Chapter 18

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 he 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 Tragedy, Act_ i. R. BROWNING.

I care not, Fortune, what you me deny; You cannot rob me of free Nature's grace, You cannot shut the windows of the sky, Through which Aurora shows her brightening face; You cannot bar my constant feet to trace The woods and lawns, by living stream, at eve. _The Castle of Indolence, Canto II_. J. THOMSON.

Who can paint Like Nature? Can imagination boast, Amid its gay creation, hues like hers? _The Seasons: Spring_. J. THOMSON.

For Art may err, but Nature cannot miss. _The Cock and Fox_. J. DRYDEN.

The course of nature is the art of God. _Night Thoughts, Night IX_. DR. E. YOUNG.

'Tis elder Scripture, writ by God's own hand: Scripture authentic! uncorrupt by man. _Night Thoughts, Night IX_. DR. E. YOUNG.

Nature, the vicar of the almightie Lord. _Assembly of Foules_. CHAUCER.

To the solid ground Of nature trusts the Mind that builds for aye. _Miscellaneous Sonnets_. W. WORDSWORTH.

NIGHT.

Darkness now rose, As daylight sunk, and brought in low'ring Night, Her shadowy offspring. _Paradise Regained, Bk. IV_. MILTON.

Now black and deep the Night begins to fall, A shade immense! Sunk in the quenching gloom, Magnificent and vast, are heaven and earth. Order confounded lies; all beauty void, Distinction lost, and gay variety One universal blot: such the fair power Of light, to kindle and create the whole. _The Seasons: Autumn_. J. THOMSON.

How beautiful is night! A dewy freshness fills the silent air; No mist obscures, nor cloud, nor 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_. R. SOUTHEY.

This sacred shade and solitude, what is it? 'Tis the felt presence of the Deity.

* * * * *

By night an atheist half believes a God. _Night Thoughts, Night V_. DR. E. YOUNG.

Night, sable goddess! from her ebon throne, In rayless majesty, now stretches forth Her leaden sceptre o'er a slumbering world. _Night Thoughts, Night I_. DR. E. YOUNG.

All is gentle; naught Stirs rudely; but, congenial with the night, Whatever walks is gliding like a spirit. _Doge of Venice_. LORD BYRON.

O radiant Dark! O darkly fostered ray! Thou hast a joy too deep for shallow Day. _The Spanish Gypsy, Bk. I_. GEORGE ELIOT.

I linger yet with Nature, for the night Hath been to me a more familiar face Than that of man; and in her starry shade Of dim and solitary loveliness, I learned the language of another world. _Manfred, Act iii. Sc. 4_. LORD BYRON.

Night is the time for rest; How sweet, when labors close. To gather round an aching breast The curtain of repose, Stretch the tired limbs, and lay the head Down on our own delightful bed! _Night_. J. MONTGOMERY.

Now the hungry lion roars, And the wolf behowls the moon; Whilst the heavy ploughman snores, All with weary task foredone. _Midsummer Night's Dream, Act v. Sc. 1_. SHAKESPEARE.

Quiet night, that brings Rest to the laborer, is the outlaw's day, In which he rises early to do wrong, And when his work is ended dares not sleep. _The Guardian, Act ii. Sc. 4_. P. MASSINGER.

I must become a borrower of the night For a dark hour or twain. _Macbeth, Act iii. Sc. 1_. SHAKESPEARE.

All was so still, so soft, in earth and air, You scarce would start to meet a spirit there Secure that nought of evil could delight To walk in such a scene, on such a night! _Lara_. LORD BYRON.

Soon as midnight brought on the dusky hour Friendliest to sleep and silence. _Paradise Lost, Bk. V_. MILTON.

The iron tongue of midnight hath told twelve; Lovers, to bed; 'tis almost fairy time. _Midsummer Night's Dream, Act v. Sc. 1_. SHAKESPEARE.

In the dead vast and middle of the night. _Hamlet, Act i. Sc. 2_. SHAKESPEARE.

