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IMMORTALITY.

IMPORTUNITY.

The debt of nature when He makes the claim. IMPATIENCE-Grasps at all.

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IMMORTALITY-Reflections on.
Immortal! Ages past, yet nothing gone!
Morn without eve! A race without a goal!
Unshortened by progression infinite!
Futurity for ever future! Life,
Beginning still, where computation ends!
'Tis the description of a deity!

Immortal! What can strike the sense so strong,
As this the soul? It thunders to the thought,
Reason amazes, gratitude o'erwhelms ;-
No more we slumber on the brink of fate;
Roused at the sound, th' exulting soul ascends,
And breathes her native air, an air that feeds
Ambition high, and fans ethereal fires;
Quick kindles all that is divine within us,
Nor leaves one loit'ring thought beneath the
Young.

stars.

IMMORTALITY-Thoughts on.

Impatience is a quality sudden, eager, and insatiable, which grasps at all, and admits of no delay; scorning to wait God's leisure, and attend humbly and dutifully upon the issues of his wise and just Providence. South. IMPERFECTIONS-of Human Nature.

I have known several persons of great fame for wisdom in public affairs and councils, governed by foolish servants. I have known great ministers, distinguished for wit and learning, who preferred none but dunces. I have known men of valour cowards to their wives. I have known men of cunning perpetually cheated. I knew three ministers, who would exactly compute and settle the accounts of a kingdom, wholly ignorant of their own economy. Walpole. IMPERTINENCE-in Conversation de

spised.

That man is guilty of impertinence, who con siders not the circumstances of time, or engrosses the conversation, or makes himself the subject of his discourse, or pays no regard to the company he is in. Tully.

IMPERTINENCE-Treatment of

Receive no satisfaction for premeditated im- ¦ pertinence; forget it,-forgive it, but keep him inexorably at a distance who offered it. Lavater.

Doth this soul within me, this spirit of thought, and love, and infinite desire, dissolve as well as the body? Has Nature, who quenches our bodily thirst, who rests our weariness, and IMPLACABILITY-Characteristic of. perpetually encourages us to endeavour onwards, prepared no food for this appetite of Implacability is known only to the savage. immortality?

Leigh Hunt

IMPARTIALITY-Desirableness of.

Of all the blessings which are bestowed upon the good there is none perhaps more expedient for us, or more to be requested of God, than a spirit of impartiality with respect to ourselves, together with that accurate discernment, that suspicious severity, that care to distinguish between real probity and the false appearance of it, and that caution not to be imposed upon by hypocrisy and dissimulation, which we usually exert, when we scan the actions and the pretensions of other people. This is the best security against the dangerous illusions of self-love. The lower we place ourselves, the higher we shall rise in the favour of God; and the readier we are to censure our own defects, the nearer we shall be to repentance and amendment.

IMPATIENCE-dries the Blood.

Jortin.

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Julius Caesar. IMPORTUNITY-Success of.

In general it is not very difficult for little minds to attain splendid situations. It is much more difficult for great minds to attain the place to which their merit fully entitles them. In the first place, elevation of sentiment is almost always an insurmountable obstacle to fortune; it is an effectual barrier against a thousand easy and certain means of advancement; talents are even adverse to advancement, unless they be accompanied with vast intrepidity of soul; with a sort of courage that men of truly honest and upright hearts do not wish to possess. For if, on the one hand, they multiply our means of attaining the proposed end, they, on the other, place before our eyes, in but too forcible a point of view, the obstacles we have to surmount. This inconvenience is great, and the multiplication of our means is not always an advantage. I am persuaded that in carefully examining the conduct of those who have attained to any extraordinary fortune, wa

shall be tempted to believe there is nothing so sure of succeeding as not to be overbrilliant,

IMPROVEMENT—Alteration an aid to.
Impart it frankly; or make use of mine.
If a better system's thine,

IMPROVEMENT-Moral.

Horace.

as to be entirely wrapped up in oneself, and endowed with a perseverance which, in spite of all the rebuffs it may meet with, never relaxes in the pursuit of its object. It is incredible what may be done by dint of importunity alone; and where shall we find the man of real talents who knows how to be importunate enough? He is too soon overcome with the disgust inspired by all matters which have interest only for their object, with the desire of perpetual solicitation; he is too much alive to all the little movements visible on the countenance of the person solicited, IMPROVIDENCE-Characteristics of. and he gives up the pursuit. The fool sees DoDe of these things, feels none of these things he pursues his object with unremitted ardour, and at length attains it. IMPOSSIBLE. Impossible is a word only to be found in the dictionary of fools. Napoleon I.

Infinite toil would not enable you to sweep away a mist; but by ascending a little, you may often look over it altogether. So it is with our moral improvement: we wrestle fiercely with a vicious habit, which could have no hold upon us if we ascended into a higher moral atmosphere. Helps.

Baron de Grimm.

