Chapter 23

I shall not see thee. Dare I say No spirit ever brake the band That stays him from the native land, Where first he walked when clasped in clay?

No visual shade of some one lost, But he, the spirit himself, may come Where all the nerve of sense is numb; Spirit to spirit, ghost to ghost. _In Memoriam, XCII_. A. TENNYSON.

STAGE, THE.

Where is our usual manager of mirth? What revels are in hand? Is there no play, To ease the anguish of a torturing hour? _Midsummer Night's Dream, Act v. Sc. 1_. SHAKESPEARE.

Prologues, like compliments, are loss of time; 'Tis penning bows and making legs in rhyme. _Prologue to Crisp's Tragedy of Virginia_. D. GARRICK.

Prologues precede the piece in mournful verse, As undertakers walk before the hearse. _Prologue to Apprentice_. D. GARRICK.

On the stage he was natural, simple, affecting, 'Twas only that when he was off, he was acting. _Retaliation_. O. GOLDSMITH.

The drama's laws, the drama's patrons give. For we that live to please, must please to live. _Prologue. Spoken by Mr. Garrick on Opening Drury Lane Theatre, 1747_. DR. S. JOHNSON.

To wake the soul by tender strokes of art, To raise the genius, and to mend the heart; To make mankind, in conscious virtue bold, Live o'er each scene, and be what they behold-- For this the tragic Muse first trod the stage. _Prologue to Addison's Cato_. A. POPE.

As in a theatre, the eyes of men, After a well-graced actor leaves the stage, Are idly bent on him that enters next, Thinking his prattle to be tedious. _Richard II., Act v. Sc. 2_. SHAKESPEARE.

Is it not monstrous that this player here, But in a fiction, in a dream of passion, Could force his soul so to his own conceit That from her working all his visage wanned? _Hamlet, Act ii. Sc. 2_. SHAKESPEARE.

What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba, That he should weep for her? What would he do, Had he the motive and the cue for passion That I have? He would drown the stage with tears. _Hamlet, Act ii. Sc. 2_. SHAKESPEARE.

I hold the world but as the world, Gratiano; A stage, where every man must play a part, And mine a sad one. _Merchant of Venice, Act i. Sc. 1_. SHAKESPEARE.

I have heard That guilty creatures, sitting at a play, Have by the very cunning of the scene Been struck so to the soul, that presently They have proclaimed their malefactions.

* * * * *

The play's the thing Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the King. _Hamlet, Act ii. Sc. 2_. SHAKESPEARE.

Lo, where the stage, the poor, degraded stage, Holds its warped mirror to a gaping age. _Curiosity_. C. SPRAGUE.

A veteran see! whose last act on the stage Entreats your smiles for sickness and for age; Their cause I plead,--plead it in heart and mind; A fellow-feeling makes one wondrous kind. _Prologue on Quitting the Stage in 1776_. D. GARRICK.

Who teach the mind its proper face to scan, And hold the faithful mirror up to man. _The Actor_. R. LLOYD.

STAR.

That full star that ushers in the even. _Sonnet CXXXII_. SHAKESPEARE.

Her blue eyes sought the west afar, For lovers love the western star. _Lay of the Last Minstrel, Canto III_. SIR W. SCOTT.

And fast by, hanging in a golden chain This pendent world, in bigness as a star Of smallest magnitude close by the moon. _Paradise Lost, Bk. II_. MILTON.

Devotion! daughter of astronomy! An undevout astronomer is mad. _Night Thoughts, Night IX_. DR. E. YOUNG.

There does a sable cloud Turn forth her silver lining on the night, And cast a gleam over this tufted grove. _Comus_. MILTON.

Blossomed the lovely stars, the forget-me-nots of the angels. _Evangeline, Pt. I_. H.W. LONGFELLOW.

'Tis the witching hour of night, Orbed is the moon and bright, And the stars they glisten, glisten, Seeming with bright eyes to listen-- For what listen they? _A Prophecy_. J. KEATS.

