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100

BREVITY-BRIBERY.

27. Commanding, aiding, animating all,

Where foe appear'd to press, or friend to fall,
Cheers Lara's voice, and waves or strikes his steel,
Inspiring hopes, himself had ceas'd to feel.

28. And tho' I hope not hence unscath'd to go, Who conquers me, shall find a stubborn foe.

BYRON'S Lara.

BYRON'S English Bards, &c.

29. There is a tear for all who die,
A mourner o'er the humblest grave;
But Nations swell the funeral cry,
And Triumph weeps above the brave.

30. But each strikes singly, silently, and home,
And sinks outwearied, rather than o'ercome;
His last faint quittance rendering with his breath,
Till the blade glimmers in the grasp of death!

BYRON.

BYRON'S Corsair.

31. They fought like brave men, long and well.

FITZGREEN HALLECK.

32. Yet, it may be, more lofty courage dwells

In one weak heart which braves an adverse fate,
Than his, whose ardent soul indignant swells,

Warm'd by the fight, or cheer'd through high debate.
MRS. NORTON's Dream.

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CALUMNY - DETRACTION— ENVY — SLANDER, &c.

1. No wound which warlike hand of enemy
Inflicts with dint of sword, so sore doth light
As doth the poisonous sting which infamy
Infixeth in the name of noble wight;
For by no art, nor any leeches' might

It ever can recured be again.

SPENSER'S Fairy Queen.

2. Who steals my purse, steals trash; 't is something, nothing; "T was mine, 't is his, and has been slave to thousands : But he, who filches from me my good name,

Robs me of that which not enriches him,
And makes me poor indeed.

SHAKSPEARE.

3. Be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, Thou shalt not escape calumny.

SHAKSPEARE.

4. That thou art blamed shall not be thy defect;
For slander's mark was ever yet the fair;
So thou be good, slander doth but approve
Thy worth the greater.

SHAKSPEARE.

5. Who stabs my name, would stab my person too, Did not the hangman's axe lie in the way.

6.

For envy doth invade

Works breathing to eternity, and cast

Upon the fairest piece the greatest shade.

9*

CROWN.

ALEYN.

102 CALUMNY - DETRACTION - ENVY - SLANDER, &c.

7. So a wild Tartar, when he spies

A man that's valiant, handsome, wise,
If he can kill him, thinks t' inherit
His wit, his beauty, and his spirit;
As if just so much he enjoy'd,
As in another is destroy'd.

BUTLER'S Hudibras.

8. Envy's a sharper spur than pay,
'And, unprovok'd, 't will court the fray;
No author ever spar'd a brother;
Wits are gamecocks to one another.

GAY's Fables.

9. Fools may our scorn, not envy, raise, For envy is a kind of praise.

GAY's Fables.

10. Who praises Lesbia's eyes and features,
Must call her sisters awkward creatures;
For the kind flattery 's sure to charm
When we some other nymph disarm.

11. Canst thou discern another's mind?

What is 't you envy? Envy's blind.
Tell Envy, when she would annoy,
That thousands want what you enjoy.

GAY's Fables.

GAY'S Fables.

12. Slander'd in vain, enjoy the spleen of foes;
Let these from envy hate-from interest those!
Guilt, like the first, your gratitude requires,
Since none can envy till he first admires;
And nature tells the last his crime is none,
Who to your interest but prefers his own.

13. Envy will merit, as its shade, pursue;
But, like a shadow, proves the substance true.

AARON HILL.

POPE'S Essay on Criticism.

14. Base envy withers at another's joy,
And hates that excellence it cannot reach.

THOMSON'S Seasons.

CALUMNY - DETRACTION - ENVY - SLANDER, &c.

15. With that malignant envy, which grows pale

And sickens, even if a friend prevail,
Which merit and success pursues with hate,

And damns the worth it cannot imitate.

16. For every thing contains within itself

103

CHURCHILL.

The seeds and sources of its own corruption;
The cankering rust corrodes the brightest steel;
The moth frets out your garment, and the worm
Eats its slow way into the solid oak:

But Envy, of all evil things the worst,
The same to-day, to-morrow, and for ever,
Saps and consumes the heart in which it works.
CUMBERLAND's Menander.

17. Yet even her tyranny had such a grace,
The women pardon'd all, except her face.

18.

19.

Curse the tongue

BYRON'S Don Juan.

Whence slanderous rumour, like the adder's drop,
Distils her venom, withering friendship's faith,
Turning love's favour.

The ignoble mind

Loves ever to assail with secret blow
The loftier, purer beings of their kind.

20. As a base pack of yelping hounds,
Who wish their betters to annoy,
If a stray cur enter their bounds,
Will bruise and mangle and destroy;

So they will on some plan unite,
By which to vex him and to spite:
His very virtues they will use
As pretexts for their foul abuse.

HILLHOUSE.

W. G. SIMMS.

J. T. WATSON.

104

CANDOUR-CARE, &c.

CANDOUR. -(See ARTIFICE.)

CARE-MELANCHOLY - GLOOM.

1. Why should a man, whose blood is warm within, Sit like his grandsire, cut in alabaster?

2. Care that is enter'd once into the breast, Will have the whole possession, ere it rest.

3.

SHAKSPEARE.

BEN JONSON.

That spoils the dance of youthful blood,
Strikes out the dimple from the cheek of mirth,
And ev'ry smirking feature from the face,
Branding our laughter with the name of madness.

BLAIR'S Grave.

4. The spleen with sudden vapour clouds the brain,
And binds the spirits in its heavy chain;
Howe'er the cause fantastic may appear,
Th' effect is real and the pain sincere.

5. But human bodies are sic fools,

For a' their colleges and schools,
That, when nae real ills perplex them,
They mak enow themsels to vex them.

6. If thou wilt think of moments gone,
Of joys as exquisite as brief,
Know, mem'ry, when she lingers on
Past pleasure, turns it all to grief.

BLACKMORE.

BURNS.

From the Spanish-BOWRING.

7. Go, you may call it madness-follyYou shall not chase my gloom away; There's such a charm in melancholy,

I would not, if I could, be gay!

ROGERS.

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