'Tis now the very witching time of night, When churchyards yawn, and Hell itself breathes out Contagion to this world. _Hamlet, Act iii. Sc. 2_. SHAKESPEARE.

O wild and wondrous midnight, There is a might in thee To make the charmèd body Almost like spirit be. And give it some faint glimpses Of immortality! _Midnight_. J.R. LOWELL.

NOBILITY.

Be noble! and the nobleness that lies In other men, sleeping, but never dead, Will rise in majesty to meet thine own. _Sonnet IV_. J.R. LOWELL.

His nature is too noble for the world: He would not flatter Neptune for his trident, Or Jove for 's power to thunder. _Coriolanus, Act iii. Sc 1_. SHAKESPEARE.

This was the noblest Roman of them all: All the conspirators save only he Did that they did in envy of great Cæsar; He only, in a general honest thought And common good to all, made one of them. _Julius Cæsar, Act v. Sc 5_. SHAKESPEARE.

OPINION.

For most men (till by losing rendered sager) Will back their own opinions by a wager. _Beppo_. LORD BYRON.

Some praise at morning what they blame at night, But always think the last opinion right. _Essay on Criticism, Pt. II_. A. POPE.

He that complies against his will Is of his own opinion still. _Hudibras, Canto III_. S. BUTLER.

OPPORTUNITY.

Who seeks, and will not take when once 'tis offered, Shall never find it more. _Antony and Cleopatra, Act ii. Sc. 7_. SHAKESPEARE.

This could but have happened once, And we missed it, lost it forever. _Youth and Art_. R. BROWNING.

He that will not when he may, When he will he shall have nay. _Quoted in Anatomy of Melancholy_. R. BURTON.

He that would not when he might, He shall not when he wolda. _Reliques: The Baffled Knight_. BISHOP T. PERCY.

Urge them while their souls Are capable of this ambition. Lest zeal, nor melted by the windy breath Of soft petitions, pity and remorse, Cool and congeal again to what it was. _King John, Act ii. Sc. 2_. SHAKESPEARE.

Turning, for them who pass, the common dust Of servile opportunity to gold. _Desultory Stanzas_. W. WORDSWORTH.

ORATORY.

But, spite of all the criticising elves, Those who would make us feel--must feel themselves. _The Rosciad_. C. CHURCHILL.

Words that weep and tears that speak. _The Prophet_. A. COWLEY.

Thence to the famous orators repair, Those ancient, whose resistless eloquence Wielded at will that fierce democratie, Shook the arsenal, and fulmined over Greece, To Macedon. and Artaxerxes' throne. _Paradise Regained, Bk, IV_. MILTON.

Where nature's end of language is declined, And men talk only to conceal the mind. _Love of Fame, Satire II_. DR. E. YOUNG.

What means this passionate discourse, This peroration with such circumstance? _Henry VI., Pt. II. Act i. Sc. 1_. SHAKESPEARE.

Frank, haughty, rash,--the Rupert of debate. _The New Timon, Pt. I_. E. BULWER-LYTTON.

For rhetoric, he could not ope His mouth, but out there flew a trope.

* * * * *

For all a rhetorician's rules Teach nothing but to name his tools. _Hudibras, Pt. 1. Canto 1_. S. BUTLER.

"I wonder if Brougham thinks as much as he talks," Said a punster, perusing a trial; "I vow, since his lordship was made Baron Vaux, He's been _Vaux et proeterea nihil_!" _A Voice and Nothing More_. ANONYMOUS.

ORDER.

Confusion heard his voice, and wild uproar Stood ruled, stood vast infinitude confined; Till at his second bidding darkness fled. Light shone, and order from disorder sprung. _Paradise Lost, Bk. III_. MILTON.

For the world was built in order And the atoms march in tune: Rhyme the pipe, and Time the warder, The sun obeys them, and the moon. _Monadnock_. R.W. EMERSON.

Mark what unvaried laws preserve each state, Laws wise as Nature, and as fixed as Fate. _Essay on Man, Epistle III_. A. POPE.

The heavens themselves, the planets and this centre Observe degree, priority and place, Insisture, course, proportion, season, form, Office and custom, in all line of order. _Troilus and Cresida, Act . Sc. 2_. SHAKESPEARE.