There is no light in earth or heaven But the cold light of stars; And the first watch of night is given To the red planet Mars. _The Light of Stars_. H.W. LONGFELLOW.

Sweet Phosphor, bring the day; Light will repay The wrongs of night; Sweet Phosphor, bring the day! _Emblems, Bk. I_. F. QUARLES.

At whose sight all the stars Hide their diminished heads. _Paradise Lost, Bk. IV_. MILTON.

Nor sink those stars in empty night,-- They hide themselves in heaven's own light. _Issues of Life and Death_. J. MONTGOMERY.

STATECRAFT.

A thousand years scarce serve to form a state; An hour may lay it in the dust. _Childe Harold, Canto II_. LORD BYRON.

Who's in or out, who moves this grand machine, Nor stirs my curiosity nor spleen: Secrets of state no more I wish to know Than secret movements of a puppet show: Let but the puppets move, I've my desire, Unseen the hand which guides the master wire. _Night_. C. CHURCHILL.

Resolved to ruin or to rule the state. _Absalom and Achitophel, Pt. II_. J. DRYDEN.

And lives to clutch the golden keys, To mould a mighty state's decrees, And shape the whisper of the throne. _In Memoriam, LXIII_. A. TENNYSON.

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_. A. TENNYSON.

What should it be, that thus their faith can bind? The power of Thought--the magic of the Mind! Linked with success, assumed and kept with skill. That moulds another's weakness to its will. _The Corsair_. LORD BYRON.

'Tis thus the spirit of a single mind Makes that of multitudes take one direction. _Don Juan_. LORD BYRON.

For just experience tells, in every soil, That those that think must govern those that toil. _The Traveller_. O. GOLDSMITH.

A cutpurse of the empire and the rule. That from a shelf the precious diadem stole, And put it in his pocket! _Hamlet, Act iii. Sc_. 4. SHAKESPEARE.

Some of their chiefs were princes of the land; In the first rank of these did Zimri[A] stand; A man so various, that he seemed to be Not one, but all mankind's epitome: Stiff in opinions, always in the wrong; Was everything by starts, and nothing long; But, in the course of one revolving moon. Was chymist, fiddler, statesman, and buffoon; Then all for women, painting, rhyming, drinking, Besides ten thousand freaks that died in thinking. _Absalom and Achitophel, Pt. I_. J. DRYDEN.

[Footnote A: George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham.]

For close designs and crooked councils fit; Sagacious, bold, and turbulent of wit; Restless, unfixed in principles and place; In power unpleased, impatient of disgrace: A fiery soul, which, working out its way, Fretted the pygmy-body to decay, And o'er informed the tenement of clay. A daring pilot in extremity; Pleased with the danger, when the waves went high He sought the storms; but for a calm unfit, Would steer too nigh the sands to boast his wit. Great wits are sure to madness near allied, And thin partitions do their bounds divide. _Absalom and Achitophel, Pt. I. (Earl of Shaftesbury.)_ J. DRYDEN.

STEALING.

I'll example you with thievery: The sun's a thief, and with his great attraction Robs the vast sea: the moon's an arrant thief, And her pale fire she snatches from the sun: The sea's a thief, whose liquid surge resolves The moon into salt tears: the earth's a thief, That feeds and breeds by composture stolen From general excrement: each thing's a thief. _Timon of Athens, Act iv. Sc_. 3. SHAKESPEARE.

Kill a man's family and he may brook it, But keep your hands out of his breeches' pocket. _Don Juan, Canto X_. LORD BYRON.

Stolen sweets are always sweeter: Stolen kisses much completer; Stolen looks are nice in chapels: Stolen, stolen be your apples. _Song of Fairies_. T. RANDOLPH.

A tailor, though a man of upright dealing,-- True but for lying,--honest but for stealing. _Of a Precise Tailor_. SIR J. HARRINGTON.

Thieves for their robbery have authority When judges steal themselves. _Measure for Measure, Act ii. Sc. 2_. SHAKESPEARE.

