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They that stand high, have many blasts to shake them;
And if they fall, they dash themselves to pieces. Sh. R. 111. 1. 3.

Ambition's monstrous stomach does increase
By eating, and it fears to starve, unless
It still may feed, and all it sees devour.

Davenant, Playhouse to let.

Milion, P. L. 1. 262.

To reign is worth ambition, though in Hell:
Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heav'n.
But what will Ambition and Revenge
Descend to? Who aspires, must down as low
As high he soar'd, obnoxious, first or last,
To basest things. Revenge, at first though sweet,
Bitter ere long, back on itself recoils.
Ambition is a lust that's never quench'd,
Grows more enflam'd, and madder by enjoyment.
Ambition is the dropsy of the soul,

Milton, P. L. 1x. 168.

Whose thirst we must not yield to, but control.
Ambition! the desire of active souls,

Otway, Cai. Ma.

Sedley.

Rowe, Am. Step.

Lilly, Midas.

That pushes them beyond the bounds of nature,
And elevates the hero to the Gods.
Ambition hath but two steps: the lowest,
Blood; the highest, envy.

Ambition hath one heel nail'd in hell,

Though she stretch her fingers to touch the heavens. Ib.

What various wants on power attend!

Ambition never gains its end.

Who hath not heard the rich complain
Of surfeit and corporeal pain?
And barr'd from every use of wealth,
Envy the ploughman's strength and health.
Ambition is an idol, on whose wings
Great minds are carry'd only to extreme;
To be sublimely great, or to be nothing.
The fiery soul abhorr'd in Catiline,
In Decius charms, in Curtius is divine:
The same ambition can destroy or save,
And make a patriot, as it makes a knave.

Gay, Fable. 5.

Southern, Loy. Bro.

Pope, Es. M.

AMBITION-continued.

AMBITION.

Oh, sons of earth! attempt ye still to risc,
By mountains pil'd on mountains, to the skies?
Heaven still with laughter the vain toil surveys,
And buries madmen in the heaps they raise.
Ambition is a spirit in the world,

That causes all the ebbs and flows of nations,
Keeps mankind sweet by action: without that,

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Pope, Es. M.

The world would be a filthy settled mud. Crowne, Amb. Statesm. Oh, were I seated high as my ambition,

I'd place this naked foot on necks of monarchs!

Walpole, Myst. M.

The true ambition there alone resides,
Where justice vindicates, and wisdom guides;
Where inward dignity joins outward state,
Our purpose good, as our achievement great;
Where public blessings, public praise attend,
Where glory is our motive, not our end:

Wouldst thou be famed ? have those high acts in view,

Brave men would act, though scandal would ensue.Young, L. F.
Fame is the shade of immortality,

And in itself a shadow. Soon as caught,
Contemn'd, it shrinks to nothing in the grasp.
Unnumber'd suppliants crowd preferment's gate,
Athirst for wealth, and burning to be great,
Delusive fortune hears the incessant call,
They mount, they shine, evaporate and fall.

(VII.

Young, N. T.

{VII.

Johnson, V. H. W.

This sov'reign passion, scornful of restraint,
Even from the birth affects supreme command,
Swells in the breast, and with resistless force,
O'erbears each gentler motion of the mind.

Dream after dream ensues,
And still they dream that they shall still succeed,
And still are disappointed.

On the summit, see,

The seals of office glitter in his eyes;

Johnson, Ir.

Cowper, Task. 111. 127.

He climbs, he pants, he grasps them. At his heels,

Close at his heels, a demagogue ascends,

And with a dext'rous jerk soon twists him down,

And wins them, but to lose them in his turn. Cowper, T. 1v. 58.

Ah! who can tell how hard it is to climb

The steep where Fame's proud temple shines afar,

Beattie. Mins. 1. 1.

C

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AMBITION-ANATHEMA.

AMBITION-continued.

He who ascends on mountain-tops, shall find
The loftiest peaks most wrapt in clouds and snow;
He who surpasses or subdues mankind,
Must look down on the hate of those below.

Byron, Ch. H. III. 45.

To th' expanded and aspiring soul,
To be but still the thing it long has been,
Is misery, e'en though enthron'd it were
Under the cope of high imperial state.
AMERICA.

Poor lost America, high honours missing,

Jo. Baillie, Ethw. 5.

Knows nought of smile and nod, and sweet hand-kissing; Knows nought of golden promises of kings;

Knows nought of coronets, and stars, and strings.

Who can, with patience, for a moment see

The medley mass of pride and misery,

Of whips and charters, manacles and rights,
Of slaving blacks and democratic whites.

Peter Pinder.

Moore.

