All human race, from China to Peru,[403-4]
Pleasure, howe'er disguis'd by art, pursue.
_Universal Love of Pleasure._
Nor rough, nor barren, are the winding ways
Of hoar antiquity, but strewn with flowers.
_Written on a Blank Leaf of Dugdale's Monasticon._
FOOTNOTES:
[403-4] See Johnson, page 365.
THOMAS PERCY. 1728-1811.
Every white will have its blacke,
And every sweet its soure.
_Reliques of Ancient Poetry. Sir Cauline._
Late, late yestreen I saw the new moone,
Wi' the auld moon in hir arme.[404-1]
_Sir Patrick Spens._
He that had neyther been kith nor kin
Might have seen a full fayre sight.
_Guy of Gisborne._
Have you not heard these many years ago
Jeptha was judge of Israel?
He had one only daughter and no mo,
The which he loved passing well;
And as by lott,
God wot,
It so came to pass,
As God's will was.[404-2]
_Jepthah, Judge of Israel._
A Robyn,
Jolly Robyn,
Tell me how thy leman does.[404-3]
_A Robyn, Jolly Robyn._
Where gripinge grefes the hart wounde,
And dolefulle dumps the mynde oppresse,
There music with her silver sound[404-4]
With spede is wont to send redresse.
_A Song to the Lute in Musicke._
The blinded boy that shootes so trim,
From heaven downe did hie.[405-1]
_King Cophetua and the Beggar-maid._
"What is thy name, faire maid?" quoth he.
"Penelophon, O King!" quoth she.[405-2]
_King Cophetua and the Beggar-maid._
And how should I know your true love
From many another one?
Oh, by his cockle hat and staff,
And by his sandal shoone.
_The Friar of Orders Gray._
O Lady, he is dead and gone!
Lady, he 's dead and gone!
And at his head a green grass turfe,
And at his heels a stone.[405-3]
_The Friar of Orders Gray._
Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more!
Men were deceivers ever;
One foot in sea and one on shore,
To one thing constant never.[405-4]
_The Friar of Orders Gray._
Weep no more, lady, weep no more,
Thy sorrowe is in vaine;
For violets pluckt, the sweetest showers
Will ne'er make grow againe.[405-5]
_The Friar of Orders Gray._
He that would not when he might,
He shall not when he wolda.[405-6]
_The Friar of Orders Gray._
We 'll shine in more substantial honours,
And to be noble we 'll be good.[406-1]
_Winifreda_ (1720).
And when with envy Time, transported,
Shall think to rob us of our joys,
You 'll in your girls again be courted,
And I 'll go wooing in my boys.
_Winifreda_ (1720).
King Stephen was a worthy peere,
His breeches cost him but a croune;
He held them sixpence all too deere,
Therefore he call'd the taylor loune.
He was a wight of high renowne,
And those but of a low degree;
Itt 's pride that putts the countrye doune,
Then take thine old cloake about thee.[406-2]
_Take thy old Cloak about Thee._
A poore soule sat sighing under a sycamore tree;
Oh willow, willow, willow!
With his hand on his bosom, his head on his knee,
Oh willow, willow, willow![406-3]
_Willow, willow, willow._
When Arthur first in court began,
And was approved king.[406-4]
_Sir Launcelot du Lake._
Shall I bid her goe? What if I doe?
Shall I bid her goe and spare not?
Oh no, no, no! I dare not.[406-5]
_Corydon's Farewell to Phillis._
But in vayne shee did conjure him
To depart her presence soe;
Having a thousand tongues to allure him,
And but one to bid him goe.
_Dulcina._
FOOTNOTES:
[404-1]
I saw the new moon late yestreen,
Wi' the auld moon in her arm.
_From Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border._
[404-2] "As by lot, God wot;" and then you know, "It came to pass,
as most like it was."--SHAKESPEARE: _Hamlet, act ii. sc. 2._
[404-3]
Hey, Robin, Jolly Robin,
Tell me how thy lady does.
SHAKESPEARE: _Twelfth Night, act iv. sc. 2._
[404-4]
When griping grief heart doth wound,
And doleful dumps the mind oppress,
Then music with her silver sound.
SHAKESPEARE: _Romeo and Juliet, act iv. sc. 5._
[405-1]
Young Adam Cupid, he that shot so trim,
When King Cophetua loved the beggar-maid!
