I give this heavy weight from off my head, And this unwieldy sceptre from my hand, The pride of kingly sway from out my heart; With mine own tears I wash away my balm, With mine own hands I give away my crown, With mine own tongue deny my sacred state, With mine own breath release all duty's rites. ABSENCE. Shakespeare, Ric. II. IV. 1. What! keep a week away! Seven days and nights? Eight score eight hours? and lover's absent hours, More tedious than the dial eight score times? O weary reckoning!

It so falls out,

That what we have we prize not to the worth
Whiles we enjoy it; but, being lacked and lost,
Why then we rack the value.

Sh. Oth. III. 1.

Sh. M. Ado, IV. 4.

T. May, Henry II.

Absence not long enough to root out quite
All love, increases love at second sight.
Though absent, present in desires they be,
Our soul much further than our eyes can see.

Though lost to sight, to memory dear.

Michael Drayton.

The authorship of this familiar saying is unknown, but it partakes very much of the preceding couplet.

Fly swift, ye hours, you measure time in vain,

Till you bring back Leonidas again:

Be swifter now; and, to redeem that wrong.

When he and I are met, be twice as long. Dry. Mar. a la M.

Love reckons hours for months, and days for years;

And every little absence is an age.

All flowers will droop in absence of the sun
That wak'd their sweets.

Dry. Amphitrion.

Dry. Aurengzebe.

Condemn'd whole years in absence to deplore,
And image charms he must behold no more.

* Overrate.

Pope, Eloisa.

B

2

ABSENCE-continued.

ABSENCE-ABSTINENCE.

No happier task these faded eyes pursue;
To read and weep is all they now can do.
Of all affliction taught a lover yet
'Tis sure the hardest science to forget!
Ye flowers that droop, forsaken by the spring;
Ye birds that, left by summer, cease to sing;
Ye trees that fade, when autumn heats remove,
Say, is not absence death to those who love?
Where'er I roam, whatever realms to see,
My heart, untravell'd, fondly turns to thee;
Still to my brother turns, with ceaseless pain,
And drags at each remove a lengthening chain.

Pope, Elcisa.

Pope, Eloisa.

Pope.

Goldsmith, Traveller, 7.

Cowper, Task, VI.

Not to understand a treasure's worth
Till time has stol'n away the slighted good,
Is cause of half the poverty we feel,
And makes the world the wilderness it is.
Think'st thou that I could bear to part
From thee, and learn to halve my heart?
Years have not seen, time shall not see
The hour that tears my soul from thee.
Wives in their husband's absences grow subtler,
And daughters sometimes run off with the butler.

Byron, Bride of Ab.

Byron, Don Juan, 111. 22.

O tell him I have sat these three long hours,
Counting the weary beatings of the clock,
Which slowly portion'd out the promis'd time
That brought him not to bless me with his sight.

Jo. Baillie, Raynor, 1. 1.
Moore, Shades of E.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder.

Oh! couldst thou but know

With what a deep devotedness of woe
I wept thy absence-o'er and o'er again
Thinking of thee, still thee, till thought grew pain,
And memory, like a drop that, night and day,
Falls cold and ceaseless, wore my heart away !

ABSTINENCE.

Moore, Lalla Rookh.

Yet abstinence in things we must profess,
Which nature fram'd for need, not for excess. Browne, Past.
Against diseases here the strongest fence
Is the defensive virtue abstinence.

Herrick, Aph. 331.

He is deformed, crooked, old, and sere,

Ill-faced, worse-bodied, shapeless every where ;
Vicious, ungentle, foolish, blunt, unkind;

Stigmatical in making, worse in mind. Sh. Com. Er. IV. 2.
Thou thread, thou thimble,

Thou yard, three-quarters, half-yard, quarter, nail,
Thou flea, thou nit, thou winter cricket thou :-
Away, thou rag, thou quantity, thou remnant.
ACCIDENT.

I have shot mine arrow o'er the house,
And hurt my brother.

As the unthought-on accident is guilty
Of what we wildly do, so we profess

Ourselves to be the slaves of chance, and flies
Of every wind that blows.

ACCOUNT.

No reckoning made, but sent to my account
With all my imperfections on my head.

Sh. T.S.IV.3.

Sh. Ham. V. 2.

Sh. Wint. T. IV. 3.

Sh. Ham. 1. 5.

And how his audit stands, who knows, save Heaven? Ib.111.3. ACHIEVEMENTS.

Great things thro' greatest hazards are achiev'd,
And then they shine.

ACTION- -see Promptitude.

