanders.[731-1] Scilurus.
Dionysius the Elder, being asked whether he was at leisure, he replied, "God forbid that it should ever befall me!"
Apophthegms of Kings and Great Commanders. Dionysius.
A prating barber asked Archelaus how he would be trimmed. He answered, "In silence."
Apophthegms of Kings and Great Commanders. Archelaus.
When Philip had news brought him of divers and eminent successes in one day, "O Fortune!" said he, "for all these so great kindnesses do me some small mischief."
Apophthegms of Kings and Great Commanders. Philip.
There were two brothers called Both and Either; perceiving Either was a good, understanding, busy fellow, and Both a silly fellow and good for little, Philip said, "Either is both, and Both is neither."
Apophthegms of Kings and Great Commanders. Philip.
Philip being arbitrator betwixt two wicked persons, he commanded one to fly out of Macedonia and the other to pursue him.
Apophthegms of Kings and Great Commanders. Philip.
Being about to pitch his camp in a likely place, and hearing there was no hay to be had for the cattle, "What a life," said he, "is ours, since we must live according to the convenience of asses!"
Apophthegms of Kings and Great Commanders. Philip.
"These Macedonians," said he, "are a rude and clownish people, that call a spade a spade."[731-2]
Apophthegms of Kings and Great Commanders. Philip.
He made one of Antipater's recommendation a judge; and perceiving afterwards that his hair and beard were coloured, he removed him, saying, "I could not think one that was faithless in his hair could be trusty in his deeds."
Apophthegms of Kings and Great Commanders. Philip.
Being nimble and light-footed, his father encouraged him to run in the Olympic race. "Yes," said he, "if there were any kings there to run with me."
Apophthegms of Kings and Great Commanders. Alexander.
When Darius offered him ten thousand talents, and to divide Asia equally with him, "I would accept it," said Parmenio, "were I Alexander." "And so truly would I," said Alexander, "if I were Parmenio." But he answered Darius that the earth could not bear two suns, nor Asia two kings.
Apophthegms of Kings and Great Commanders. Alexander.
When he was wounded with an arrow in the ankle, and many ran to him that were wont to call him a god, he said smiling, "That is blood, as you see, and not, as Homer saith, 'such humour as distils from blessed gods.'"
Apophthegms of Kings and Great Commanders. Alexander.
Aristodemus, a friend of Antigonus, supposed to be a cook's son, advised him to moderate his gifts and expenses. "Thy words," said he, "Aristodemus, smell of the apron."
Apophthegms of Kings and Great Commanders. Antigonus I.
Thrasyllus the Cynic begged a drachm of Antigonus. "That," said he, "is too little for a king to give." "Why, then," said the other, "give me a talent." "And that," said he, "is too much for a Cynic (or, for a dog) to receive."
Apophthegms of Kings and Great Commanders. Antigonus I.
Antagoras the poet was boiling a conger, and Antigonus, coming behind him as he was stirring his skillet, said, "Do you think, Antagoras, that Homer boiled congers when he wrote the deeds of Agamemnon?" Antagoras replied, "Do you think, O king, that Agamemnon, when he did such exploits, was a peeping in his army to see who boiled congers?"
Apophthegms of Kings and Great Commanders. Antigonus I.
Pyrrhus said, "If I should overcome the Romans in another fight, I were undone."
Apophthegms of Kings and Great Commanders. Pyrrhus.
Themistocles being asked whether he would rather be Achilles or Homer, said, "Which would you rather be,--a conqueror in the Olympic games, or the crier that proclaims who are conquerors?"
Apophthegms of Kings and Great Commanders. Themistocles.
He preferred an honest man that wooed his daughter, before a rich man. "I would rather," said Themistocles, "have a man that wants money than money that wants a man."
Apophthegms of Kings and Great Commanders. Themistocles.
Alcibiades had a very handsome dog, that cost him seven thousand drachmas; and he cut off his tail, "that," said he, "the Athenians may have this story to tell of me, and may concern themselves no further with me."
Apophthegms of Kings and Great Commanders. Alcibiades.
Being summoned by the Athenians out of Sicily to plead for his life, Alcibiades absconded, saying that that criminal was a fool who studied a defence when he might fly for it.
Apophthegms of Kings and Great Commanders. Alcibiades.
Lamachus chid a captain for a fault; and when he had said he would do so no more, "Sir," said he, "in war there is no room for a second miscarriage." Said one to Iphicrates, "What are ye afraid of?" "Of all speeches," said he, "none is so dishonourable for a general as 'I should not have thought of it.'"
Apophthegms of Kings and Great Commanders. Iphicrates.
To Harmodius, descended from the ancient Harmodius, when he reviled Iphicrates [a shoemaker's son] for his mean birth, "My nobility," said he, "begins in me, but yours ends in you."[733-1]
Apophthegms of Kings and Great Commanders. Iphicrates.
Once when Phocion had delivered an opinion which pleased the people, . . . he turned to his friend and said, "Have I not unawares spoken some mischievous thing or other?"
Apophthegms of Kings and Great Commanders. Phocion.
Phocion compared the speeches of Leosthenes to cypress-trees. "They are tall," said he, "and comely, but bear no fruit."
Apophthegms of Kings and Great Commanders. Phocion.
Lycurgus the Lacedæmonian brought long hair into fashion among his countrymen, saying that it rendered those that were handsome more beautiful, and those that were deformed more terrible. To one that advised him to set up a democracy in Sparta, "Pray," said Lycurgus, "do you first set up a democracy in your own house."
Apophthegms of Kings and Great Commanders. Lycurgus.
King Agis said, "The Lacedæmonians are not wont to ask how many, but where the enemy are."
Apophthegms of Kings and Great Commanders. Agis.
Lysander said, "Where the lion's skin will not reach, it must be pieced with the fox's."[734-1]
Apophthegms of Kings and Great Commanders. Lysander.
To one that promised to give him hardy cocks that would die fighting, "Prithee," said Cleomenes, "give me cocks that will kill fighting."
Apophthegms of Kings and Great Commanders. Cleomenes.
When Eudæmonidas heard a philosopher arguing that only a wise man can be a good general, "This is a wonderful speech," said he; "but he that saith it never heard the sound of trumpets."
Apophthegms of Kings and Great Commanders. Eudæmonidas.
A soldier told Pelopidas, "We are fallen among the enemies." Said he, "How are we fallen among them more than they among us?"
Apophthegms of Kings and Great Commanders. Pelopidas.
