Part 4
He preaches like those thorn trees which men say Pierce to the quick, and hold you half the day.
CHRISTIAN LOVE.
A loving nature is a lovely prize, But Christian love all nature beautifies.
COMMUNISM.
Equalise all men! let a year go round, And where will your equality be found?
COMPARISON OF POETS.
Comparison of poets nought avails: Eagles with pards, gazelles with nightingales!
CONTROVERSIALIST'S USE OF THE BIBLE.
An armourer's store they make the Book; O scandal! Where each may find a blade to suit his handle.
COWARDICE.
Alone, the coward is his shadow's slave: Spectators make the vain enact the brave.
CRITICISM.
Truth, taste, and learning, twine the living three, And thou, O critic, shalt my Hermes be.
DELUSION.
For seven years only will this world be seen, Says one; but hires a mansion for fourteen.
DETRACTION.
Like a bad habit oft this vice prevails, Some nibble characters as some their nails.
DIFFERENCE IN JUDGING OTHERS.
The bad condemn with savagery and sneer, The good arraign in sorrow and in fear.
DREAMS.
Sleep hath drugged Reason; Fancy Memory weds; Lo, the wild offspring with a hundred heads.
DUTY TO GOD.
What frenzy dreams of an unpunctual sun? Lord, as in Heaven, on Earth Thy Will be done.
EARTH.
To him who sets on earth his only care, Life is idolatry, and Death despair.
ELEVATED NONENTITY.
Through all these years attendance thus to dance, To gain a public insignificance!
ENTHUSIASTS.
But for such flight, although it frantic seems, Spirits would crawl; no mean without extremes.
EXPERIENCE.
The hard-won fruit of failure and of sorrow, The wisdom many buy, but few will borrow.
FACTS AND IDEAS.
We cherish our ideas like hot-house flowers, Fact, stubborn ass, breaks in and all devours.
FACTS AND IMAGINATION.
In facts amassed a world chaotic lies, Imagination bids the Kosmos rise.
FAITH.
Faith prays more fervently for love than light; Love's voice will guide to Heaven though all be night.
FAITH WITHOUT LOVE.
Who loveless faith imbibes, that devil's drink, Makes life a mad-house, death a fiery sink.
FAITH AND REASON.
Reason, God's revelation shows to Faith, Faith, Reason arms for sorrow or for death.
FAITH'S EFFECT.
Pierced hearts by faith may light and cheerful be; Pure gold admits the finest filigree.
FEAR OF PEDANTRY.
Scared by the name of pedant, many flee Into pert slang or tedious levity.
FIRE-EATER.
The roar of cannon-balls delights his ears, To him it is the music of the spheres.
FOOLHARDINESS.
Take sense away and men won't dare the less, But courage then we call foolhardiness.
FRIENDSHIP.
Scan not a friend with microscopic glass; You know his faults, then let his foibles pass.
GENIUS.
Draws like Prometheus from the heavenly hearth Creative fire that glorifies our earth.
GENIUS AND TALENT.
This, Talent reproduces to a turn, Brightly it shines, but ah! it will not burn.
HALF BETTER THAN THE WHOLE.
Share happy fortune with thy friend, my soul, So shall thy half be better than the whole.
HAPPINESS.
Isle of our hopes beyond the sea of tears, Reefed round with sin and woe, delays and fears.
HEARTLESS FUN.
Her rattling mouth-peals yield me no delight, She laughs but with her teeth, and means to bite.
HISTORY.
Fragments of fact mosaic-like combined, All toned and tinted to the artist's mind.
IGNORANT ANTAGONISM.
Wise opposition challenges advance, But we recoil from arguing ignorance.
ILL-NATURED SATIRE.
It wears away all love this trenchant art; Whittling with keen-edged wit the hearer's heart.
IMPARTIALITY.
Justice is easy, barring love or grudge; But to thyself, that proves the righteous judge.
IMPENITENT TEARS.
'Tis not for sin he droops his tearful eye, 'Tis not for sin, but the discovery.
INCONSTANCY.
From love to love the heart inconstant veers As passion fills the sail, and fancy steers.
INJUDICIOUS PRAISE OF A PICTURE.
He praised the scarlet cap; this vexed my soul. To praise a portion thus--condemns the whole.
JEALOUSY.
Strange freak of selfishness which fiends approve, With love intoxicate it murders love.
JOKING.
Join in his joke against himself and friends, But do so mildly or your friendship ends.
JUST AND GENEROUS.
Art just? be more--be generous all the while; Dost give? give quickly with a loving smile.
LIFE.
Life is a task which takes a life to know; How it is learnt another life must show.
LIFE.
Life is a long enigma; true, my friend; Read on, read on, the answer's at the end.
LIFE'S GARDEN.
Life's garden tilled with toil and tears we see; No Paradise, sometimes Gethsemane.
LIGHT AND SHADE.
He never marked the sunshine on his track, Till from the chilly shadows he looked back.
