FOLLY-FOOLS,

There is to me

A daintiness about these early flowers,

That touches me like poetry. They blow out
With such a simple loveliness among
The common herbs of pastures, and breathe
Their lives so unobtrusively, like hearts
Whose beatings are too gentle for the world.

Oh! the flowers look upward in every place,
Through this beautiful world of ours,
And, dear as a smile on an old friend's face,
Is the smile of the bright, bright flowers!

N. P. WILLIS

FOLLY-FOOLS.

This fellow's wise enough to play the fool;
And, to do that well, craves a kind of wit.

279

SHAKSPEARE.

He who digs hills because they do aspire,

Throws down one mountain, to cast up a higher.

SHAKSPEARE.

To gild refined gold, to paint the lily,

To throw a perfume on the violet,

To smooth the ice, or add another hue
Unto the rainbow.

SHAKSPEARE.

Man, proud man,

Dress'd in a little brief authority,

Most ignorant of what he's most assur'd,—
His glossy essence-like an angry ape-
Plays such fantastic tricks, before high heaven,
As makes the angels weep.

SHAKSPEARE

Let our frail thoughts dally with false surmise.

280

FOLLY-FOOLS.

"Tis strange there should such difference be
"Twixt tweedle-dum and tweedle-dee.

He cannot bear a rival in the wrong.

Though wrong the mode, comply: more sense is shown
In wearing others' follies than our own.

"T is not in folly not to scorn a fool,
And scarce in human wisdom to do more.

YOUNG.

YOUNG'S Night Thoughts. live fools, but fools they cannot die!

YOUNG'S Night Thoughts.

Some positive, persisting fops we know,
Who, if once wrong, will needs be always so;
But you with pleasure own your errors past,
And make each day a critique on the last.

POPE

For fools rush in where angels fear to tread.

POPE.

FOOLS-FORGETFULNESS, &c.

Who perhaps to the summit of science might soar,
Content if "the table he set in a roar."

GOLDSMITH'S Retaliation

Whose genius was such,

We scarcely could praise him, or blame him, too much;
Who, born for the universe, narrow'd his mind,
And to party gave up what was meant for mankind.

GOLDSMITH'S Retaliation.

Like an ill-judging beauty, his colours he spread,
And bespatter'd with rouge his own natural red.

281

GOLDSMITH'S Retaliation.

He cast off his friends as a huntsman his pack,
For he knew, when he wish'd, he could whistle them back.
GOLDSMITH'S Retaliation.

And idle jests, untimely spoken,

The tend'rest ties have often broken.

Explaining metaphysics to the nation-
I wish he would explain his explanation.

FOOLS. (See FOLLY.)

BYRON

FORGETFULNESS-OBLIVION.

I've touch'd the highest point of all my greatness;
And from the full meridian of my glory
I haste now to my setting. I shall fall
Like a bright exhalation in the evening,
And no man see me more!

The swallowing gulf

Of dark oblivion and deep despair.

SHAKSPEARE

SHAKSPEARE

282

FORGET ME NOT.

"T is far off;

And rather like a dream, than an assurance
That my remembrance warrants.

SHAKSPEARE

Thus peaceful rests, without a stone, a name,
What once had beauty, titles, wealth and fame.

Unwept, unhonour'd, and unsung.

'Tis infamy to die, and not be miss'd.

POPE

SCOTT

CARLOS WILCOX.

Let not a death, unwept, unhonour'd, be
The melancholy fate allotted me!
But those who love me living, when I die,
Still fondly keep some cherish'd memory.

From SOLON.

FORGET ME NOT.

Forget me not, when others gaze
Enamour'd on thee with the looks of praise;
When weary leagues between us both are cast,
And each dull hour seems heavier than the last-
Oh! then forget me not!

Think of him whose prayers shall bless thee;

Think of him thy love had bless'd.

BYRON.

Oh! think of her who holds thee dear,

And think that thou art all to her!

BYRON

May joy thy steps attend,

And mayst thou find in every form a friend;
With care unsullied be thy every thought,

And in thy dreams of home, forget me not!

283

MONTGOMERY.

FORGIVENESS - MERCY, &c.

Though we should meet no more, sweet maid,

Forget me not.

Remember thee, and all thy pains,

And all thy love for me!

Yes! while a pulse, a breath remains,

Will I remember thee!

Each dew-drop, on its morning leaves,

Is eloquent as tears,

That whisper, when young passion grieves
For one belov'd afar, and weaves

His dream of hopes and fears,

Forget me not!

FITZ-GREEN HALLECK.

3

FORGIVENESS-MERCY-PITY, &c.

And but to speaken of her conscience,

She was so charitable and so piteous,

She would weep an that she but saw a mouse
Caught in a trap, if it were dead or bled.

The quality of mercy is not strain'd;
It droppeth as the gentle dew from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice bless'd:
It blesses him that gives, and him that takes.

'Tis mightiest in the mighty; it becomes The throned monarch better than his crown.

CHAUCER.

SHAKSPEARE.

SHAKSPEARE.

Though justice be thy plea, consider this—
That in the course of justice, none of us
Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy;
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
The deeds of mercy.

SHAKSPEARE.