And he but naked, though lock'd up in steel, But VAIN is the vaunt and victory unjust, Henry VI., First Part. That more to mighty hands than rightful cause doth trust. Faery Queen, Book II., Canto 2. SILENCE. A GOOD word is an easy obligation, but not to speak ill requires only our silence, which costs us nothing. Thoughts: POPE and SWIFT. THE imitation of an ill thing is the worse for its being exact; and sometimes to report a fault is to repeat it. HOME. COLLIER.-On the Stage. WHEN Lara's lip breathed forth the words of home: Awake their absent echoes in his ear. BYRON. Lara, Canto I. Emp. WHAT can be sweeter than our native home! Clamours our privacies uneasy make; Birds leave their nests disturb'd, and beasts their haunts forsake. DRYDEN. Aurenge-Zebe, Act II. AND, therefore, living hence, did give ourself Henry V., Act I. BUT where to find that happiest spot below, The naked negro panting at the line, To different nations, makes their blessings even. AFFECTATION. AFFECTATION is not, I confess, an early fault of childhood, or the product of untaught nature; it is of that sort of weeds which grow, not in the wild uncultivated waste, but in garden plots, under the negligent hand or unskilful care of the gardener. Management and instruction, and some sense of the necessity of breeding, are requisite to make any one capable of affectation, which endeavours to correct natural defects, and has always the laudable aim of pleasing, though it always misses it, and the more it labours to put on gracefulness the farther it is from it.* For this reason it is the more carefully to be watched, because it is the proper fault of education, a perverted education indeed, but such as young people often fall into, either by their own mistake or the ill conduct of those about them. LOCKE. On Education. WANTS of all kinds are made to fame a plea, Miss D tottering catches at your hand, Was ever thing so pretty born to stand? Whilst these, that nature gave disown thro' pride, Others affect what nature has deny'd; What nature has denied fools will pursue, As apes are ever walking upon two.† YOUNG. Nothing so much prevents our being natural as the desire of appearing sɔ. ROCHEFOUCAuld. + But as the fool is never more provoking than when he aims at wit, the ill-favour'd of our sex are never more nauseous than when they would be MEN are never so ridiculous for the qualities they have, as for those they affect to have. ROCHEFOUCAULD. MORNING ADDRESS TO A BIRD. HITHER thou com'st. The busy wind all night For which coarse man seems much the fitter born, And harmless head; And now as fresh and cheerful as the light, VITUPERATIVE. NEITHER the abject submission of deserting his post in the hour of danger, nor even the sacred shield of cowardice should protect him. I would pursue him through life and try the last exertion of my abilities to preserve the perishable infamy of his name and make it immortal.† Junius to the Duke of Grafton. THE PLEASURE OF A RETIRED COUNTRY LIFE. DOES Art through pipes a purer water bring, beauties, adding to their natural deformity the artificial ugliness of affectation. WYCHERLEY. The Plain Dealer, Act II. * And all the little birds had laid their heads Under their wings-sleeping in feather beds. HOOD. And hasten Og and Doeg to reherse, DRYDEN. Absalom and Achitophel. Fountains and trees our wearied pride do please And in your towns that prospect gives delight Does but in vain with those true joys contend COWLEY. Translation, Horace. SWEET country life, to such unknown, HERRICK. The Country Life. To one who has been long in city pent, 'Tis very sweet to look into the fair And open face of heaven,-to breathe a prayer Who is more happy, when, with heart's content, KEATS. Sonnets. RETIREMENT. OH! 'tis a quiet spirit healing nook! Which all, methinks, would love; but chiefly he, In a half-sleep, he dreams of better worlds, COLERIDGE. Tears in Solitude. I Do not suppose that a man loses his time who is not engaged in public affairs, or an illustrious course of action. On the contrary, I believe our hours may often be more profitably laid out in such transactions as make no figure in the world, than in such as are apt to draw upon them the attention of mankind. One may become wiser and better, by several methods of employing oneself in secrecy and silence, and do what is laudable without noise and ostentation. His life Spectator, No. 318. Sweet to himself was exercised in good DEAR Wood, and you sweet solitary place, * The private path the secret acts of men If noble, far the noblest of our lives. YOUNG. Night Thoughts. Night 5. |