Cato the elder wondered how that city was preserved wherein a fish was sold for more than an ox.
Roman Apophthegms. Cato the Elder.
Cato instigated the magistrates to punish all offenders, saying that they that did not prevent crimes when they might, encouraged them.[734-2] Of young men, he liked them that blushed better than those who looked pale.
Roman Apophthegms. Cato the Elder.
Cato requested old men not to add the disgrace of wickedness to old age, which was accompanied with many other evils.
Roman Apophthegms. Cato the Elder.
He said they that were serious in ridiculous matters would be ridiculous in serious affairs.
Roman Apophthegms. Cato the Elder.
Cicero said loud-bawling orators were driven by their weakness to noise, as lame men to take horse.
Roman Apophthegms. Cicero.
After the battle in Pharsalia, when Pompey was fled, one Nonius said they had seven eagles left still, and advised to try what they would do. "Your advice," said Cicero, "were good if we were to fight jackdaws."
Roman Apophthegms. Cicero.
After he routed Pharnaces Ponticus at the first assault, he wrote thus to his friends: "I came, I saw, I conquered."[735-1]
Roman Apophthegms. Cæsar.
As Cæsar was at supper the discourse was of death,--which sort was the best. "That," said he, "which is unexpected."
Roman Apophthegms. Cæsar.
As Athenodorus was taking his leave of Cæsar, "Remember," said he, "Cæsar, whenever you are angry, to say or do nothing before you have repeated the four-and-twenty letters to yourself."
Roman Apophthegms. Cæsar Augustus.
"Young men," said Cæsar, "hear an old man to whom old men hearkened when he was young."
Roman Apophthegms. Cæsar Augustus.
Remember what Simonides said,--that he never repented that he had held his tongue, but often that he had spoken.[735-2]
Rules for the Preservation of Health. 7.
Custom is almost a second nature.[735-3]
Rules for the Preservation of Health. 18.
Epaminondas is reported wittily to have said of a good man that died about the time of the battle of Leuctra, "How came he to have so much leisure as to die, when there was so much stirring?"
Rules for the Preservation of Health. 25.
Have in readiness this saying of Solon, "But we will not give up our virtue in exchange for their wealth."
How to profit by our Enemies.
Socrates thought that if all our misfortunes were laid in one common heap, whence every one must take an equal portion, most persons would be contented to take their own and depart.
Consolation to Apollonius.
Diogenes the Cynic, when a little before his death he fell into a slumber, and his physician rousing him out of it asked him whether anything ailed him, wisely answered, "Nothing, sir; only one brother anticipates another,--Sleep before Death."
Consolation to Apollonius.
About Pontus there are some creatures of such an extempore being that the whole term of their life is confined within the space of a day; for they are brought forth in the morning, are in the prime of their existence at noon, grow old at night, and then die.
Consolation to Apollonius.
The measure of a man's life is the well spending of it, and not the length.
Consolation to Apollonius.
For many, as Cranton tells us, and those very wise men, not now but long ago, have deplored the condition of human nature, esteeming life a punishment, and to be born a man the highest pitch of calamity; this, Aristotle tells us, Silenus declared when he was brought captive to Midas.
Consolation to Apollonius.
There are two sentences inscribed upon the Delphic oracle, hugely accommodated to the usages of man's life: "Know thyself,"[736-1] and "Nothing too much;" and upon these all other precepts depend.
Consolation to Apollonius.
To one commending an orator for his skill in amplifying petty matters, Agesilaus said, "I do not think that shoemaker a good workman that makes a great shoe for a little foot."
Laconic Apophthegms. Of Agesilaus the Great.
"I will show," said Agesilaus, "that it is not the places that grace men, but men the places."
Laconic Apophthegms. Of Agesilaus the Great.
When one asked him what boys should learn, "That," said he, "which they shall use when men."
Laconic Apophthegms. Of Agesilaus the Great.
Agesilaus was very fond of his children; and it is reported that once toying with them he got astride upon a reed as upon a horse, and rode about the room; and being seen by one of his friends, he desired him not to speak of it till he had children of his own.
Laconic Apophthegms. Of Agesilaus the Great.
When Demaratus was asked whether he held his tongue because he was a fool or for want of words, he replied, "A fool cannot hold his tongue."
Laconic Apophthegms. Of Demaratus.
Lysander, when Dionysius sent him two gowns, and bade him choose which he would carry to his daughter, said, "She can choose best," and so took both away with him.
Laconic Apophthegms. Of Lysander.
A physician, after he had felt the pulse of Pausanias, and considered his constitution, saying, "He ails nothing," "It is because, sir," he replied, "I use none of your physic."
Laconic Apophthegms. Of Pausanias the Son of Phistoanax.
And when the physician said, "Sir, you are an old man," "That happens," replied Pausanias, "because you never were my doctor."
Laconic Apophthegms. Of Pausanias the Son of Phistoanax.
When one told Plistarchus that a notorious railer spoke well of him, "I 'll lay my life," said he, "somebody hath told him I am dead, for he can speak well of no man living."
Laconic Apophthegms. Of Plistarchus.
Anacharsis said a man's felicity consists not in the outward and visible favours and blessings of Fortune, but in the inward and unseen perfections and riches of the mind.
The Banquet of the Seven Wise Men. 11.
Said Periander, "Hesiod might as well have kept his breath to cool his pottage."[738-1]
The Banquet of the Seven Wise Men. 14.
Socrates said, "Bad men live that they may eat and drink, whereas good men eat and drink that they may live."[738-2]
How a Young Man ought to hear Poems. 4.
And Archimedes, as he was washing, thought of a manner of computing the proportion of gold in King Hiero's crown by seeing the water flowing over the bathing-stool. He leaped up as one possessed or inspired, crying, "I have found it! Eureka!"
Pleasure not attainable according to Epicurus. 11.
Said Scopas of Thessaly, "We rich men count our felicity and happiness to lie in these superfluities, and not in those necessary things."[738-3]
Of the Love of Wealth.
That proverbial saying, "Ill news goes quick and far."
Of Inquisitiveness.
A traveller at Sparta, standing long upon one leg, said to a Lacedæmonian, "I do not believe you can do as much." "True," said he, "but every goose can."
Remarkable Speeches.
Spintharus, speaking in commendation of Epaminondas, says he scarce ever met with any man who knew more and spoke less.
Of Hearing. 6.
It is a thing of no great difficulty to raise objections against another man's oration,--nay, it is a very easy matter; but to produce a better in its place is a work extremely troublesome.
Of Hearing. 6.