PAIN.

The scourge of life, and death's extreme disgrace, The smoke of Hell, that monster called Paine. _Sidera: Paine_. SIR P. SIDNEY.

Nothing begins, and nothing ends, That is not paid with moan; For we are born in others' pain, And perish in our own. _Daisy_. F. THOMPSON.

Pain is no longer pain when it is past. _Nature's Lesson_. M.J. PRESTON.

Why, all delights are vain; but that most vain, Which, with pain purchased, doth inherit pain. _Love's Labor's Lost. Act i. Sc. 1_. SHAKESPEARE.

Alas! by some degree of woe We every bliss must gain; The heart can ne'er a transport know That never feels a pain. _Song_. LORD LYTTELTON.

PAINTING.

The glowing portraits, fresh from life, that bring Home to our hearts the truth from which they spring. _Monody on the Death of the Rt. Hon. R.B. Sheridan_. LORD BYRON.

Hard features every bungler can command: To draw true beauty shows a master's hand. _To Mr. Lee, on his Alexander_. J. DRYDEN.

A flattering painter, who made it his care To draw men as they ought to be, not as they are. _Retaliation_. O. GOLDSMITH.

Lely on animated canvas stole The sleepy eye, that spoke the melting soul. _Horace, Bk. II. Epistle I_. A. POPE.

I will say of it, It tutors nature: artificial strife Lives in these touches, livelier than life. _Timon of Athens, Act i. Sc. 1_. SHAKESPEARE.

With hue like that when some great painter dips His pencil in the gloom of earthquake and eclipse. _The Revolt of Islam_. P.B. SHELLEY.

PARTING.

To know, to esteem, to love,--and then to part, Makes up life's tale to many a feeling heart. _On Taking Leave of_ ----. S.T. COLERIDGE.

Forever, Fortune, wilt thou prove An unrelenting foe to love; And, when we meet a mutual heart, Come in between and bid us part? _Song_. J. THOMSON.

Two lives that once part, are as ships that divide When, moment on moment, there rushes between The one and the other, a sea;-- Ah, never can fall from the days that have been A gleam on the years that shall be! _A Lament_. E. BULWER-LYTTON.

Such partings break the heart they fondly hope to heal. _Childe Harold, Canto I_. LORD BYRON.

We twain have met like the ships upon the sea, Who hold an hour's converse, so short, so sweet; One little hour! and then, away they speed On lonely paths, through mist, and cloud, and foam, To meet no more. _Life Drama, Sc. 4_. A. SMITH.

He did keep The deck, with glove, or hat, or handkerchief, Still waving as the fits and stirs of his mind Could best express how slow his soul sailed on.-- How swift his ship. _Cymbeline, Act i. Sc. 4_. SHAKESPEARE.

But in vain she did conjure him, To depart her presence so, Having a thousand tongues t'allure him And but one to bid him go. When lips invite, And eyes delight, And cheeks as fresh as rose in June Persuade delay, What boots to say Forego me now, come to me soon? _Dulcina_. SIR W. RALEIGH.

Good night, good night: parting is such sweet sorrow, That I shall say good night till it be morrow. _Romeo and Juliet, Act ii. Sc. 2_. SHAKESPEARE.

JULIET.--O, think'st thou we shall ever meet again? ROMEO.--I doubt it not; and all these woes shall serve For sweet discourses in our time to come. _Romeo and Juliet, Act iii. Sc. 5_. SHAKESPEARE.

In the hope to meet Shortly again, and make our absence sweet. _Underwoods_.. B. JONSON.

When we two parted In silence and tears, Half broken-hearted, To sever for years, Pale grew thy cheek and cold, Colder thy kiss: Truly that hour foretold Sorrow to this! _When we two parted_. LORD BYRON.

BRUTUS.--Whether we shall meet again I know not. Therefore our everlasting farewell take; For ever, and for ever, farewell. Cassius! If we do meet again, why, we shall smile; If not, why, then this parting was well made. CASSIUS.--For ever, and for ever, farewell, Brutus! _Julius Cæsar, Act v. Sc. 1_. SHAKESPEARE.