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It has always been more difficult for a man to keep than to get; for, in the one case, fortune aids, which often assists injustice; but in the other case, sense is required. Therefore, we often see a person deficient in cleverness rise to wealth; and then, from want of sense, roll head-over-heels to the bottom. Basil.

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IMPUDENCE-Characteristics of.

We are invited to dinner together,
He and I, by one that came thither to him,—
Sir La Toole.

O that's a precious mannikin.
Do you know him?

Ay, and he will know you too, if e'er he Saw you but once, though you should meet him at

Church in the midst of prayers. He is one
Of the bravery's, though he be none of
The wit's.
He will salute a judge upon
The bench, and the bishop in the pulpit,
A lawyer when he is pleading at the
Bar, and a lady when she is dancing
In a masque, and put her out.
IMPUDENCE-the Effect of Ignorance.
A true and genuine impudence is ever the
effect of ignorance, without the least sense of
it.
Steele.

IMPULSE-Religious.

Ben Jonson

Act upon your impulses, but pray that they may be directed by God. Emerson Tennent. INACTION-Curse on.

Nature knows no pause in progress and development, and attaches her curse on all inaction. Goethe.

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INCONSTANCY-of Man.
Clocks will go as they are set; but man,
Irregular man's never constant, never certain.
Otway.

Inconstancy's the plague that first or last
Paints the whole sex, the catching court disease.
Man, therefore, was a lord-like creature made;
Rough as the winds, and as inconstant too:
A lofty aspect given him for command;
Easily soften'd, when we would betray:
Like conqu'ring tyrants, you our breasts invade,
Where you are pleased to ravage for awhile:
But soon you find new conquests out, and leave
The ravaged province ruinate and bare. Ibid.

INDECISION-Corrupting Influence of. Indecision is that slatternly housewife by whose fault chiefly the moth and the rust are allowed to make such dull work of life; corrupting all the gleam and gloss of earth's perishable treasures. Edith Clarel.

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Richer than doing nothing for a bauble; Prouder than rustling in unpaid-for silk. Shakspeare.

INDIFFERENCE.

The time was that I hated thee; And yet it is not that I bear thee love. Thy company, which erst was irksome to me, I will endure;

But do not look for further recompense. Ibid.
INDIFFERENCE-to false Accusation.
Suffer me, that I may speak and after that
I have spoken, mock on.

INDIFFERENCE-to Beauty.
Shall I, like a hermit, dwell
On a rock, or in a cell,
Calling home the smallest part
That is missing of my heart,
To bestow it where I may
Meet a rival every day?

If she undervalue me,
What care I how fair she be!

Were her tresses angel gold,
If a stranger may be bold,
Unrebuked, unafraid,

To convert them to a braid,
And with little more ado
Work them into bracelets, too!

Job.

If the mine be grown so free,
What care I how rich it be !
Were her hand as rich a prize
As her hairs, or precious eyes,
If she lay them out to take
Kisses, for good manners' sake;
And let every lover skip
From her hand unto her lip;
If she seem not chaste to me,
What care I how chaste she be !
No; she must be perfect snow,
In effect as well as show;
Warming but as snowballs do.
Not like fire, by burning too;
But when she by change hath got
To her heart a second lot,
Then, if others share with me,
Farewell her, whate'er she be !

Sir Walter Raleigh.

INDIGESTION-Evils of. How many serious family quarrels, marriages out of spite, alterations of wills, and secessions to the Church of Rome, might have been prevented by a gentle dose of blue pill? What awful instances of chronic dyspepsia are presented to our view by the immortal bard in the characters of Hamlet and Othello! I look with awe on the digestion of such a man as the present King of Naples. Banish dyspepsia and spirituous liquors from society, and you would have no crime, or at least so little that you would not consider it worth mentioning. Kingsley.

INDISCRETION-Mischief of.

An indiscreet man is more hurtful than an ill-natured one; for, as the latter will only attack his enemies, and those he wishes ill to, the other injures indifferently both friends

and foes.

INDUSTRY-Advantages of.

Addison.

It

There is no art or science that is too difficult for industry to attain to; it is the gift of tongues, and makes a man understood and valued in all countries, and by all nations. is the philosopher's stone, that turns all metals, and even stones, into gold, and suffers no want to break into its dwelling. It is the northwest passage, that brings the merchant's ships as soon to him as he can desire. In a word, it conquers all enemies, and makes fortune itself

pay contribution.

Lord Clarendon.

Sloth makes all things difficult, but Industry all easy; and he that riseth late must trot all day, and shall scarce overtake his business at night; while Laziness travels so slowly, that Poverty soon overtakes him. Franklin.

INDUSTRY-Benediction attending.

A divine benediction is always invisibly breathed on painful and lawful diligence. Thus, the servant employed in making and blowing of the fire (though sent away thence as soon as it burneth clear) oft-times getteth by his pains a more kindly and continuing heat than the master himself, who sitteth down by the same; and thus persons, industriously occupying themselves, thrive better on a little of their own honest getting, than lazy heirs on the large revenues left unto them. Fuller.

INDUSTRY-Blessings of.