Antiphanes said merrily, that in a certain city the cold was so intense that words were congealed as soon as spoken, but that after some time they thawed and became audible; so that the words spoken in winter were articulated next summer.[739-1]
Of Man's Progress in Virtue.
As those persons who despair of ever being rich make little account of small expenses, thinking that little added to a little will never make any great sum.
Of Man's Progress in Virtue.
What is bigger than an elephant? But this also is become man's plaything, and a spectacle at public solemnities; and it learns to skip, dance, and kneel.
Of Fortune.
No man ever wetted clay and then left it, as if there would be bricks by chance and fortune.
Of Fortune.
Alexander was wont to say, "Were I not Alexander, I would be Diogenes."
Of the Fortune or Virtue of Alexander the Great.
When the candles are out all women are fair.[739-2]
Conjugal Precepts.
Like watermen, who look astern while they row the boat ahead.[739-3]
Whether 't was rightfully said, Live Concealed.
Socrates said he was not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the world.[739-4]
Of Banishment.
Anaximander says that men were first produced in fishes, and when they were grown up and able to help themselves were thrown up, and so lived upon the land.
Symposiacs. Book. viii. Question viii.
Athenodorus says hydrophobia, or water-dread, was first discovered in the time of Asclepiades.
Symposiacs. Book. viii. Question ix.
Let us not wonder if something happens which never was before, or if something doth not appear among us with which the ancients were acquainted.
Symposiacs. Book viii. Question ix.
Why does pouring oil on the sea make it clear and calm? Is it for that the winds, slipping the smooth oil, have no force, nor cause any waves?[740-1]
The great god Pan is dead.[740-2]
Why the Oracles cease to give Answers.
I am whatever was, or is, or will be; and my veil no mortal ever took up.[740-3]
Of Isis and Osiris.
When Hermodotus in his poems described Antigonus as the son of Helios, "My valet-de-chambre," said he, "is not aware of this."[740-4]
Of Isis and Osiris.
There is no debt with so much prejudice put off as that of justice.
Of those whom God is slow to punish.
It is a difficult thing for a man to resist the natural necessity of mortal passions.
Of those whom God is slow to punish.
He is a fool who lets slip a bird in the hand for a bird in the bush.[740-5]
Of Garrulity.
We are more sensible of what is done against custom than against Nature.
Of Eating of Flesh. Tract 1.
When Demosthenes was asked what was the first part of oratory, he answered, "Action;" and which was the second, he replied, "Action;" and which was the third, he still answered, "Action."
Lives of the Ten Orators.
Xenophon says that there is no sound more pleasing than one's own praises.
Whether an Aged Man ought to meddle in State Affairs.
Lampis, the sea commander, being asked how he got his wealth, answered, "My greatest estate I gained easily enough, but the smaller slowly and with much labour."
Whether an Aged Man ought to meddle in State Affairs.
The general himself ought to be such a one as can at the same time see both forward and backward.
Whether an Aged Man ought to meddle in State Affairs.
Statesmen are not only liable to give an account of what they say or do in public, but there is a busy inquiry made into their very meals, beds, marriages, and every other sportive or serious action.
Political Precepts.
Leo Byzantius said, "What would you do, if you saw my wife, who scarce reaches up to my knees? . . . Yet," went he on, "as little as we are, when we fall out with each other, the city of Byzantium is not big enough to hold us."
Political Precepts.
Cato said, "I had rather men should ask why my statue is not set up, than why it is."
Political Precepts.
It was the saying of Bion, that though the boys throw stones at frogs in sport, yet the frogs do not die in sport but in earnest.[741-1]
Which are the most crafty, Water or Land Animals? 7.
Both Empedocles and Heraclitus held it for a truth that man could not be altogether cleared from injustice in dealing with beasts as he now does.
Which are the most crafty, Water or Land Animals? 7.
For to err in opinion, though it be not the part of wise men, is at least human.[742-1]
Against Colotes.
Simonides calls painting silent poetry, and poetry speaking painting.
Whether the Athenians were more Warlike or Learned. 3.
As Meander says, "For our mind is God;" and as Heraclitus, "Man's genius is a deity."
Platonic Questions. i.
Pythagoras, when he was asked what time was, answered that it was the soul of this world.
Platonic Questions. viii. 4.
FOOTNOTES:
[722-5] See Swift, page 289.
[723-1] "Strike," said he, "but hear me."--_Apophthegms of Kings and Great Commanders._ (Themistocles.)
[723-2] Diophantus, the young son of Themistocles, made his boast often and in many companies, that whatsoever pleased him pleased also all Athens; for whatever he liked, his mother liked; and whatever his mother liked, Themistocles liked; and whatever Themistocles liked, all the Athenians liked.--Of the Training of Children.
When the son of Themistocles was a little saucy toward his mother, he said that this boy had more power than all the Grecians; for the Athenians governed Greece, he the Athenians, his wife him, and his son his wife.--Apophthegms of Kings and Great Commanders. (Themistocles.)
[723-3] An obscure island.
[723-4] Themistocles said speech was like to tapestry; and like it, when it was spread it showed its figures, but when it was folded up, hid and spoiled them.--Apophthegms of Kings and Great Commanders. (Themistocles.)
[724-1] See Chaucer, page 3.
[725-1] The pilot telling Antigonus the enemy outnumbered him in ships, he said, "But how many ships do you reckon my presence to be worth?" Apophthegms of Kings and Great Commanders. (Antigonus II.)
[725-2] The belly has no ears, nor is it to be filled with fair words.--RABELAIS: book iv. chap. lxvii.
[725-3] See Bacon, page 165.
[725-4] This has been observed in modern times, and attributed to the effect of gunpowder.
[725-5] Or cheat against cheat. The Cretans were famous as liars.
[726-1] 'T is one and the same Nature that rolls on her course, and whoever has sufficiently considered the present state of things might certainly conclude as to both the future and the past.--MONTAIGNE: Essays, book ii. chap. xii. Apology for Raimond Sebond.
I shall be content if those shall pronounce my History useful who desire to give a view of events as they did really happen, and as they are very likely, in accordance with human nature, to repeat themselves at some future time,--if not exactly the same, yet very similar.--THUCYDIDES: Historia, i. 2, 2.
What is this day supported by precedents will hereafter become a precedent.--Ibid., Annals, xi. 24.
[726-2] Agesilaus being exhorted to hear one that imitated the voice of a nightingale, "I have often," said he, "heard nightingales themselves."--Apophthegms of Kings and Great Commanders. (Agesilaus.)
