Proverbial Philosophy The First and Second Series

Read thou first, and well approve, the books thou givest to thy child; But remember the weakness of his thought, and that wisdom for him must be diluted: In the honied waters of...

Verily, they are all thine: freely mayst thou serve thee of them all: They are thine by gift for thy needs, to be used in all gratitude and kindness; Gratitude to their God and...

Keep silence, daughter of frivolity,--for Death is in that chamber! Startle not with echoing sound the strangely solemn peace. Death is here in spirit, watcher of a marble corps...

Look on this picture of joy, and remember that portrait of sorrow: Behold the beauty of holiness, behold the deformity of sin! How long, ye sons of men, will ye scorn the words...

Come, I will show thee an affliction, unnumbered among this world's sorrows, Yet real and wearisome and constant, embittering the cup of life. There be, who can think within the...

Scorner, thy thoughts are weak, they reach not the summit of the matter; Go to, for the mouth of a child might show thee the mystery of prayer: Verily, there is no change in the...

A common mind perceiveth not beyond his eyes and ears: The palings of the park of sense enthral this captured roebuck: And still, though fettered in the flesh, he doth not feel...

Thou hast seen many sorrows, travel-stained pilgrim of the world, But that which hath vexed thee most hath been the looking for evil; And though calamities have crossed thee, an...

Moreover, what art thou,--so vainly impatient of Neglect, Where then is thy worthiness, that so thou claimest honour? Let the true judgment of humility reckon up thine ill deser...

Look again on this fair girl, the orphan of a village pastor Who is dead, and hath left her his all,--his blessing, and a name unstained. And friends, with busy zeal, that their...

Stay awhile, thou blessed band! be entreated, daughters of heaven! While the chance-met scholar of Wisdom learneth your sacred names: He is resting a little from his toil, yet a...

To number every mystery were to sum the sum of all things: None can exhaust a theme, whereof God is example and similitude. Nevertheless, take a garland from the garden, a handf...

To-morrow, whispereth weakness: and To-morrow findeth him the weaker; To-morrow, promiseth conscience; and behold, no To-day for a fulfilment. O name of happy omen unto youth, O...

A horse knoweth his rider, be he confident or timid, And the fierce spirit of Bucephalus stoopeth unto none but Alexander; The tigress, roused in the jungle by the prying spanie...

Cease awhile, gentle scholar;--seek other thoughts and themes; Or dazzling Fame with wildfire light shall lure us on for ever. For look, all subjects of the mind may range benea...

And hive not in thy thoughts the vain and wordy notion That nothing which was born in Time can tire out the footsteps of Infinity: Reckon up a sum in numbers; where shall progre...

Seams of thought for the sage's brow, and laughing lines for the fool's face; For all things leave their track in the mind; and the glass of the mind is faithful. Seest thou muc...

Man liveth from hour to hour, and knoweth not what may happen; Influences circle him on all sides, and yet must he answer for his actions: For the being that is master of himsel...

Faith may rise into miracles of might, as some few wise have shown: Faith may sink into credulities of weakness, as the mass of fools have witnessed. Therefore, in the first, sa...

Friend and scholar, who, in charity, hast walked with me thus far, We have wandered in a wilderness of sweets, tracking beauty's footsteps: And ever as we rambled on among the t...

Alas,--and bitter is their loss, the parents, and the children, Who, loving up and down the world, have missed each other's friendship. Haply, it had grown of careless life, for...

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