PASSION.

Take heed lest passion sway Thy judgment to do aught, which else free will Would not admit. _Paradise Lost, Bk. VIII_. MILTON.

In men, we various ruling passions find; In women two almost divide the kind; Those only fixed, they first or last obey, The love of pleasure, and the love of sway. _Moral Essays, Epistle II_. A. POPE.

Passions are likened best to floods and streams, The shallow murmur, but the deep are dumb. _The Silent Lover_. SIR W. RALEIGH.

A little fire is quickly trodden out; Which, being suffered, rivers cannot quench. _Henry VI., Pt. III. Act iv. Sc. 8_ SHAKESPEARE.

The ruling passion, be it what it will, The ruling passion conquers reason still.

* * * * *

Hear then the truth: 'Tis Heav'n each passion sends, And different men directs to different ends. Extremes in nature equal good produce; Extremes in man concur to general use. _Moral Essays, Epistle III_. A. POPE.

And hence one master passion in the breast, Like Aaron's serpent, swallows up the rest. _Essay on Man, Epistle II_. A. POPE.

PAST, THE.

O, call back yesterday, bid time return.

* * * * *

To-day, unhappy day, too late. _King Richard II., Act iii. Sc. 2_. SHAKESPEARE.

Not heaven itself upon the past has power; But what has been, has been, and I have had my hour. _Imitation of Horace, Bk, I. Ode XXIX_. J. DRYDEN.

Things without all remedy Should be without regard: what's done is done. _Macbeth, Act iii. Sc. 2_. SHAKESPEARE.

Gone, glimmering through the dream of things that were,

* * * * *

A school-boy's tale, the wonder of an hour! _Childe Harold, Canto II_. LORD BYRON.

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_. H.W. LONGFELLOW.

Applause To that blest son of foresight: lord of fate! That awful independent on to-morrow Whose work is done; who triumphs in the past; Whose yesterdays look backwards with a smile. _Night Thoughts, Night II_. DR. E. YOUNG.

For time is like a fashionable host, That slightly shakes his parting guest by the hand, And with his arms outstretched, as he would fly, Grasps-in the comer. Welcome ever smiles, And farewell goes out sighing. _Troilus and Cressida, Act iii. Sc. 3_. SHAKESPEARE.

PATIENCE.

Endurance is the crowning quality, And patience all the passion of great hearts. _Columbus_. J.R. LOWELL.

His patient soul endures what Heav'n ordains, But neither feels nor fears ideal pains. _The Borough_. G. CRABBE.

'Tis all men's office to speak patience To those that ring under the load of sorrow. But no man's virtue nor sufficiency To be so moral when he shall endure The like himself. _Much Ado about Nothing. Act v. Sc. 1_. SHAKESPEARE.

And I must bear What is ordained with patience, being aware Necessity doth front the universe With an invincible gesture. _Prometheus Bound_. E.B. BROWNING.

How poor are they that have not patience! What wound did ever heal but by degrees? _Othello, Act ii. Sc. 3_. SHAKESPEARE.

I will with patience hear, and find a time Both meet to hear and answer such high things. _Julius Cæsar, Act i. Sc. 2_. SHAKESPEARE.

I worked with patience, which means almost power. _Aurora Leigh, Bk. III_. E.B. BROWNING.

Or arm th' obdured breast With stubborn patience as with triple steel. _Paradise Lost, Bk. II_. MILTON.

Patience, sov'reign o'er transmuted ill. _The Vanity of Human Wishes_. DR. S. JOHNSON.

Patience, my lord! why, 't is the soul of peace; Of all the virtues 'tis nearest kin to heaven; It makes men look like gods. The best of men That e'er wore earth about him was a sufferer, A soft, meek, patient, humble, tranquil spirit, The first true gentleman that ever breathed. _The Honest Whore, Pt. I. Act i. Sc. 12_. T. DEKKER.

PATRIOTISM.