SHAKESPEARE: _Romeo and Juliet, act ii. sc. 1._
[405-2] Shakespeare, who alludes to this ballad in "Love's
Labour's Lost," act iv. sc. 1, gives the beggar's name Zenelophon.
The story of the king and the beggar is also alluded to in "King
Richard II.," act v. sc. 3.
[405-3] Quoted in "Hamlet," act iv. sc. 3.
[405-4] See Shakespeare, page 51.
[405-5] See John Fletcher, page 183.
[405-6] See Heywood, page 9.
He that will not when he may,
When he would, he should have nay.
CERVANTES: _Don Quixote, part i. book iii. chap. iv._
[406-1] See Chapman, page 37.
Nobilitas sola est atque unica virtus (Nobility is the one only
virtue).--JUVENAL: _Satire viii. line 20._
[406-2] The first stanza is quoted in full, and the last line of
the second, by Shakespeare in "Othello," act ii. sc. 3.
[406-3]
The poor soul sat sighing by a sycamore tree,
Sing all a green willow;
Her hand on her bosom, her head on her knee,
Sing willow, willow, willow.
_Othello, act iv. sc. 3._
[406-4] Quoted by Shakespeare in Second Part of "Henry IV.," act
ii. sc. 4.
[406-5] Quoted by Shakespeare in "Twelfth Night," act ii. sc. 3.
EDMUND BURKE. 1729-1797.
The writers against religion, whilst they oppose every system,
are wisely careful never to set up any of their own.
_A Vindication of Natural Society._[407-1] _Preface, vol. i. p. 7._
"War," says Machiavel, "ought to be the only study of a prince;"
and by a prince he means every sort of state, however
constituted. "He ought," says this great political doctor, "to
consider peace only as a breathing-time, which gives him leisure
to contrive, and furnishes ability to execute military plans." A
meditation on the conduct of political societies made old Hobbes
imagine that war was the state of nature.
_A Vindication of Natural Society. Vol. i. p. 15._
I am convinced that we have a degree of delight, and that no
small one, in the real misfortunes and pains of others.[407-2]
_On the Sublime and Beautiful. Sect. xiv. vol. 1. p. 118._
Custom reconciles us to everything.
_On the Sublime and Beautiful. Sect. xviii. vol. i. p. 231._
There is, however, a limit at which forbearance ceases to be a
virtue.
_Observations on a Late Publication on the Present State of the Nation.
Vol. i. p. 273._
The wisdom of our ancestors.[407-3]
_Observations on a Late Publication on the Present State of the Nation.
Vol. i. p. 516. Also in the Discussion on the Traitorous Correspondence
Bill, 1793._
Illustrious predecessor.[408-1]
_Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents. Vol. i. p. 456._
In such a strait the wisest may well be perplexed and the boldest
staggered.
_Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents. Vol. i. p. 516._
When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will
fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible
struggle.
_Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents. Vol. i. p. 526._
Of this stamp is the cant of, Not men, but measures.[408-2]
_Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents. Vol. i. p. 531._
The concessions of the weak are the concessions of fear.
_Speech on the Conciliation of America. Vol. ii. p. 108._
There is America, which at this day serves for little more than
to amuse you with stories of savage men and uncouth manners, yet
shall, before you taste of death, show itself equal to the whole
of that commerce which now attracts the envy of the world.
_Speech on the Conciliation of America. Vol. ii. p. 115._
Fiction lags after truth, invention is unfruitful, and
imagination cold and barren.
_Speech on the Conciliation of America. Vol. ii. p. 116._
A people who are still, as it were, but in the gristle, and not
yet hardened into the bone of manhood.
_Speech on the Conciliation of America. Vol. ii. p. 117._
A wise and salutary neglect.
_Speech on the Conciliation of America. Vol. ii. p. 117._
My vigour relents,--I pardon something to the spirit of liberty.
_Speech on the Conciliation of America. Vol. ii. p. 118._
The religion most prevalent in our northern colonies is a
refinement on the principles of resistance: it is the dissidence
of dissent, and the protestantism of the Protestant religion.
_Speech on the Conciliation of America. Vol. ii. p. 123._
I do not know the method of drawing up an indictment against a
whole people.
