Page images
PDF
EPUB

324

HISTORIAN - HISTORY.

If from society we learn to live,

'Tis solitude should teach us how to die.

BYRON'S Childe Harold.

A populous solitude of bees and birds.

BYRON'S Childe Harold.

Oh, that the desert were my dwelling-place,
With one fair spirit for my minister,
That I might all forget the human race,
And, hating no one, love but only her.

BYRON'S Childe Harold.

They dwelt in calm and silent solitude,
Where meaner spirits never dare intrude.

CARLOS WILCOX

There have been holy men who hid themselves
Deep in the woody wilderness, and gave
Their lives to thought and prayer ;

... And there have been holy men,

Who deem'd it were not well to pass life thus.

W. C. BRYANT

HISTORIAN - HISTORY.

Tis a great fault in a chronologer

To turn parasite; an absolute historian

Should be in fear of none; neither should he

Write any thing more than truth for friendship,
Or else for hate.

Some write a narrative of wars, and feats
Of heroes little known, and call the rant
An history; describe the man of whom
His own coevals took but little note,

And paint his person, character, and views,

As they had known him from his mother's womb.

Lingua

COWPER'S Task

HISTORY-HOME-HONESTY, &c.

And Rome shall owe,

For her memorial, to your learned pen,
More than to all those fading monuments,

325

[blocks in formation]

His words are bonds, his oaths are oracles;
His love sincere, his thoughts immaculate;
His tears, pure messengers sent from his heart;
His heart as far from fraud as heaven from earth.

SHAKSPEARE.

Upon his brow shame is asham'd to sit,

For 't is a throne where honour may be crown'd,
Sole monarch of the universal earth.

SHAKSPEARE.

To be honest, as this world goes, Is to be one pick'd out of ten thousand.

SHAKSPEARE.

[blocks in formation]

Lands mortgag'd may return, and more esteem'd;
But honesty, once pawn'd, is ne'er redeem'd.

MIDDLETON

Honour's a sacred tie-the law of kings,
The noble mind's distinguishing perfection,
That aids and strengthens virtue when it meets her,
And imitates her actions where she is not.

ADDISON'S Cato

Honour and shame from no condition rise;
Act well your part,—there all the honour lies.

POPE'S Essay on Man.

A wit's a feather, and a chief's a rod;
An honest man 's the noblest work of God.

POPE'S Essay on Mun.

I've scann'd the actions of his daily life
With all the industrious malice of a foe;

And nothing meets mine eyes but deeds of honour.

HANNAH MORE.

Dishonour'd!-he dishonour'd!

I tell thee, Doge, 't is Venice is dishonour'd;
His name shall be her foulest, worst reproach,
For what he suffer'd, not for what he did.

BYRON'S Two Foscari.

Honour and glory were given to cherish;

Cherish them, then, though all else should decay;

Landmarks be these, that are never to perish,

Stars that will shine on the duskiest day.

[merged small][merged small][ocr errors]

HOPE.

HOPE.

Yet when an equal poise of hope and fear
Does arbitrate the event, my nature is
That I incline to hope rather than fear.

MILTON'S Comus

What can we not endure,

When pains are lessen'd by the hope of cure?

Hope! of all the ills that men endure,

The only cheap and universal cure!

Thou captive's freedom, and thou sick man's health!
Thou lover's victory, and thou beggar's wealth!

Hope! fortune's cheating lottery!

NABB

COWLEY

When for one prize an hundred blanks there be !

COWLEY

A beam of comfort, like the moon through clouds,'
Gilds the black horror, and directs my way.

DRYDEN

Hope is the fawning traitor of the mind,
Which, while it cozens with a colour'd friendship,
Robs us of our last virtue-resolution.

Hope, of all passions, most befriends us here:
Joy has her tears, and transport has her death;
Hope, like a cordial, innocent though strong,
Man's heart at once inspirits and serenes,
Nr makes him pay his wisdom for his joys.

NAT. LEE

YOUNG'S Night Thoughts.

O hope! sweet flatterer! thy delusive touch
Sheds on afflicted minds the balm of comfort-
Relieves the load of poverty-sustains
The captive, bending with the weight of bonds,-
And smooths the pillow of disease and pain.

GLOVEP

[blocks in formation]

Hope springs eternal in the human breast;
Man never is, but always to be, blest:
The soul, uneasy, and confin'd from home,
Rests and expatiates on a life to come

POPE'S Essay on Man.

Hope, like the taper's gleaming light,

Adorns the wretch's way,

And still, as darker grows the night,
Emits a brighter ray.

And as, in sparkling majesty, a star

GOLDSMITH.

Gilds the bright summit of some gloomy cloud,
Bright'ning the half-veil'd face of heaven afar,—
So, when dark thoughts my boding spirit shroud,
Sweet Hope! celestial influence round me shed,
Waving thy silver pinions o'er my head!

JOHN KEATS

The evening beam, that smiles the clouds away,
And tints to-morrow with prophetic ray.

BYRON'S Bride of Abydos.

Eager to hope, but not less firm to bear,
Acquainted with all feelings save despair.

BYRON'S Island.

Eternal Hope! When yonder spheres sublime
Peal'd their first notes to sound the march of time,
Thy joyous youth began, but not to fade,

When all thy sister planets had decay'd;—

When wrapt in flames the clouds of ether glow,

And heaven's last thunder shakes the world below,
Thou, undismay'd, shalt o'er the ruins smile,
And light thy torch at nature's funeral pile!

Hope's precious pearl in sorrow's cup
Unmelted at the bottom lay,
To shine again when, all drunk up,
The bitterness should pass away.

CAMPBELL

MOORE's Loves of the Angels

« PreviousContinue »