Oh! conscience! conscience! man's most faithful friend,
Him canst thou comfort, ease, relieve, defend :
But if he will thy friendly checks forego,

Thou art, oh! woe for me, his deadliest foe!

766

Crabbe: Struggles of Conscience. Last Lines

Conscience, a terrifying little sprite,

That, bat-like, winks by day, and wakes by night;
Hunts through the heart's dark holes each lurking vice,
As sharp as weasels hunting eggs or mice.

767

CONSIDERATION.

Peter Pindar: The Lousiad. Canto ii.

What you have said,

I will consider; what you have to say,
I will with patience hear: and find a time
Both meet to hear and answer.

768

Shaks.: Jul. Cæsar. Act i. Sc. 2.

Consideration like an angel came,
And whipp'd the offending Adam out of him.
769

CONSOLATION.

Shaks.: Henry V. Act i. Sc. 1.

Canst thou not minister to a mind diseas'd;
Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow;
Raze out the written troubles of the brain;
And, with some sweet oblivious antidote,
Cleanse the stuff'd bosom of that perilous stuff,
Which weighs upon the heart.

770

CONSPIRACY.

Shaks.: Macbeth. Act v. Sc. 3.

Oh! think what anxious moments pass between
The birth of plots, and their last fatal periods;
Oh! 'tis a dreadful interval of time,

Fill'd up with horror all, and big with death.
771

Addison: Cato. Act i. Sc. 3.

Conspiracies no sooner should be formed
Than executed.

772

CONSTANCY.

Addison: Cato. Act i. Sc. 2

I am constant as the northern star,
Of whose true-fix'd, and resting quality
There is no fellow in the firmament.
773

Shaks.: Jul. Cæsar. Act iii. Sc. 1

O heaven! were man

But constant, he were perfect; that one error

Fills him with faults; makes him run through all th' sins. Shaks.: Two Gent. of V. Act v. Sc. 4

774

CONSTANCY-CONTEMPT.

L'ell him I love him yet,
As in that joyous time;
Tell him I ne'er forget,

Though memory now be crime.
775

85

Praed: Tell Him I Love Him Yet.

hangeless march the stars above, Changeless morn succeeds to even; And the everlasting hills.

Changeless watch the changeless heaven.

776

Charles Kingsley: Saint's Tragedy. Act ii. Sc. 2.

Oh, the heart, that has truly loved, never forgets,
But as truly loves on to the close,

As the sun-flower turns on her god, when he sets,
The same look which she turn'd when he rose.

777 Moore: Believe Me if Those Endearing Young Charms.

Then come the wild weather, come sleet or come snow,
We will stand by each other, however it blow.
Oppression, and sickness, and sorrow, and pain
Shall be to our true love as links to the chain.

778 Longfellow: Annie of Th. Tr. from Simon Dach. St. 4.

Sooner shall this blue ocean melt to air,
Sooner shall earth resolve itself to sea,
Than I resign thine image, Oh my fair!
Or think of anything, excepting thee.

779

CONTEMPT.

Byron: Don Juan. Canto ii. St. 19.

What valor were it, when a cur doth grin,
For one to thrust his hand between his teeth,
When he might spurn him with his foot away?
780

Shaks.: 3 Henry VI. Acti. Sc. 4.

From no one vice exempt,

And most contemptible to shun contempt.

781

Think not

I can bestow on thee.

Pope: Moral Essays. Epis. i. Line 194.

there is no smile There is a smile,

A smile of nature too, which I can spare,

And yet, perhaps, thou wilt not thank me for it.

782

Joanna Baillie: De Monfort.

Act ii. Sc. 1.

Shall it not be scorn to me to harp on such a moulder'd

string?

I am sham'd through all my nature to have lov'd so slight

a thing.

783

Tennyson: Locksley Hall. St. 74.

Sons and brothers at a strife!
What is your quarrel? how began it first?

- No quarrel, but a slight contention.
784

Shaks.: 3 Henry VI. Act i Sc. 2

Where two raging fires meet together,

They do consume the thing that feeds their fury :
Though little fire grows great with little wind,
Yet extreme gusts will blow out fire and all.

785

CONTENTMENT.

Shaks. Tam. of the S. Act ii. Sc. 1.

:

He that commends me to mine own content,
Commends me to the thing I cannot get.