[726-3] See Horace, page 706.
[726-4] See Garrick, page 387.
He [Tiberius] upbraided Macro in no obscure and indirect terms "with forsaking the setting sun and turning to the rising."--TACITUS: Annals, book iv. c. 47, 20.
[727-1] While Alexander was a boy, Philip had great success in his affairs, at which he did not rejoice, but told the children that were brought up with him, "My father will leave me nothing to do."--Apophthegms of Kings and Great Commanders. (Alexander.)
[727-2] Cæsar's wife ought to be free from suspicion.--Roman Apophthegms. (Cæsar.)
[727-3] I had rather be the first in this town than second in Rome.--Ibid.
[727-4] He passed the river Rubicon, saying, "Let every die be thrown."--Ibid.
[728-1] Cæsar said to Metellus, "This, young man, is harder for me to say than do."--Roman Apophthegms. (Cæsar.)
[728-2] Trust Fortune, and know that you carry Cæsar.--Ibid.
[728-3] See Shakespeare, page 112.
[728-4] Demosthenes the orator told Phocion, "If the Athenians should be mad, they would kill you." "Like enough," said he,--"me if they were mad, but you if they were wise."--Apophthegms of Kings and Great Commanders. (Phocion.)
[728-5] See Lyly, page 32.
[729-1] See Spenser, page 30.
[729-2] See Publius Syrus, page 711.
[729-3] See Beaumont and Fletcher, page 198.
[730-1] Set a thief to catch a thief.--BOHN: A Hand-book of Proverbs.
[730-2] Man in sooth is a marvellous, vain, fickle, and unstable subject.--MONTAIGNE: Works, book i. chap. i. That Men by various Ways arrive at the same End.
[730-3] See Publius Syrus, page 712.
[731-1] Rejected by some critics as not a genuine work of Plutarch.--EMERSON.
[731-2] Ta syka syka, tên skaphên de skaphên onomazôn.--ARISTOPHANES, as quoted in Lucian, Quom. Hist. sit conscrib. 41.
Brought up like a rude Macedon, and taught to call a spade a spade.--GOSSON: Ephemerides of Phialo (1579).
[733-1] I am my own ancestor.--JUNOT, DUC D'ABRANTES (when asked as to his ancestry).
[734-1] Lysander said, "When the lion's skin cannot prevail, a little of the fox's must be used."--Laconic Apophthegms. (Lysander.)
[734-2] Pardon one offence, and you encourage the commission of many.--PUBLIUS SYRUS: Maxim 750.
[735-1] Veni, vidi, vici.
[735-2] See Publius Syrus, page 714.
[735-3] See "Of Unknown Authorship," page 707. Also Publius Syrus, page 709.
[736-1] See Pope, page 317.
Plutarch ascribes this saying to Plato. It is also ascribed to Pythagoras, Chilo, Thales, Cleobulus, Bias, and Socrates; also to Phemonë, a mythical Greek poetess of the ante-Homeric period. Juvenal (Satire xi. 27) says that this precept descended from heaven.
[738-1] Spare your breath to cool your porridge.--RABELAIS: Works, book v. chap. xxviii.
[738-2] See Fielding, page 363.
He used to say that other men lived to eat, but that he ate to live.--DIOGENES LAERTIUS: Socrates, xiv.
[738-3] See Holmes, page 637.
[739-1] In the "Adventures of Baron Munchausen" (Rudolphe Erich Raspe), stories gathered from various sources, is found the story of sound being frozen for a time in a post-horn, which when thawed gave a variety of tunes. A somewhat similar account is found in Rabelais, book iv. chaps. lv. lvi., referring to Antiphanes.
[739-2] See Heywood, page 11.
[739-3] See Burton, page 186.
[739-4] See Garrison, page 605.
[740-1] See Pliny, page 717.
[740-2] See Mrs. Browning, page 621.
Plutarch relates (Isis and Osiris) that a ship well laden with passengers drove with the tide near the Isles of Paxi, when a loud voice was heard by most of the passengers calling unto one Thanus. The voice then said aloud to him, "When you are arrived at Palodes, take care to make it known that the great god Pan is dead."
[740-3] I am the things that are, and those that are to be, and those that have been. No one ever lifted my skirts; the fruit which I bore was the sun.--PROCLUS: On Plato's Timæus, p. 30 D. (Inscription in the temple of Neith at Sais, in Egypt.)
[740-4] No man is a hero to his valet-de-chambre.--MARSHAL CATINAT (1637-1712).
Few men have been admired by their domestics.--MONTAIGNE: Essays, book iii. chap. 2.
This phrase, "No man is a hero to his valet," is commonly attributed to Madame de Sévigné, but on the authority of Madame Aissé (Letters, edited by Jules Ravenal, 1853) it really belongs to Madame Cornuel.
[740-5] See Heywood, page 15.
[741-1] Though this may be play to you, 'T is death to us.
ROGER L' ESTRANGE: Fables from Several Authors. Fable 398.
[742-1] See Pope, page 325.
EPICTETUS. Circa 60 A. D.
(The translation used here is that of Thomas Wentworth Higginson, based on that of Elizabeth Carter (1866).)
To a reasonable creature, that alone is insupportable which is unreasonable; but everything reasonable may be supported.
Discourses. Chap. ii.
Yet God hath not only granted these faculties, by which we may bear every event without being depressed or broken by it, but like a good prince and a true father, hath placed their exercise above restraint, compulsion, or hindrance, and wholly without our own control.
Discourses. Chap. vi.
In a word, neither death, nor exile, nor pain, nor anything of this kind is the real cause of our doing or not doing any action, but our inward opinions and principles.
Discourses. Chap. xi.
Reason is not measured by size or height, but by principle.
Discourses. Chap. xii.
O slavish man! will you not bear with your own brother, who has God for his Father, as being a son from the same stock, and of the same high descent? But if you chance to be placed in some superior station, will you presently set yourself up for a tyrant?
Discourses. Chap. xiii.
When you have shut your doors, and darkened your room, remember never to say that you are alone, for you are not alone; but God is within, and your genius is within,--and what need have they of light to see what you are doing?
Discourses. Chap. xiv.
No great thing is created suddenly, any more than a bunch of grapes or a fig. If you tell me that you desire a fig, I answer you that there must be time. Let it first blossom, then bear fruit, then ripen.
Discourses. Chap. xv.
Any one thing in the creation is sufficient to demonstrate a Providence to an humble and grateful mind.
Discourses. Chap. xvi.
