No ordinance of man shall override
The settled laws of nature and of God;
Not written these in pages of a book,
Nor were they framed to-day, nor yesterday;
We know not whence they are; but this we know,
That they from all eternity have been,
And shall to all eternity endure.
--_Sophocles, born 495 B. C._
1429
Every one follows the inclinations of his own nature.
--_Propertius._
1430
There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society where none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in its roar:
I love not man the less, but nature more,
From these our interviews, in which I steal
From all I may be, or have been before,
To mingle with the universe, and feel
What I am can ne'er express, yet cannot all conceal.
--_Lord Byron._
1431
Who can paint
Like nature? Can imagination boast,
Amid its gay creation, hues like hers?
--_J. Thomson._
1432
Tender handed stroke a nettle
And it stings you for your pains;
Grasp it like a man of mettle,
And it soft as silk remains;
Thus it is with vulgar natures,
Use them kindly, they rebel:
But be rough as nutmeg graters,
And the rogues obey you well.
--_Aaron Hill._
1433
Where is there a sharper arrow than the sting of unmerited neglect?
1434
'Tis wisely said
To know thyself: equally profitable it is
To know thy neighbors!
1435
Say not unto thy neighbor, Go, and come again, and to-morrow I will
give; when thou hast it by thee.
--_Proverbs 3, 28v._
1436
_Very Few Live by Choice._--Every man is placed in his present condition
by causes which acted without his foresight, and with which he did not
always willingly co-operate; and therefore you will rarely meet one who
does not think the lot of his neighbor better than his own.
--_Dr. Johnson in Rasselas._
1437
We ought to do at once and without delay whatever we owe to our
neighbors; to make them wait for what is due to them, is the essence of
injustice.
1438