Thou hast stolen both mine office and my name; The one ne'er got me credit, the other mickle blame. _Comedy of Errors, Act iii. Sc. 1_. SHAKESPEARE.

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 American Copyright League_, 1885.

STORM.

The lowering element Scowls o'er the darkened landscape. _Paradise Lost, Bk. II_. MILTON.

At first, heard solemn o'er the verge of Heaven, The tempest growls; but as it nearer comes, And rolls its awful burden on the wind, The lightnings flash a larger curve, and more The noise astounds; till overhead a sheet Of livid flame discloses wide, then shuts, And opens wider; shuts and opens still Expansive, wrapping ether in a blaze. Follows the loosened aggravated roar, Enlarging, deepening, mingling, peal on peal, Crushed, horrible, convulsing Heaven and Earth. _The Seasons: Summer_. J. THOMSON.

From cloud to cloud the rending lightnings rage, Till, in the furious elemental war Dissolved, the whole precipitated mass Unbroken floods and solid torrents pour. _The Seasons: Summer_. J. THOMSON.

Poor naked wretches, wheresoe'er you are, That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm, How shall your houseless heads and unfed sides, Your looped and windowed raggedness, defend you From seasons such as these? _King Lear, Act iii. Sc. 4_. SHAKESPEARE.

Blow wind, swell billow, and swim bark! The storm is up, and all is on the hazard. _Julius Cæsar, Act v. Sc. 1_. SHAKESPEARE.

I have seen tempests, when the scolding winds Have rived the knotty oaks, and I have seen The ambitious ocean swell and rage and foam, To be exalted with the threat'ning clouds. _Julius Caesar, Act_ i. _Sc_. 3. SHAKESPEARE.

Seas Rough with black winds, and storms Unwonted. _Book I. Ode V_. HORACE. _Trans. of_ MILTON.

Lightnings, that show the vast and foamy deep, The rending thunders, as they onward roll, The loud, loud winds, that o'er the billows sweep-- Shake the firm nerve, appal the bravest soul! _Mysteries of Udolpho: The Mariner_. MRS. ANN RADCLIFFE.

SUCCESS.

In the lexicon of youth, which fate reserves For a bright manhood, there is no such word As--_fail. Richelieu, Act_ ii. _Sc. 2_. E. BULWER-LYTTON.

The star of the unconquered will. _The Light of Stars_. H.W. LONGFELLOW.

'T is not in mortals to command success, But we'll do more, Sempronius; we'll deserve it. _Cato, Act_ i. _Sc_. 2. J. ADDISON.

And many strokes, though with a little axe, Hew down and fell the hardest-timbered oak. _King Henry VI., Pt. III. Act_ ii. _Sc_. 1. SHAKESPEARE.

Such a nature. Tickled with good success, disdains the shadow Which he treads on at noon. _Coriolanus, Act_ i. _Sc_. 1. SHAKESPEARE.

In my school-days, when I had lost one shaft, I shot his fellow of the self-same flight The self-same way, with more advised watch. To find the other forth; and by adventuring both, I oft found both. _Merchant of Venice, Act_ i. _Sc_. 1. SHAKESPEARE.

Success is counted sweetest By those who ne'er succeed. _Success_. EMILY DICKINSON.

SUICIDE.

He That kills himself t' avoid misery, fears it, And at the best shows but a bastard valor: This life's a fort committed to my trust, Which I must not yield up, till it be forced; Nor will I: he's not valiant that dares die, But he that boldly bears calamity. _The Maid of Honor_. P. MASSINGER.

All mankind Is one of these two cowards; Either to wish to die When he should live, or live when he should die. _The Blind Lady_. SIR E. HOWARD.

Against self-slaughter There is a prohibition so divine That cravens my weak hand. _Cymbeline, Act_ iii. _Sc_. 4. SHAKESPEARE.

SUN.

That orbèd continent the fire That severs day from night. _Twelfth Night, Act_ v. _Sc_. 1. SHAKESPEARE.