They love their land, because it is their own, And scorn to give aught other reason why. _Connecticut_. F-G. HALLECK.

No factious voice Called them unto the field of generous fame, But the pure consecrated love of home; No deeper feeling sways us, when it wakes In all its greatness. _The Graves of the Patriots_. J.G. PERCIVAL.

The worst of rebels never arm To do their king and country harm, But draw their swords to do them good, As doctors use, by letting blood. _Hudibras_. S. BUTLER.

Hail! Independence, hail! Heaven's next best gift, To that of life and an immortal soul! _Liberty, Pt. V_. J. THOMSON.

The inextinguishable spark, which fires The soul of patriots. _Leonidas_. R. GLOVER.

I do love My country's good with a respect more tender, More holy and profound, than mine own life. _Coriolanus, Act_ iii. _Sc_. 3. SHAKESPEARE.

What pity is it That we can die but once to save our country! _Cato, Act_ iv. _Sc_. 4. J. ADDISON.

PEACE.

O Peace! thou source and soul of social life; Beneath whose calm inspiring influence Science his views enlarges, Art refines, And swelling Commerce opens all her ports. _Britannia_. J. THOMSON.

Ay, but give me worship and quietness; I like it better than a dangerous honor. _King Henry VI., Pt. III. Act_ iv. _Sc_. 3. SHAKESPEARE.

This hand, to tyrants ever sworn the foe, For freedom only deals the deadly blow: Then sheathes in calm repose the vengeful blade, For gentle peace in freedom's hallowed shade. _Written in an Album_. J.Q. ADAMS.

To reap the harvest of perpetual peace, By this one bloody trial of sharp war.

_King Richard III., Act_ v. _Sc_. 2. SHAKESPEARE.

Take away the sword; States can be saved without it. _Richelieu, Act_ ii. _Sc_. 2. E. BULWER-LYTTON.

A peace is of the nature of a conquest: For then both parties nobly are subdued, And neither party loser. _King Henry IV., Pt. II. Act_ iv. _Sc_. 2. SHAKESPEARE.

His helmet now shall make a hive for bees, And lover's sonnets turned to holy psalms; A man at arms must now serve on his knees, And feed on prayers, which are his age's alms. _Polyhymnia_. G. PEELE.

Ne'er to meet, or ne'er to part, is peace. _Night Thoughts, Night V_. DR. E. YOUNG.

Till each man finds his own in all men's good, And all men work in noble brotherhood, Breaking their mailèd fleets and armèd towers, And ruling by obeying Nature's powers, And gathering all the fruits of peace and crowned with all her flowers. _Ode, sung at the Opening of the International Exhibition_. A. TENNYSON.

PEN.

Beneath the rule of men entirely great The pen is mightier than the sword. _Richelieu, Act ii. Sc 3_. E. BULWER-LYTTON.

The feather, whence the pen Was shaped that traced the lives of these good men, Dropped from an Angel's wing. _Ecclesiastical Sonnets, Pt. III., v. Walton's Book of Lives_. W. WORDSWORTH.

Whose noble praise Deserves a quill pluckt from an angel's wing. _Sonnet_. DOROTHY BERRY.

You still shall live--such virtue hath my pen, Where breath most breathes, even in the mouths of men. _Sonnet, LXXXI_. SHAKESPEARE.

Oh! nature's noblest gift--my gray-goose quill! Slave of my thoughts, obedient to my will, Torn from thy parent-bird to form a pen, That mighty instrument of little men! _English Bards and Scotch Reviewers_. LORD BYRON.

PEOPLE, THE.

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 fevered blood. Thou many-headed monster thing, O, who would wish to be thy king! _Lady of the Lake, Canto V_. SIR W. SCOTT.

I have bought Golden opinions from all sorts of people. _Macbeth, Act i. Sc. 7_. SHAKESPEARE.

He that depends Upon your favors swims with fins of lead, And hews down oaks with rushes. Hang ye! Trust ye? With every minute you do change a mind; And call him noble that was now your hate, Him vile that was your garland. _Coriolanus, Act i. Sc. 1_. SHAKESPEARE.