Beaumont, Loy. Sub.

Away, then; work with boldness and with speed;

On greatest actions greatest dangers feed. Marlowe, Lust. D.
Whilst timorous knowledge stands considering,
Audacious ignorance hath done the deed;

Daniel, Phil.

Sh. Jul. C. III. 3
Sh. Oth. 11.3.

For who knows most, the most he knows to doubt;
The least discourse is commonly most stout.
The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is oft interrèd with their bones.
Pleasure and action make the hours seem short.
For good and evil must in our actions meet;
Wicked is not much worse than indiscreet.
Good actions crown themselves with lasting bays;
Who well deserves needs not another's praise.
Of every noble action, the intent

Is to give worth reward-vice punishment.

Donne

Heath, Clar.

B. & F. Capt

* A beautiful vale eighteen miles from Florence.

Some place the bliss in action, some in ease,

Those call it pleasure, and contentment these. Pope, E. M. 1v.21.

The body sins not; 'tis the will

That makes the action good or ill.

Herrick, Aphor.

ACTIVITY—see Decision, Despatch, Energy, Promptitude.
If it were done, when 'tis done, then 'twere well
It were done quickly.

Wise men ne'er sit and wail their loss,
But cheerly seek how to redress their harms.
Take the instant way;

Sh. Mac. 1. 7.

Sh. Hen. VI. pt. 3, v. 4.

For emulation hath a thousand sons,
That one by one pursue: if you give way,
Or edge aside from the direct forthright,
Like to an enter'd tide, they all rush by,
And leave you hindmost.

Celerity is never more admired
Than by the negligent.

Sh. Troil. & Cress. III. 3.

Sh. Ant. & Cleop. III. 7.

The wise and active conquer difficulties,
By daring to attempt; sloth and folly
Shiver and sink at sights of toil and hazard
And make the impossibility they fear.

Rowe, Amb. Stepm.

Run if you like, but try to keep your breath: Work like a man, but don't be worked to death. ACTORS-see Players.

Look to the players; see them well bestow'd:

Holmes.

They are the abstract and brief chroniclers of the times.

They say we live by vice; indeed 'tis true,
As the physicians by diseases do,

Only to cure them.

Boldly I dare say,

There have been more by us in some one play
Laugh'd into wit and virtue, than have been

Sh. Ham. II. 2.

Randolph.

By twenty tedious lectures drawn from sin,

And foppish humours; hence the cause doth rise,
Men are not won by th' oars, so well as eyes.

Randolph.

If we do meet again, why, we shall smile ;

ADIEU- —see Farewell, Parting.

If not, why then this parting was well made. Sh. Jul. C. v. 1.

ADIEU-continued.

ADIEU-ADVERSITY.

Then came the parting hour, and what arise
When lovers part-expressive looks, and eyes
Tender and tearful-many a fond adieu,
And many a call the sorrow to renew.
Adieu, adieu! my native shore
Fades o'er the waters blue;

The night-winds sigh, the breakers roar,

And shrieks the wild sea-mew.

Yon sun that sets upon the sea

We follow in his flight;

Farewell awhile to him and thee, My native land-good night. ADMONITION—see Advice.

5

Crabbe, Tales.

Byron, Ch. H. 1. 13.

Sum up at night what thou hast done by day;
And in the morning what thou hast to do.

Dress and undress thy soul. Watch the decay,
And growth of it. If with thy watch, that too
Be down, then wind both up. Since we shall be

Most surely judged, make thy accounts agree. Herbert, Temp.
What could I more?

I warn'd thee, I admonish'd thee, foretold

The danger, and the lurking enemy

That lay in wait; beyond this had been force,

And force upon free-will hath here no place.

Be wise with speed;

A fool at forty is a fool indeed.

ADULTERY.

[76.

Milton, VII. 77.

Young, Sat. II. 282.

What men call gallantry, and gods adultery,
Is much more common where the climate's sultry.

ADVERSITY-see Affliction.

Byron, Don Juan, 1. 63.

'Tis strange how many unimagin'd charges when once the lid

Can swarm upon a man,

Of the Pandora box of contumely

Is open'd o'er his head.

So noble a master fallen! all gone! and not
One friend, to take his fortune by the arm,
And go along with him.

Shakespeare, Poems.

Such a house broke !

Sh. Timon, 11. 2.

Sh. Timon, v. 3.

This is in thee a nature but affected;
A poor unmanly melancholy, sprung

From change of fortune.

The great man down, you mark his favourite flies,

The

poor advanced makes friends of enemies. Sh. Ham. 111.2.