Were I a nightingale, I would act the part of a nightingale; were I a swan, the part of a swan.
Discourses. Chap. xvi.
Since it is Reason which shapes and regulates all other things, it ought not itself to be left in disorder.
Discourses. Chap. xvii.
If what the philosophers say be true,--that all men's actions proceed from one source; that as they assent from a persuasion that a thing is so, and dissent from a persuasion that it is not, and suspend their judgment from a persuasion that it is uncertain,--so likewise they seek a thing from a persuasion that it is for their advantage.
Discourses. Chap. xviii.
Practise yourself, for heaven's sake, in little things; and thence proceed to greater.
Discourses. Chap. xviii.
Every art and every faculty contemplates certain things as its principal objects.
Discourses. Chap. xx.
Why, then, do you walk as if you had swallowed a ramrod?
Discourses. Chap. xxi.
When one maintains his proper attitude in life, he does not long after externals. What would you have, O man?
Discourses. Chap. xxi.
Difficulties are things that show what men are.
Discourses. Chap. xxiv.
If we are not stupid or insincere when we say that the good or ill of man lies within his own will, and that all beside is nothing to us, why are we still troubled?
Discourses. Chap. xxv.
In theory there is nothing to hinder our following what we are taught; but in life there are many things to draw us aside.
Discourses. Chap. xxvi.
Appearances to the mind are of four kinds. Things either are what they appear to be; or they neither are, nor appear to be; or they are, and do not appear to be; or they are not, and yet appear to be. Rightly to aim in all these cases is the wise man's task.
Discourses. Chap. xxvii.
The appearance of things to the mind is the standard of every action to man.
That we ought not to be angry with Mankind. Chap. xxviii.
The essence of good and evil is a certain disposition of the will.
Of Courage. Chap. xxix.
It is not reasonings that are wanted now; for there are books stuffed full of stoical reasonings.
Of Courage. Chap. xxix.
For what constitutes a child?--Ignorance. What constitutes a child?--Want of instruction; for they are our equals so far as their degree of knowledge permits.
That Courage is not inconsistent with Caution. Book ii. Chap. i.
Appear to know only this,--never to fail nor fall.
That Courage is not inconsistent with Caution. Book ii. Chap. i.
The materials of action are variable, but the use we make of them should be constant.
How Nobleness of Mind may be consistent with Prudence. Chap. v.
Shall I show you the muscular training of a philosopher? "What muscles are those?"--A will undisappointed; evils avoided; powers daily exercised; careful resolutions; unerring decisions.
Wherein consists the Essence of Good. Chap. viii.
Dare to look up to God and say, "Make use of me for the future as Thou wilt. I am of the same mind; I am one with Thee. I refuse nothing which seems good to Thee. Lead me whither Thou wilt. Clothe me in whatever dress Thou wilt."
That we do not study to make Use of the established Principles concerning Good and Evil. Chap. xvi.
What is the first business of one who studies philosophy? To part with self-conceit. For it is impossible for any one to begin to learn what he thinks that he already knows.
How to apply general Principles to particular Cases. Chap. xvii.
Every habit and faculty is preserved and increased by correspondent actions,--as the habit of walking, by walking; of running, by running.
How the Semblances of Things are to be combated. Chap. xviii.
Whatever you would make habitual, practise it; and if you would not make a thing habitual, do not practise it, but habituate yourself to something else.
How the Semblances of Things are to be combated. Chap. xviii.
Reckon the days in which you have not been angry. I used to be angry every day; now every other day; then every third and fourth day; and if you miss it so long as thirty days, offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving to God.
How the Semblances of Things are to be combated. Chap. xviii.
Be not hurried away by excitement, but say, "Semblance, wait for me a little. Let me see what you are and what you represent. Let me try you."
How the Semblances of Things are to be combated. Chap. xviii.
Things true and evident must of necessity be recognized by those who would contradict them.
Concerning the Epicureans. Chap. xx.
There are some things which men confess with ease, and others with difficulty.
Of Inconsistency. Chap. xxi.
Who is there whom bright and agreeable children do not attract to play and creep and prattle with them?
Concerning a Person whom he treated with Disregard. Chap. xxiv.
Two rules we should always have ready,--that there is nothing good or evil save in the will; and that we are not to lead events, but to follow them.
In what Manner we ought to bear Sickness. Book iii. Chap. x.
In every affair consider what precedes and what follows, and then undertake it.[746-1]
That Everything is to be undertaken with Circumspection. Chap. xv.
There is a fine circumstance connected with the character of a Cynic,--that he must be beaten like an ass, and yet when beaten must love those who beat him, as the father, as the brother of all.
Of the Cynic Philosophy. Chap. xxii.
First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.
Concerning such as read and dispute ostentatiously. Chap. xxiii.
Let not another's disobedience to Nature become an ill to you; for you were not born to be depressed and unhappy with others, but to be happy with them. And if any is unhappy, remember that he is so for himself; for God made all men to enjoy felicity and peace.
That we ought not to be affected by Things not in our own Power. Chap. xxiv.
Everything has two handles,--one by which it may be borne; another by which it cannot.
Enchiridion. xliii.
FOOTNOTES:
[746-1] See Publius Syrus, page 712.
TACITUS. 54-119 A. D.
(The Oxford Translation. Bohn's Classical Library.)
The images of twenty of the most illustrious families--the Manlii, the Quinctii, and other names of equal splendour--were carried before it [the bier of Junia]. Those of Brutus and Cassius were not displayed; but for that very reason they shone with pre-eminent lustre.[747-1]
Annales. iii. 76. 11.
He had talents equal to business, and aspired no higher.[747-2]
Annales. vi. 39, 17.
He [Tiberius] upbraided Macro, in no obscure and indirect terms, "with forsaking the setting sun and turning to the rising."[747-3]
Annales. vi. 52 (46).
He possessed a peculiar talent of producing effect in whatever he said or did.[747-4]
Historiæ. ii. 80.
Some might consider him as too fond of fame; for the desire of glory clings even to the best men longer than any other passion.[747-5]
Historiæ. iv. 6.
The gods looked with favour on superior courage.[747-6]
Historiæ. iv. 17.
They make solitude, which they call peace.[747-7]
Agricola. 30.
Think of your ancestors and your posterity.[747-8]
Agricola. 32.
It belongs to human nature to hate those you have injured.[747-9]
Agricola. 42.