The scum That rises upmost when the nation boils. _Don Sebastian_. J. DRYDEN.

Rumor is a pipe Blown by surmises, jealousies, conjectures, And of so easy and so plain a stop That the blunt monster with uncounted heads, The still-discordant wavering multitude, Can play upon it. _King Henry IV., Pt. II. Act i. Induction_. SHAKESPEARE.

The people's voice is odd, It is, and it is not, the voice of God. _To Augustus_. A. POPE.

Through all disguise, form, place or name, Beneath the flaunting robes of sin, Through poverty and squalid shame, Thou lookest on the man within.

On man, as man, retaining yet, Howe'er debased, and soiled, and dim, The crown upon his forehead set-- The immortal gift of God to him. _Democracy_. J.G. WHITTIER.

PERFECTION.

To gild refinèd gold, to paint the lily, To throw a perfume on the violet, To smooth the ice, or add another hue Unto the rainbow, or with taper-light To seek the beauteous eye of heaven to garnish, Is wasteful and ridiculous excess. _King John, Act iv. Sc. 2_. SHAKESPEARE.

How many things by season seasoned are To their right praise and true perfection! _Merchant of Venice, Act v. Sc. 1_. SHAKESPEARE.

Those about her From her shall read the perfect ways of honor. _King Henry VIII., Act v. Sc. 5_. SHAKESPEARE.

Whoever thinks a faultless piece to see, Thinks what ne'er was, nor is, nor e'er shall be. _Essay on Criticism, Pt. II_. A. POPE.

PERFUME.

And the ripe harvest of the new-mown hay Gives it a sweet and wholesome odor. _Richard III. (Altered), Act v. Sc. 3_. C. CIBBER.

Perfume for a lady's chamber. _Winter's Tale, Act iv. Sc. 4_. SHAKESPEARE.

Take your paper, too. And let me have them very well perfumed, For she is sweeter than perfume itself To whom they go to. _Taming of the Shrew, Act i. Sc. 2_. SHAKESPEARE.

Sabean odors from the spicy shore Of Arabie the blest. _Paradise Lost, Bk. IV_. MILTON.

And all Arabia breathes from yonder box. _Rape of the Lock, Canto I_. A. POPE.

A violet in the youth of primy nature, Forward, not permanent, sweet, not lasting, The perfume and suppliance of a minute. _Hamlet, Act i. Sc. 3_. SHAKESPEARE.

I cannot talk with civet in the room, A fine puss-gentleman that's all perfume. _Conversation_. W. COWPER.

PERSONAL.

CHAUCER.

As that renownèd poet them compyled With warlike numbers and heroicke sound, Dan Chaucer, well of English undefyled, On Fame's eternall beadroll worthie to be fyled. _Faërie Queene, Bk. IV. Canto II_. E. SPENSER.

EARL OF WARWICK.

Peace, impudent and shameless Warwick! Proud setter-up and puller-down of kings. _King Henry VI., Part III. Act iii. Sc. 3_. SHAKESPEARE.

GALILEO.

The starry Galileo, with his woes. _Childe Harold, Canto IV_. LORD BYRON.

SIR PHILIP SIDNEY.

The admired mirror, glory of our isle, Thou far, far more than mortal man, whose style Struck more men dumb to hearken to thy song Than Orpheus' harp, or Tully's golden tongue. To him, as right, for wit's deep quintessence, For honor, valor, virtue, excellence, Be all the garlands, crown his tomb with bay, Who spake as much as e'er our tongue can say. _Britannia's Pastorals, Bk. II. Song 2_. W. BROWNE.

EDMUND SPENSER.

Divinest Spenser, heaven-bred, happy Muse! Would any power into my brain infuse Thy worth, or all that poets had before, I could not praise till thou deserv'st no more. _Britannia's Pastorals, Bk. II. Song 1_. W. BROWNE.

FRANCIS, LORD BACON.

If parts allure thee, think how Bacon shined, The wisest, brightest, meanest of mankind! _Essay on Man, Epistle IV_. A. POPE.

BEN JONSON.