I'll turn two mincing steps Into a manly stride; and speak of frays For men (it is reported) dash and vapour Less on the field of battle than on paper. Like a fine bragging youth; and tell quaint lies, Thus in the hist'ry of each dire campaign How honourable ladies sought my love, I could not do with all:-then I will repent, That men shall swear I have discontinued school Shaks. Merchant of Venice. More carnage loads the newspaper than plain. Dr. Wolcot's Peter Pindar. BOOKS. And though books, madam, cannot make this mind, Which we must bring apt to be set aright; And touch it so, as that it turns that way Shaks. Cymbeline. He made me mad, A book! O rare one! To see him shine so brisk, and smell so sweet, And talk so like a waiting gentlewoman Be not, as is our fangled word, a garment Of guns, and drums, and wounds (God save the Nobler than that it covers. mark!) And telling me, the sovereign'st thing on earth Shaks. Henry IV. A gallant curtle-axe upon my thigh, Shaks. As you like it. Here is a silly, stately style indeed! Daniel. Shaks. Cymbeline Calling their victories, if unjustly got, Twere well with most, if books, that could engage Cowper. Come let me make a sunny realm around thee, Of thought and beauty!-Here are books and flowers, BOUNTY. What you desire of him, he partly begs Shaks. Antony and Cleopatra. For his bounty, There was no winter in 't; an autumn 't was Shaks. Antony and Cleopatra. O blessed bounty, giving all content! With spells to loose the fetters which hath bound That lend'st success to every good intent, thee, Charles Sprague. What he has written seems to me no more Than I have thought a thousand times before. Willis. We never speak our deepest feelings; Since brevity is the soul of wit, And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes, I will be brief. Shaks. Hamlet. 'Tis of books the chief Of all perfections to be plain and brief. Butler. Stop not, unthinking, every friend you meet To spin your wordy fabric in the street; While you are emptying your colloquial pack, The fiend Lumbago jumps upon his back. O. W. Holmes That soothes and heals the wounded heart. I there's a fever of the soul Beyond this opiate control, BRIBERY. What! shall one of us, That struck the foremost man of all this world, But for supporting robbers;-shall we now Mrs. Hale's Vigil of Love. Contaminate our fingers with base bribes? When the book charm its influence loses. Let me tell you, Cassius, you yourself Shaks. Julius Cæsar. The world is not thy friend, nor the world's law: The world affords no law to make thee rich; Then be not poor, but break it and take this. Shaks. Romeo and Juliet. Who thinketh to buy villany with gold, Silver, though white, Middleton and Rowley's Fair Quarrel. Petitions not sweetened With gold, are but unsavoury and oft refused; Or if received, are pocketed, not read. A suitor's swelling tears by the glowing beams Of choleric authority are dried up Before they fall, or if seen, never pitied. CALAMITY. Do not insult calamity: It is a barb'rous grossness, to lay on Daniel's Philotas. Calamity is man's true touch-stone. Beaumont and Fletcher's Four Plays in One. How wisely fate ordain'd for human kind Calamity which is the perfect glass Wherein we truly see and know ourselves. How justly it created life too short! For being incident to many griefs, Had it been destin'd to continue long, Fate, to please fools, had done the wise great wrong. Sir W. Davenant's Law against Lovers. Foretells his own calamity, and makes But we must trust to virtue, not to fate; Tell me no more Young. Of my soul's lofty gifts! Are they not vain Might find a resting-place, a home for all The earth unknown. Mrs. Hemans. I turn me back, and find a barren waste, Joyless and rayless; a few spots are there, Where briefly it was granted me to faste The tenderness of youthful love—in air The charm is broken. Percival CALM. Pure was the temp'rate air, an even calm Perpetual reign'd, save what the zephyrs bland Breath'd o'er the blue expanse. Thomson's Seasons. Gradual sinks the breeze Into a perfect calm; that not a breath I heard to quiver thro' the closing woods, Or rustling turn the many twinkling leaves Of aspen tall. The uncurling floods, diffus'd In glassy breadth, seem through delusive lapse, Forgetful of their course. "Tis silence all, And pleasing expectation. Thomson's Seasons. The wind breathed soft as lovers sigh, Scott's Lord of the Isles. St. George's banner, broad and gay, The sea is like a silvery lake, Moore. Serenely my heart took the hue of the hour, As the billow the force of the gale that was fled! And all was stillness, save the sea-bird's cry, Byron's Don Juan. Byron's Lara. When all the fiercer passions cease, (The glory and disgrace of youth); When the deluded soul in peace, Can listen to the voice of truth; When we are taught in whom to trust, And how to spare, to spend, to give; (Our prudence kind, our pity just,) 'Tis then we rightly learn to live. Thy beauty is as undenied As the beauty of a star; Scott's Marmion. And thy heart beats just as equally, Crabbe. Willis Then, gentle Clarence, welcome unto Warwick Shaks. Henry VIII. Make my breast Transparent as pure crystal, that the world, Jealous of me, may see the foulest thought My heart does hold. The brave do never shun the light; Buckingham Just are their thoughts, and open are their tempers; |