O thou that, with surpassing glory crowned, Look'st from thy sole dominion like the God Of this new world,... O Sun! _Paradise Lost, Bk. IV_. MILTON.

Fires the proud tops of the eastern pines. _King Richard II., Act_ iii. _Sc_. 2. SHAKESPEARE.

The lessening cloud, The kindling azure, and the mountain's brow, Illumed with fluid gold, his near approach Betoken glad. Lo! now, apparent all Aslant the dew-bright earth, and colored air, He looks in boundless majesty abroad; And sheds the shining day, that burnished plays On rocks, and hills, and towers, and wand'ring streams High gleaming from afar. _The Seasons: Summer_. J. THOMSON.

The sun had long since in the lap Of Thetis taken out his nap. And, like a lobster boiled, the morn From black to red began to turn. _Hudibras, Pt. II. Canto II_. DR. S. BUTLER.

"But," quoth his neighbor, "when the sun From East to West his course has run, How comes it that he shows his face Next morning in his former place?" "Ho! there's a pretty question, truly!" Replied our wight, with an unruly Burst of laughter and delight, So much his triumph seemed to please him: "Why, blockhead! he goes back at night, And that's the reason no one sees him!" _The Astronomical Alderman_. H. SMITH.

Behold him setting in his western skies, The shadows lengthening as the vapors rise. _Absalom and Achitophel, Pt. I_ J.J. DRYDEN.

Now sunk the sun: the closing hour of day Came onward, mantled o'er with sober gray; Nature in silence bid the world repose. _The Hermit_. T. PARNELL.

Parting day Dies like the dolphin, whom each pang imbues With a new color as it gasps away, The last still loveliest, till--'t is gone--and all is gray. _Childe Harold, Canto IV_. LORD BYRON.

Come watch with me the shaft of fire that glows In yonder West: the fair, frail palaces, The fading Alps and archipelagoes, And great cloud-continents of sunset-seas. _Miracles_. T.B. ALDRICH.

The setting sun, and music at the close, As the last taste of sweets, is sweetest last. _King Richard II., Act_ ii. _Sc_. 1. SHAKESPEARE.

SUSPICION.

Yet, where an equal poise of hope and fear Does arbitrate the event, my nature is That I incline to hope rather than fear, And gladly banish squint suspicion. _Comus_. MILTON.

All seems infected that the infected spy, As all looks yellow to the jaundiced eye. _Essay on Criticism_. A. POPE.

Suspicion, poisoning his brother's cup. _Catiline_. G. CROLY.

SYMPATHY.

He jests at scars, that never felt a wound. _Romeo and Juliet, Act_ ii. _Sc_. 1 SHAKESPEARE.

No one is so accursed by fate, No one so utterly desolate. But some heart, though unknown, Responds unto his own. _Endymion_. H.W. LONGFELLOW.

There is in souls a sympathy with sounds, And as the mind is pitched the ear is pleased With melting airs of martial, brisk, or grave; Some chord in unison with what we hear Is touched within us, and the heart replies. _The Task: Winter Walk at Noon_. W. COWPER.

Oh! who the exquisite delights can tell, The joy which mutual confidence imparts? Or who can paint the charm unspeakable, Which links in tender hands two faithful hearts? _Psyche_. MRS. M. TIGHE.

O! ask not, hope thou not too much Of sympathy below: Few are the hearts whence one same touch Bids the same fountain flow. _Kindred Hearts_. MRS. F.D. HEMANS.

Yet, taught by time, my heart has learned to glow For other's good, and melt at other's woe. _Odyssey, Bk. XVIII_. HOMER. _Trans. of_ POPE.

TABLE, THE.

Some hae meat and canna eat, And some wad eat that want it: But we hae meat, and we can eat; Sae let the Lord be thankit. _Grace before Meat_. R. BURNS.

And do as adversaries do in law, Strive mightily, but eat and drink as friends. _Taming of the Shrew, Act_ i. _Sc_. 2. SHAKESPEARE.