FOOTNOTES:
[747-1] Lord John Russell, alluding to an expression used by him ("Conspicuous by his absence") in his address to the electors of the city of London, said, "It is not an original expression of mine, but is taken from one of the greatest historians of antiquity."
[747-2] See Mathew Henry, page 284.
[747-3] See Plutarch, page 726.
[747-4] See Chesterfield, page 353.
[747-5] See Milton, page 247.
[747-6] See Gibbon, page 430.
[747-7] See Byron, page 550.
[747-8] See John Quincy Adams, page 458.
[747-9] See Seneca, page 714.
PLINY THE YOUNGER. 61-105 A. D.
(Translation by William Melmoth. Bohn's Classical Library.)
Modestus said of Regulus that he was "the biggest rascal that walks upon two legs."
Letters.[748-1] Book i. Letter v. 14.
There is nothing to write about, you say. Well, then, write and let me know just this,--that there is nothing to write about; or tell me in the good old style if you are well. That 's right. I am quite well.[748-2]
Letters. Book i. Letter xi. 1.
Never do a thing concerning the rectitude of which you are in doubt.
Letters. Book i. Letter xviii. 5.
The living voice is that which sways the soul.
Letters. Book ii. Letter iii. 9.
An object in possession seldom retains the same charm that it had in pursuit.[748-3]
Letters. Book ii. Letter xv. 1.
He [Pliny the Elder] used to say that "no book was so bad but some good might be got out of it."[748-4]
Letters. Book iii. Letter v. 10.
This expression of ours, "Father of a family."
Letters. Book v. Letter xix. 2.
That indolent but agreeable condition of doing nothing.[748-5]
Letters. Book viii. Letter ix. 3.
Objects which are usually the motives of our travels by land and by sea are often overlooked and neglected if they lie under our eye. . . . We put off from time to time going and seeing what we know we have an opportunity of seeing when we please.
Letters. Book viii. Letter xx. 1.
His only fault is that he has no fault.[748-6]
Letters. Book ix. Letter xxvi. 1.
FOOTNOTES:
[748-1] Book vi. Letter xvi. contains the description of the eruption of Vesuvius, A. D. 79, as witnessed by Pliny the Elder.
[748-2] This comes to inform you that I am in a perfect state of health, hoping you are in the same. Ay, that 's the old beginning.--COLMAN: The Heir at Law, act iii. sc. 2.
[748-3] See Goldsmith, page 402.
[748-4] "There is no book so bad," said the bachelor, "but something good may be found in it."--CERVANTES: _Don Quixote, part ii. chap. iii._
[748-5] Il dolce far niente (The sweet do nothing).--A well known Italian proverb.
[748-6] See Carlyle, page 579.
MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS. 121-180 A. D.
(Translated by M. H. Morgan, Ph. D., of Harvard University.)
This Being of mine, whatever it really is, consists of a little flesh, a little breath, and the part which governs.
Meditations. ii. 2.
The ways of the gods are full of providence.
Meditations. ii. 3.
Thou wilt find rest from vain fancies if thou doest every act in life as though it were thy last.[749-1]
Meditations. ii. 5.
Thou seest how few be the things, the which if a man has at his command his life flows gently on and is divine.
Meditations. ii. 5.
Find time still to be learning somewhat good, and give up being desultory.
Meditations. ii. 7.
No state sorrier than that of the man who keeps up a continual round, and pries into "the secrets of the nether world," as saith the poet, and is curious in conjecture of what is in his neighbour's heart.
Meditations. ii. 13.
Though thou be destined to live three thousand years and as many myriads besides, yet remember that no man loseth other life than that which he liveth, nor liveth other than that which he loseth.
Meditations. ii. 14.
For a man can lose neither the past nor the future; for how can one take from him that which is not his? So remember these two points: first, that each thing is of like form from everlasting and comes round again in its cycle, and that it signifies not whether a man shall look upon the same things for a hundred years or two hundred, or for an infinity of time; second, that the longest lived and the shortest lived man, when they come to die, lose one and the same thing.
Meditations. ii. 14.
As for life, it is a battle and a sojourning in a strange land; but the fame that comes after is oblivion.
Meditations. ii. 17.
Waste not the remnant of thy life in those imaginations touching other folk, whereby thou contributest not to the common weal.
Meditations. iii. 4.
The lot assigned to every man is suited to him, and suits him to itself.[750-1]
Meditations. iii. 4.
Be not unwilling in what thou doest, neither selfish nor unadvised nor obstinate; let not over-refinement deck out thy thought; be not wordy nor a busybody.
Meditations. iii. 5.
A man should be upright, not be kept upright.
Meditations. iii. 5.
Never esteem anything as of advantage to thee that shall make thee break thy word or lose thy self-respect.
Meditations. iii. 7.
Respect the faculty that forms thy judgments.
Meditations. iii. 9.
Remember that man's life lies all within this present, as 't were but a hair's-breadth of time; as for the rest, the past is gone, the future yet unseen. Short, therefore, is man's life, and narrow is the corner of the earth wherein he dwells.
Meditations. iii. 10.
Nothing has such power to broaden the mind as the ability to investigate systematically and truly all that comes under thy observation in life.
Meditations. iii. 11.
As surgeons keep their instruments and knives always at hand for cases requiring immediate treatment, so shouldst thou have thy thoughts ready to understand things divine and human, remembering in thy every act, even the smallest, how close is the bond that unites the two.
Meditations. iii. 13.
The ruling power within, when it is in its natural state, is so related to outer circumstances that it easily changes to accord with what can be done and what is given it to do.
Meditations. iv. 1.
Let no act be done at haphazard, nor otherwise than according to the finished rules that govern its kind.
Meditations. iv. 2.
By a tranquil mind I mean nothing else than a mind well ordered.
Meditations. iv. 3.
Think on this doctrine,--that reasoning beings were created for one another's sake; that to be patient is a branch of justice, and that men sin without intending it.
Meditations. iv. 3.
The universe is change; our life is what our thoughts make it.
Meditations. iv. 3.
Nothing can come out of nothing, any more than a thing can go back to nothing.
Meditations. iv. 4.
Death, like generation, is a secret of Nature.
Meditations. iv. 5.
That which makes the man no worse than he was makes his life no worse: it has no power to harm, without or within.
Meditations. iv. 8.
Whatever happens at all happens as it should; thou wilt find this true, if thou shouldst watch narrowly.
Meditations. iv. 10.
Many the lumps of frankincense on the same altar; one falls there early and another late, but it makes no difference.
Meditations. iv. 15.
Be not as one that hath ten thousand years to live; death is nigh at hand: while thou livest, while thou hast time, be good.