Well-peace to the land! may the people at length,
Know that freedom is bliss, but that honour is strength;
That though man have the wings of the fetterless wind,
Of the wantonest air that the north can unbind,
Yet if health do not sweeten the blast with her bloom,
Nor virtue's aroma its pathway perfume,
Unblest is the freedom and dreary the flight,
That but wanders to ruin and wantons to blight!

America! half brother of the world!
With something good and bad of every land;
Greater than thee have lost their seat-
Greater scarce none can stand.

Columbia, child of Britain,-noblest child;
I praise the glowing lustre of thy youth,
And fain would see thy great heart reconciled
To love the mother of so blest a birth;
For we are one Columbia; still the same
In lineage, language, laws, and ancient fame,
The natural nobility of earth.

Thou, O, my country, hast thy foolish ways,
Too apt to purr at every stranger's praise,-
But if the stranger touch thy modes or laws,
Off goes the velvet, and out come the claws!

Moore.

Bailey, Festus.

Tupper, Lyrics.

Holmes.

ANCESTRY -see Pedigree.

ANCESTRY.

I have no urns, no dusty monuments;

No broken images of ancestors,

Wanting an ear or nose; no forged tables

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Of long descents, to boast false honours from. B. Jonson, Cat.

Boast not the titles of your ancestors, brave youth!
They're their possessions, none of yours.

When your own virtues equall'd have their names,
"Twill be but fair to lean upon their fames,
For they are strong supporters; but till then,
The greatest are but growing gentlemen.
Your kindred is not much amiss, 't is true,
Yet I am somewhat better born than you.
The deeds of long-descended ancestors
Are but by grace of imputation ours.

He that to ancient wreaths can bring no more
Form his own worth, dies bankrupt on the score.
Were honour to be scann'd by long descent
From ancestors illustrious, I could vaunt
A lineage of the greatest, and recount
Among my fathers, names of ancient story,
Heroes and god-like patriots, who subdued
The world by arms and virtue;

But that be their own praise:

Myself an undeserver.

Ben Jonson.

Dryden.

Dryden.

Cleveland.

Rowe.

Nor will I borrow merit from the dead,

What can ennoble sots, or slaves, or cowards?

Alas! not all the blood of all the Howards.Pope, E.M. iv. 215.

He stands for fame on his forefather's feet,

By heraldry, prov'd valiant or discreet!

Young, L. F. s. 1.

Let high birth triumph! what can be more great?
Nothing-but merit in a low estate.

They that on glorious ancestors enlarge,
Produce their debt, instead of their discharge.

I am one,

Who finds within me a nobility

That spurns the idle pratings of the great,

Young.

Young

And their mean boast of what their fathers were,
While they themselves are fools effeminate,

The scorn of all who know the worth of mind
And virtue.

Percival.

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Thou hast the sweetest face I ever looked on;
For, as I have a soul, she is an angel.

Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.

ANGER-see Passion, Rage, Temper.

Anger's my meat; I sup upon myself,
And so shall starve with feeding.

Sh. Hen. VIII. IV. L

Pope, E. C. 624.

Sh. Coriol. IV. 2.

A woman moved is like a fountain troubled.
Muddy, ill-seeming, thick, bereft of beauty;
And while it is so, none so dry or thirsty
Will deign to sip or touch one drop of it.
Heat not a furnace for your foc so hot
That it do singe yourself: We may outrun,
By violent swiftness, that which we run at,
And lose by over-running. Know you not,
The fire, that mounts the liquor till it run o'er,
In seeming to augment it, wastes it?

Anger is like

A full-hot horse; who being allow'd his way,
Self-mettle tires him.

Sh. Tam. S. 2.

Sh. H. VIII. 1. 1.

Sh. H. VIII. 1. 2.

What sudden anger 's this? how have I reap'd it?
He parted frowning from me, as if ruin
Leap'd from his eyes: so looks the chafed lion
Upon the daring huntsman that has gall'd him;
Then makes him nothing.

Sh. H. VIII. III. 2,

Sh. Ant. Cleo. IV. 1.

Sh. Rom. Jul. III. 1.

Never anger made good guard for itself.
Away to heaven, respective lenity,
And fire-eyed fury be my conduct now.
What to ourselves in passion we propose,
The passion ending, doth the purpose lose.
O, that my tongue were in the thunder's mouth!
Then with a passion would I shake the world.

You are yoked with a lamb,

Sh. Ham. III. 2.

Sh. K. John, III. 4.

That carries anger as the flint bears fire;
Who, much enforced, shews a hasty spark,
And straight is cold again.

Anger in hasty words or blows,

Itself discharges on our foes.

The elephant is never won with anger;

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Dryden, All for Love.

Nor must that man, who would reclaim a lion,
Take him by the teeth.

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