At the working-man's house Hunger looks in, but dares not enter? nor will the bailiff or the constable enter: for Industry pays debts, but Despair increaseth them. Franklin.

People may tell you of your being unfit for some peculiar occupations in life; but heed them not. Whatever employ you follow with perseverance and assiduity will be found fit for you; it will be your support in youth, and your comfort in age. In learning the useful part of any profession, very moderate abilities will suffice - great abilities are generally injurious to the possessors. Life has been compared to a race; but the allusion still improves by observing that the most swift are ever the most apt to stray from the course.

INDUSTRY-Bread of.

Goldsmith.

The bread earned by the sweat of the brow is thrice blessed, and it is far sweeter than the tasteless loaf of idleness. Crowquill. INDUSTRY-Habits of.

industry, provides for them better than by A man who gives his children habits of giving them a fortune. Whately.

INDUSTRY-Virtues of.

The chiefest action for a man of spirit,

Is never to be out of action; we should think
The soul was never put into the body,
Which has so many rare and curious pieces
Of mathematical motion, to stand still.
Virtue is ever sowing of her seeds,

In the trenches for the soldier; in the wakeful study

For men of that profession; of all which
For the scholar; in the furrows of the sea
Arise and spring up honour.

Webster.

Virtue, though chained to earth, will still live free,

And bell itself must yield to industry.

Ben Jonson.

INFANCY.

INFANCY-Mystery of.

There is no sentiment more natural to thoughtful minds than that of reverence for childhood. Many sources, both of mystery and love, meet in the infant life, A being so fresh from non-existence seems to promise us some tidings of the origin of souls; a being so visibly pressing forward into the future makes us think of their tendency. While we look on the "child as the father of the man," yet cannot tell of what kind of man, all the possible varieties of character and fate appear for the moment to be collected into that diminutive consciousness; that which may be the germ of any is felt as though it were the germ of all; the thread of life, which from our hand that holds it runs forward into distant darkness, entwines itself there into a thousand filaments, and leads us over every track and scene of human things; here through passages where poverty crawls, there to the fields where glory has its race; here to the midnight lake where meditation floats between two heavens, there to the arid sands where passion pants and dies. Infancy is so naturally suggestive, it is the representative of such various possibilities, that it would be strange did we not regard it with a feeling of wonder. Martineau. INFANT-Mother's Address to her. Look at me, with thy large brown eyes, Philip, my king!

For round thee the purple shadow lies
Of babyhood's regal dignities,
Lay on my neck thy tiny hand

With love's invisible sceptre laden;
I am thine Esther, to command,

Till thou shalt find thy queen-handmaiden,
Philip my king!

Oh, the day when thou goest a-wooing.
Philip, my king!

When those beautiful lips are suing,
And, some gentle hearts'-bars undoing,
Thou dost enter love-crown'd, and there
Sittest all glorified !-Rule kindly,
Tenderly over thy kingdom fair,

For we that love, ah! we love so blindly,
Philip, my king!

I gaze from thy sweet mouth up to thy brow,
Philip, my king!

Ay, there lies the spirit, all sleeping now, That may rise like a giant, and make men bow

As to one god-throned amidst his peers.

My soul, then thy brethren higher and
fairer,

Let me behold thee in coming years!
Yet thy head needeth a circlet rarer,
Philip, my king!

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INFANT-Beauties of an.

I saw the whole room,-I and Marian there
Alone.

Alone? She threw her bonnet off, Then sighing as 'twere sighing the last time, Approach'd the bed, and drew a shawl away: You could not peel a fruit you fear to bruise More calmly and more carefully than so,Nor would you find within, a rosier flush'd Pomegranate

There he lay upon his back.
The yearling creature, warm and moist with life
To the bottom of his dimples,-to the ends
Of the lovely tumbled curls about his face;
For since he had been cover'd overmuch
To keep him from the light-glare, both his
cheeks

Were hot and scarlet as the first live rose
The shepherd's heart-blood ebb'd away into,
The faster for his love. And love was here.
An instant! and the pretty baby-mouth,
Shut close as if for dreaming that it suck'd;
The little naked feet drawn up the way
Of nestled birdlings; everything so soft
And tender,-to the little holdfast hands,
Which, closing on a finger into sleep,
Had kept the mould of't.

While we stood there dumb,-
For oh, that it should take such innocence
To prove just guilt, I thought, and stood there
dumb;

The light upon his eyelids prick'd them wide,
And, staring out at us with all their blue,
As half-perplex'd between the angel-hood
He had been away to visit in his sleep,
And our most mortal presence,-gradually
He saw his mother's face, accepting it
In change for heaven itself, with such a smile
As might have well been learnt there,-never
moved,

But smiled on, in a drowse of ecstasy,

So happy (half with her and half with Heaven) He could not have the trouble to be stirr'd, But siniled and lay there. Like a rose,

I said:

As red and still indeed as any rose,
That blows in all the silence of its leaves,

Content, in blowing, to fulfil its life.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

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