They are as sick that surfeit with too much, as they that starve with nothing. _Merchant of Venice. Act_ i. _Sc_. 2 SHAKESPEARE.

He hath eaten me out of house and home. _King Henry IV., Pt. II. Act_ ii. _Sc_. 1 SHAKESPEARE.

My cake is dough: but I'll in among the rest, Out of hope of all but my share of the feast. _Taming of the Shrew, Act v. Sc. 1_. SHAKESPEARE.

And gazed around them to the left and right With the prophetic eye of appetite. _Don Juan, Canto V_. LORD BYRON.

Blest be those feasts, with simple plenty crowned, Where all the ruddy family around Laugh at the jests or pranks that never fail Or sigh with pity at some mournful tale. _The Traveller_. O. GOLDSMITH.

They eat, they drink, and in communion sweet Quaff immortality and joy. _Paradise Lost, Bk. V_. MILTON.

Bone and Skin, two millers thin, Would starve us all, or near it; But be it known to Skin and Bone That Flesh and Blood can't bear it. _On Two Monopolists_. J. BYROM.

Nothing's more sure at moments to take hold Of the best feelings of mankind, which grow More tender, as we every day behold, Than that all-softening, overpowering knell, The tocsin of the soul--the dinner bell! _Don Juan, Canto V_. LORD BYRON.

Their various cares in one great point combine The business of their lives, that is--to dine. _Love of Fame_. DR. E. YOUNG.

Across the walnuts and the wine. _The Miller's Daughter_. A. TENNYSON.

No, pray thee, let it serve for table-talk; Then, howsoe'er thou speak'st, 'mong other things I shall digest it. _Merchant of Venice, Act iii. Sc. 5_. SHAKESPEARE.

TASTE.

Some say, compared to Bononcini, That Mynheer Handel's but a ninny; Others aver,--that he to Handel Is scarcely fit to hold a candle: Strange all this difference should be, 'Twixt tweedle-dum and tweedle-dee! _On the Feuds between Handel and Bononcini_. J. BYROM.

What's one man's poison, signor, Is another's meat or drink. _Love's Cure, Act iii. Sc. 2_. BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER.

Different minds Incline to different objects: one pursues The vast alone, the wonderful, the wild; Another sighs for harmony, and grace, And gentlest beauty.

* * * * *

Such and so various are the tastes of men. _Pleasures of the Imagination, Bk. III_. M. AKENSIDE.

TEAR.

The rose is fairest when 't is budding new, And hope is brightest when it dawns from fears. The rose is sweetest washed with morning dew. And love is loveliest when embalmed in tears. _Lady of the Lake, Canto IV_. SIR W. SCOTT.

O father, what a hell of witchcraft lies In the small orb of one particular tear! _A Lover's Complaint, Stanza XLII_. SHAKESPEARE.

Sunshine and rain at once. _King Lear, Act iv. Sc. 3_. SHAKESPEARE.

The drying up a single tear has more Of honest fame, than shedding seas of gore. _Don Juan, Canto VIII_. LORD BYRON.

And weep the more, because I weep in vain. _On the Death of Mr. West_. T. GRAY.

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_. T. HOOD.

So bright the tear in Beauty's eye. Love half regrets to kiss it dry. _Bride of Abydos_. LORD BYRON.

I cannot speak, tears so obstruct my words, And choke me with unutterable joy. _Caius Marius_. T. OTWAY.

Sorrow preys upon Its solitude and nothing more diverts it From its sad visions of the other world Than calling it at moments back to this. The busy have no time for tears. _The Two Foscari, Act iv_. LORD BYRON.

TEMPER.

Oh! blessed with temper, whose unclouded ray Can make to-morrow cheerful as to-day. _Moral Essays, Epistle II_. A. POPE.

From loveless youth to uninspected age, No passion gratified, except her rage, So much the fury still outran the wit, That pleasure missed her, and the scandal hit. _Moral Essays, Epistle II_. A. POPE.