Meditations. iv. 17.
How much time he gains who does not look to see what his neighbour says or does or thinks, but only at what he does himself, to make it just and holy.
Meditations. iv. 18.
Whatever is in any way beautiful hath its source of beauty in itself, and is complete in itself; praise forms no part of it. So it is none the worse nor the better for being praised.
Meditations. iv. 20.
Doth perfect beauty stand in need of praise at all? Nay; no more than law, no more than truth, no more than loving kindness, nor than modesty.
Meditations. iv. 20.
All that is harmony for thee, O Universe, is in harmony with me as well. Nothing that comes at the right time for thee is too early or too late for me. Everything is fruit to me that thy seasons bring, O Nature. All things come of thee, have their being in thee, and return to thee.
Meditations. iv. 23.
"Let thine occupations be few," saith the sage,[752-1] "if thou wouldst lead a tranquil life."
Meditations. iv. 24.
Love the little trade which thou hast learned, and be content therewith.
Meditations. iv. 31.
Remember this,--that there is a proper dignity and proportion to be observed in the performance of every act of life.
Meditations. iv. 32.
All is ephemeral,--fame and the famous as well.
Meditations. iv. 35.
Observe always that everything is the result of a change, and get used to thinking that there is nothing Nature loves so well as to change existing forms and to make new ones like them.
Meditations. iv. 36.
Search men's governing principles, and consider the wise, what they shun and what they cleave to.
Meditations. iv. 38.
Time is a sort of river of passing events, and strong is its current; no sooner is a thing brought to sight than it is swept by and another takes its place, and this too will be swept away.
Meditations. iv. 43.
All that happens is as usual and familiar as the rose in spring and the crop in summer.
Meditations. iv. 44.
That which comes after ever conforms to that which has gone before.
Meditations. iv. 45.
Mark how fleeting and paltry is the estate of man,--yesterday in embryo, to-morrow a mummy or ashes. So for the hair's-breadth of time assigned to thee live rationally, and part with life cheerfully, as drops the ripe olive, extolling the season that bore it and the tree that matured it.
Meditations. iv. 48.
Deem not life a thing of consequence. For look at the yawning void of the future, and at that other limitless space, the past.
Meditations. iv. 50.
Always take the short cut; and that is the rational one. Therefore say and do everything according to soundest reason.
Meditations. iv. 51.
In the morning, when thou art sluggish at rousing thee, let this thought be present; "I am rising to a man's work."
Meditations. v. 1.
A man makes no noise over a good deed, but passes on to another as a vine to bear grapes again in season.
Meditations. v. 6.
Flinch not, neither give up nor despair, if the achieving of every act in accordance with right principle is not always continuous with thee.
Meditations. v. 9.
Nothing happens to anybody which he is not fitted by nature to bear.
Meditations. v. 18.
Prize that which is best in the universe; and this is that which useth everything and ordereth everything.
Meditations. v. 21.
Live with the gods.
Meditations. v. 27.
Look beneath the surface; let not the several quality of a thing nor its worth escape thee.
Meditations. vi. 3.
The controlling Intelligence understands its own nature, and what it does, and whereon it works.
Meditations. vi. 5.
Do not think that what is hard for thee to master is impossible for man; but if a thing is possible and proper to man, deem it attainable by thee.
Meditations. vi. 19.
If any man can convince me and bring home to me that I do not think or act aright, gladly will I change; for I search after truth, by which man never yet was harmed. But he is harmed who abideth on still in his deception and ignorance.
Meditations. vi. 21.
Death,--a stopping of impressions through the senses, and of the pulling of the cords of motion, and of the ways of thought, and of service to the flesh.
Meditations. vi. 28.
Suit thyself to the estate in which thy lot is cast.
Meditations. vi. 39.
What is not good for the swarm is not good for the bee.
Meditations. vi. 54.
How many, once lauded in song, are given over to the forgotten; and how many who sung their praises are clean gone long ago!
Meditations. vii. 6.
One Universe made up of all that is; and one God in it all, and one principle of Being, and one Law, the Reason, shared by all thinking creatures, and one Truth.
Meditations. vii. 9.
To a rational being it is the same thing to act according to nature and according to reason.
Meditations. vii. 11.
Let not thy mind run on what thou lackest as much as on what thou hast already.
Meditations. vii. 27.
Just as the sand-dunes, heaped one upon another, hide each the first, so in life the former deeds are quickly hidden by those that follow after.
Meditations. vii. 34.
The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing, in so far as it stands ready against the accidental and the unforeseen, and is not apt to fall.
Meditations. vii. 61.
Remember this,--that very little is needed to make a happy life.
Meditations. vii. 67.
Remember that to change thy mind and to follow him that sets thee right, is to be none the less the free agent that thou wast before.
Meditations. viii. 16.
Look to the essence of a thing, whether it be a point of doctrine, of practice, or of interpretation.
Meditations. viii. 22.
A man's happiness,--to do the things proper to man.
Meditations. viii. 26.
Be not careless in deeds, nor confused in words, nor rambling in thought.
Meditations. viii. 51.
He that knows not what the world is, knows not where he is himself. He that knows not for what he was made, knows not what he is nor what the world is.
Meditations. viii. 52.
The nature of the universe is the nature of things that are. Now, things that are have kinship with things that are from the beginning. Further, this nature is styled Truth; and it is the first cause of all that is true.
Meditations. ix. 1.
He would be the finer gentleman that should leave the world without having tasted of lying or pretence of any sort, or of wantonness or conceit.
Meditations. ix. 2.
Think not disdainfully of death, but look on it with favour; for even death is one of the things that Nature wills.
Meditations. ix. 3.
A wrong-doer is often a man that has left something undone, not always he that has done something.
Meditations. ix. 5.
Blot out vain pomp; check impulse; quench appetite; keep reason under its own control.
Meditations. ix. 7.
Things that have a common quality ever quickly seek their kind.
Meditations. ix. 9.
All things are the same,--familiar in enterprise, momentary in endurance, coarse in substance. All things now are as they were in the day of those whom we have buried.
Meditations. ix. 14.
The happiness and unhappiness of the rational, social animal depends not on what he feels but on what he does; just as his virtue and vice consist not in feeling but in doing.
Meditations. ix. 16.
Everything is in a state of metamorphosis. Thou thyself art in everlasting change and in corruption to correspond; so is the whole universe.
Meditations. ix. 19.