LITERARY QUARRELS.
Hard thrusts and ink shed mark the scribbler's strife, Charge, counter-charge, war to the paper-knife.
LIMPNESS.
Your feeble minds and self-indulgent wills, Are patients ready to gulp Satan's pills.
LOVE.
Let not Love sleep cocoon-like, self-infurled, Spin the fair silk, O man, and clothe the world.
LOVE THE TYRANT.
Sweet playfellow is Love, but let him rule, A tyrant he becomes, and you his fool.
LOVE AND TRUTH.
Love without Truth is but a bubble fair; Burst through the glitter, and your joy is air.
MAN'S VIEW OF PROVIDENCE.
What suits their turn is providential all; That which does not by other names they call.
OBSCURE SPECULATION.
If "fools rush in where angels fear to tread," When wise men follow what is to be said?
ORIGINALITY.
A dexterous following is admired by all, But few dare praise the brave original.
PAINTERS.
Painters are men, and haply Claude and Titian Discussed as we brown pink, and composition.
PEACE AND WAR.
Broken is many a heart by war accurst; Some think by peace and plenty they would burst.
POINT OF VIEW.
He views all subjects from one point alone; Need it be said that point is just his own?
PRE-RAFFAELITES.
Make to the whole subservient every part; Your piecemeal excellence shows skill not art.
PRIDE.
"I have no pride, not I," the donkey cries; "What can an ass be proud of?" fox replies.
PRIDE IN SMALL MATTERS.
"How splendidly I milk!" you make me laugh; Who milks a cow the best must be a calf!
PROOF OF WORTH.
Slight not the world, but still console thy breast When those esteem thee most who know thee best.
RECRIMINATION.
Do not recriminate; that biting strain Backward and forward will saw love in twain.
SCHOLARSHIP.
For scholarship few read, not one in twenty; But make it Fellowship, and you'll find plenty.
SCRIPTURE AND PRIDE.
Who weighs his worth by God's eternal word Finds pride a curse, and vanity absurd.
SELF.
On your own merits to descant be shy, Or false, or true, the end is vanity.
SELF-LOVE.
Monimia's constancy we all must feel, She loves herself, and is as true as steel.
SHAKSPEARE AND MILTON.
A lofty Christian shrine our Milton is, But Shakspeare is the world's metropolis.
SLOW WIFE AND FAST HUSBAND.
On his wild ways as calmly smileth she, As the May moon upon a roaring sea.
SORROW.
Sorrow's dark storm he blesses through all years Who finds the priceless pearl among his tears.
TENNYSON AND PETRARCH.
Love's laureate crown Italian Petrarch won; Friendship's we twine for British Tennyson.
TERROR.
The quivering flesh ignores the will's control, Unnerved beneath the palsy of the soul.
THE EPIGRAM.
Who for an epigram would try, nor fail, Puts Attic salt upon his verse's tail.
THE MOROSE MAN.
Carries within his heart a little hell, And all his phrases of the sulphur smell.
THE PROUD MAN.
Failing to rule shuts up his swelling breast; Himself he cannot please, and scorns the rest.
THE VAIN MAN.
Craves To Seem First in Matters Great Or Small; Always, in Short, To Be Admired of All.
THE LIKENESS BETWEEN THEM.
In this at least the proud and vain agree; Each in his heart cries, "Fall and worship me!"
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THEM.
This, praise devoureth howsoe'er exprest, This, starves in sullen fast denied the best.
TO A TEAR.
O symbol dubious of mirth or woe! Is't wit, or grief, or onions makes you flow?
TRUTH AND LOVE.
Truth without Love its mark must often miss, It gives a cuff when you expect a kiss.
WAR.
Thousands on distant fields endure and die; Thousands at home can give no reason why.
WEAK AND STRONG.
Some by the strength of others keep alive; But full as many on their weakness thrive.
WISDOM.
Queen of all knowledge, thou, in every age! Science thy counsellor, and Art thy page.
WIT AND HUMOUR.
Wit from the mind, and Humour from the mode, And each helps Mirth to cheer life's weary road.
WIT, HUMOUR, AND COMEDY.
Humour is mode and form, Wit thought and sprite; Both to combine is Comedy's delight.
WIT, BEAUTY, AND PRONUNCIATION.
Like Cupid's bow her vermeil lip she bends, And with a twang her flashing wit descends.
WOMAN LOVES MAN OF RENOWN.
Dearer his name than beauty, youth, and pelf; She'd be his Fame, and blow the trump herself.
YOUTH AND AGE.
About the world Youth loves to peer and cruise, About the world Age loves to hear and muse.
_Printed by R. & R. CLARK, Edinburgh._
TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES:
Text in italics is surrounded with underscores: _italics_.
Superscripted text is preceded by a carat character with superscripted text in curly braces: ^{ble.}
Punctuation has been corrected without note.
Obvious typographical errors have been corrected as follows: Page 17: turn's changed to turns