786

Shaks.: Com. of Errors. Act i. Sc. 2

My crown is in my heart, not on my head;
Not deck'd with diamonds and Indian stones,
Nor to be seen: my crown is called content;
A crown it is, that seldom kings enjoy.
787
Poor and content is rich, and rich enough;
But riches fineless is as poor as winter
To him that ever fears he shall be poor.
788

Shaks.: 3 Henry VI. Act iii. Sc. 1

Shaks. Othello. Act iii. Sc. 3.

"Tis better to be lowly born,
And range with humble livers in content,
Than to be perk'd up in a glistering grief,
And wear a golden sorrow.

789

Shaks.: Henry VIII. Act ii. Sc. 3.

The world goes up and the world goes down,
And the sunshine follows the rain;

And yesterday's sneer and yesterday's frown
Can never come over again,

Sweet wife:

No, never come over again.

790

Can satisfy the soul.

791

Charles Kingsley: Dolcino to Margaret. Nought but God

Bailey: Festus. Sc. Heaven.

Herrick: Aph. Covetous Still Captives.

Let's live with that small pittance which we have;
Who covets more is evermore a slave.

792

CONTENTMENT - CONTROVERSY.

Since every man who lives is born to die,
And none can boast sincere felicity,

87

With equal mind what happens let us bear,
Nor grieve too much for things beyond our care.
Like pilgrims, to th' appointed place we tend;
The world's an inn, and death the journey's end.
795
Dryden Palamon and Arcite. Bk. iii. Line 2159

:

Content thyself to be obscurely good:

When vice prevails, and impious men bear sway,
The post of honor is a private station.
796

Addison: Cato. Act iv. Sc. 4

A voice of greeting from the wind was sent,
The mists enfolded me with soft white arms,
The birds did sing to lap me in content,
The rivers wove their charms,

And every little daisy in the grass

Did look up in my face, and smile to see me pass.

797

R. H. Stoddard: Hymn to the Beautiful.

This is the charm, by sages often told,
Converting all it touches into gold:

Content can soothe, where'er by fortune placed,
Can rear a garden in the desert waste.

798

Henry Kirke White: Clifton Grove. Line 139.

Come, for the soft low sunlight calls,

We lose the pleasant hours;

"Tis lovelier than these cottage walls That seat among the flowers.

And I will learn of thee a prayer,

To Him who gave a home so fair,

A lot so blest as ours

The God who made, for thee and me,

This sweet lone isle amid the sea.

799 William Cullen Bryant: Song of Pitcairn's Island.

CONTROVERSY- see Discord.

He could raise scruples dark and nice,

And after solve 'em in a trice;

As if divinity had catch'd

The itch on purpose to be scratch'd.

800

Butler: Hudibras. Pt. i. Canto i. Line 163

When civil dudgeon first grew high,
And men fell out, they knew not why;
When hard words, jealousies, and fears
Set folk together by the ears,

And made them fight, like mad or drunk,
For dame Religion, as for punk.

801

Butler: Hudibras. Pt. i. Canto i. Line 1.

Destroy his fib, or sophistry, in vain;
The creature's at his dirty work again.

802

Pope: Epis. to Arbuthnot. Line 91

Great contest follows, and much learned dust
Involves the combatants; each claiming truth,
And truth disclaiming both.

803

Cowper: Task. Bk. iii. Line 161.

CONVERSATION - see Character, Courtesy, Talking.
Formed by thy converse, happily to steer
From grave to gay, from lively to severe.
804

Pope: Essay on Man. Epis. iv. Line 379.

A dearth of words a woman need not fear;
But 'tis a task indeed to learn to hear:

In that the skill of conversation lies;
That shows or makes you both polite and wise.
805
Young: Love of Fame. Satire v. Line 57

But conversation, choose what theme we may,
And chiefly when religion leads the way,
Should flow, like waters after summer show'rs,
Not as if raised by mere mechanic powers.
806
Discourse may want an animated" No"
To brush the surface, and to make it flow;
But still remember, if you mean to please,
To press your point with modesty and ease.
807

Cowper: Conversation. Line 703.

CONVERTS.

Cowper: Conversation. Line 101.

More proselytes and converts use t' accrue
To false persuasions than the right and true;
For error and mistake are infinite,

But truth has but one way to be i' th' right.

Garrick: Epigr. on Goldsmith's Retal.

Heaven sends us good meat; but the devil sends cooks.

810

COPYIST.

A barren-spirited fellow: one that feeds

On objects, arts, and imitations;

Which, out of use, and staled by other men,
Begin his fashion.

811

Shaks.: Jul. Cæsar. Act iv. Sc. 1.