Forward, as occasion offers. Never look round to see whether any shall note it. . . . Be satisfied with success in even the smallest matter, and think that even such a result is no trifle.
Meditations. ix. 29.
He that dies in extreme old age will be reduced to the same state with him that is cut down untimely.
Meditations. ix. 33.
Whatever may befall thee, it was preordained for thee from everlasting.
Meditations. x. 5.
"The earth loveth the shower," and "the holy ether knoweth what love is."[756-1] The Universe, too, loves to create whatsoever is destined to be made.
Meditations. x. 21.
Remember that what pulls the strings is the force hidden within; there lies the power to persuade, there the life,--there, if one must speak out, the real man.
Meditations. x. 38.
No form of Nature is inferior to Art; for the arts merely imitate natural forms.
Meditations. xi. 10.
If it is not seemly, do it not; if it is not true, speak it not.
Meditations. xii. 17.
FOOTNOTES:
[749-1] See Publius Syrus, page 712.
A similar saying falls from his lips at another time: "Let every act and speech and purpose be framed as though this moment thou mightest take thy leave of life."
[750-1] The translator is in doubt about this passage. Commentators differ in regard to it, and the text may be corrupt.
[752-1] DEMOCRITUS apud SENECAM: De Ira, iii. 6; De Animi Tranquillitate, 13.
[756-1] Fragmenta Euripidis, apud Aristotelem, N. A. viii. 1, 6.
TERTULLIAN. 160-240 A. D.
See how these Christians love one another.
Apologeticus. c. 39.
Blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.
Apologeticus. c. 50.
It is certain because it is impossible.[756-2]
De Carne Christi. c. 5.
He who flees will fight again.[756-3]
De Fuga in Persecutione. c. 10.
FOOTNOTES:
[756-2] Certum est, quia impossibile est. This is usually misquoted, "Credo quia impossibile" (I believe it because it is impossible).
[756-3] See Butler, pages 215, 216.
DIOGENES LAERTIUS. Circa 200 A. D.
(From "The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers." Translated by C. D. Yonge, B. A., with occasional corrections. Bohn's Classical Library.)
Alcæus mentions Aristodemus in these lines:--
'T is money makes the man; and he who 's none Is counted neither good nor honourable.
Thales. vii.
Thales said there was no difference between life and death. "Why, then," said some one to him, "do not you die?" "Because," said he, "it does make no difference."
Thales. ix.
When Thales was asked what was difficult, he said, "To know one's self." And what was easy, "To advise another."
Thales. ix.
He said that men ought to remember those friends who were absent as well as those who were present.
Thales. ix.
The apophthegm "Know thyself" is his.[757-1]
Thales. xiii.
Writers differ with respect to the apophthegms of the Seven Sages, attributing the same one to various authors.
Thales. xiv.
Solon used to say that speech was the image of actions; . . . that laws were like cobwebs,--for that if any trifling or powerless thing fell into them, they held it fast; while if it were something weightier, it broke through them and was off.
Solon. x.
Solon gave the following advice: "Consider your honour, as a gentleman, of more weight than an oath. Never tell a lie. Pay attention to matters of importance."
Solon. xii.
As some say, Solon was the author of the apophthegm, "Nothing in excess."[757-2]
Solon. xvi.
Chilo advised, "not to speak evil of the dead."[758-1]
Chilo. ii.
Pittacus said that half was more than the whole.[758-2]
Pittacus. ii.
Heraclitus says that Pittacus, when he had got Alcæus into his power, released him, saying, "Forgiveness is better than revenge."[758-3]
Pittacus. iii.
One of his sayings was, "Even the gods cannot strive against necessity."[758-4]
Pittacus. iv.
Another was, "Watch your opportunity."
Pittacus. vii.
Bias used to say that men ought to calculate life both as if they were fated to live a long and a short time, and that they ought to love one another as if at a future time they would come to hate one another; for that most men were bad.
Bias. v.
Ignorance plays the chief part among men, and the multitude of words;[758-5] but opportunity will prevail.
Cleobulus. iv.
The saying, "Practice is everything," is Periander's.[758-6]
Periander. vi.
Anarcharsis, on learning that the sides of a ship were four fingers thick, said that "the passengers were just that distance from death."[758-7]
Anarcharsis. v.
He used to say that it was better to have one friend of great value than many friends who were good for nothing.
Anarcharsis. v.
It was a common saying of Myson that men ought not to investigate things from words, but words from things; for that things are not made for the sake of words, but words for things.
Myson. iii.
Epimenides was sent by his father into the field to look for a sheep, turned out of the road at mid-day and lay down in a certain cave and fell asleep, and slept there fifty-seven years; and after that, when awake, he went on looking for the sheep, thinking that he had been taking a short nap.[759-1]
Epimenides. ii.
There are many marvellous stories told of Pherecydes. For it is said that he was walking along the seashore at Samos, and that seeing a ship sailing by with a fair wind, he said that it would soon sink; and presently it sank before his eyes. At another time he was drinking some water which had been drawn up out of a well, and he foretold that within three days there would be an earthquake; and there was one.
Pherecydes. ii.
Anaximander used to assert that the primary cause of all things was the Infinite,--not defining exactly whether he meant air or water or anything else.
Anaximander. ii.
Anaxagoras said to a man who was grieving because he was dying in a foreign land, "The descent to Hades is the same from every place."
Anaxagoras. vi.
Aristophanes turns Socrates into ridicule in his comedies, as making the worse appear the better reason.[759-2]
Socrates. v.
Often when he was looking on at auctions he would say, "How many things there are which I do not need!"
Socrates. x.
Socrates said, "Those who want fewest things are nearest to the gods."
Socrates. xi.
He said that there was one only good, namely, knowledge; and one only evil, namely, ignorance.
Socrates. xiv.
He declared that he knew nothing, except the fact of his ignorance.
Socrates. xvi.
Being asked whether it was better to marry or not, he replied, "Whichever you do, you will repent it."
Socrates. xvi.
He used to say that other men lived to eat, but that he ate to live.[760-1]
Socrates. xvi.
Aristippus being asked what were the most necessary things for well-born boys to learn, said, "Those things which they will put in practice when they become men."
Aristippus. iv.
Aristippus said that a wise man's country was the world.[760-2]
Aristippus. xiii.
Like sending owls to Athens, as the proverb goes.
Plato. xxxii.
Plato affirmed that the soul was immortal and clothed in many bodies successively.
Plato. xl.
Time is the image of eternity.
Plato. xli.
That virtue was sufficient of herself for happiness.[760-3]