Good-humor only teaches charms to last, Still makes new conquests and maintains the past. _Epistle to Mrs. Blount_. A. POPE.

What then remains, but well our power to use, And keep good-humor still whate'er we lose? And trust me, dear, good-humor can prevail, When airs, and flights, and screams, and scolding fail. _Rape of the Lock, Canto V_. A. POPE.

TEMPTATION.

How oft the sight of means to do ill deeds Makes ill deeds done! _King John, Act iv. Sc. 2_. SHAKESPEARE.

O opportunity, thy guilt is great! 'T is thou that executest the traitor's treason; Thou sett'st the wolf where he the lamb may get; Whoever plots the sin, thou 'point'st the season; 'T is thou that spurn'st at right, at law, at reason. _The Rape of Lucrece_. SHAKESPEARE.

Sometimes we are devils to ourselves, When we will tempt the frailty of our powers, Presuming on their changeful potency. _Troilus and Cressida, Act iv. Sc. 4_. SHAKESPEARE.

In part to blame is she. Which hath _without consent_ bin only tride; He comes _too neere_, that comes to be _denide_. _A Wife_. SIR T. OVERBURY.

Vice is a monster of so frightful mien, As to be hated needs but to be seen; Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face, We first endure, then pity, then embrace. _Essay on Man. Epistle II_. A. POPE.

Temptations hurt not, though they have accesse; Satan o'ercomes none but by willingnesse. _Hesperides' Temptations_. R. HERRICK.

THEOLOGY.

In Adam's fall We sinne'd all. _New England Primer_.

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_. A. TENNYSON.

For forms of government let fools contest; Whate'er is best administered is best: For modes of faith let graceless zealots fight; His can't be wrong whose life is in the right. _Essay on Man, Epistle III_. A. POPE.

His _faith_, perhaps, in some nice tenets might Be wrong; his _life_, I'm sure, was in the right. _On the Death of Crashaw_. A. COWLEY.

Slave to no sect, who takes no private road. But looks through nature up to nature's God.

* * * * *

And knows where faith, law, morals, all began, All end, in love of God and love of man. _Essay on Man, Epistle IV_. A. POPE.

THOUGHT.

Thought can wing its way Swifter than lightning-flashes or the beam That hastens on the pinions of the morn. _Sonnet_. J.G. PERCIVAL.

I and my bosom must debate awhile, And then I would no other company. _King Henry V., Act iv. Sc. 1_. SHAKESPEARE.

He that has light within his own clear breast, May sit i' th' centre and enjoy bright day: But he that hides a dark soul, and foul thoughts, Benighted walks under the midday sun. _Comus_. MILTON.

So Thought flung forward is the prophecy Of Truth's majestic march, and shows the way Where future time shall lead the proud array Of peace, of power, and love of liberty. SIR J. BOWRING.

There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so. _Hamlet, Act ii. Sc. 2_. SHAKESPEARE.

TIME.

O Time! the beautifier of the dead, Adorner of the ruin, comforter And only healer when the heart hath bled-- Time! the corrector where our judgments err, The test of truth, love,--soul philosopher, For all besides are sophists, from thy thrift Which never loses though it doth defer-- Time, the avenger! unto thee I lift My hands, and eyes, and heart, and crave of thee a gift. _Childe Harold, Canto IV_. LORD BYRON.

The more we live, more brief appear Our life's succeeding stages: A day to childhood seems a year, And years like passing ages.

* * * * *

Heaven gives our years of fading strength Indemnifying fleetness; And those of youth, a seeming length, Proportioned to their sweetness. _The River of Life_. T. CAMPBELL.

Yet Time, who changes all, had altered him In soul and aspect as in age; years steal Fire from the mind as vigor from the limb: And life's enchanted cup but sparkles near the brim. _Childe Harold, Canto III_. LORD BYRON.

Catch! then, O catch, the transient hour; Improve each moment as it flies; Life's a short summer--man a flower. _Winter: An Ode_. DR. S. JOHNSON.