_Speech on the Conciliation of America. Vol. ii. p. 136._
The march of the human mind is slow.[408-3]
_Speech on the Conciliation of America. Vol. ii. p. 149._
All government,--indeed, every human benefit and enjoyment, every
virtue and every prudent act,--is founded on compromise and
barter.
_Speech on the Conciliation of America. Vol. ii. p. 169._
The worthy gentleman who has been snatched from us at the moment
of the election, and in the middle of the contest, whilst his
desires were as warm and his hopes as eager as ours, has
feelingly told us what shadows we are, and what shadows we
pursue.
_Speech at Bristol on Declining the Poll. Vol. ii. p. 420._
They made and recorded a sort of institute and digest of anarchy,
called the Rights of Man.
_On the Army Estimates. Vol iii. p. 221._
People will not look forward to posterity who never look backward
to their ancestors.
_Reflections on the Revolution in France. Vol. iii. p. 274._
You had that action and counteraction which, in the natural and
in the political world, from the reciprocal struggle of
discordant powers draws out the harmony of the universe.[409-1]
_Reflections on the Revolution in France. Vol. iii. p. 277._
It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the Queen of
France, then the Dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely never
lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more
delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating
and cheering the elevated sphere she just began to move
in,--glittering like the morning star full of life and splendour
and joy. . . . Little did I dream that I should have lived to see
such disasters fallen upon her in a nation of gallant men,--in a
nation of men of honour and of cavaliers. I thought ten thousand
swords must have leaped from their scabbards to avenge even a
look that threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is
gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has
succeeded.
_Reflections on the Revolution in France. Vol. iii. p. 331._
The unbought grace of life, the cheap defence of nations, the
nurse of manly sentiment and heroic enterprise is gone.
_Reflections on the Revolution in France. Vol. iii. p. 331._
That chastity of honour which felt a stain like a wound.
_Reflections on the Revolution in France. Vol. iii. p. 332._
Vice itself lost half its evil by losing all its grossness.
_Reflections on the Revolution in France. Vol. iii. p. 332._
Kings will be tyrants from policy, when subjects are rebels from
principle.
_Reflections on the Revolution in France. Vol. iii. p. 334._
Learning will be cast into the mire and trodden down under the
hoofs of a swinish multitude.[410-1]
_Reflections on the Revolution in France. Vol. iii. p. 335._
Because half-a-dozen grasshoppers under a fern make the field
ring with their importunate chink, whilst thousands of great
cattle, reposed beneath the shadow of the British oak, chew the
cud and are silent, pray do not imagine that those who make the
noise are the only inhabitants of the field; that of course they
are many in number; or that, after all, they are other than the
little shrivelled, meagre, hopping, though loud and troublesome
insects of the hour.
_Reflections on the Revolution in France. Vol. iii. p. 344._
In their nomination to office they will not appoint to the
exercise of authority as to a pitiful job, but as to a holy
function.
_Reflections on the Revolution in France. Vol. iii. p. 356._
The men of England,--the men, I mean, of light and leading in
England.
_Reflections on the Revolution in France. Vol. iii. p. 365._
He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves and sharpens our
skill. Our antagonist is our helper.
_Reflections on the Revolution in France. Vol. iii. p. 453._
To execute laws is a royal office; to execute orders is not to be
a king. However, a political executive magistracy, though merely
such, is a great trust.[411-1]
_Reflections on the Revolution in France. Vol. iii. p. 497._
You can never plan the future by the past.[411-2]
_Letter to a Member of the National Assembly. Vol. iv. p. 55._
The cold neutrality of an impartial judge.
_Preface to Brissot's Address. Vol. v. p. 67._
And having looked to Government for bread, on the very first
scarcity they will turn and bite the hand that fed them.[411-3]
_Thoughts and Details on Scarcity. Vol. v. p. 156._
All men that are ruined, are ruined on the side of their natural
propensities.
_Letter i. On a Regicide Peace. Vol. v. p. 286._
All those instances to be found in history, whether real or
fabulous, of a doubtful public spirit, at which morality is
perplexed, reason is staggered, and from which affrighted Nature
recoils, are their chosen and almost sole examples for the
instruction of their youth.
_Letter i. On a Regicide Peace. Vol. v. p. 311._
Example is the school of mankind, and they will learn at no
other.
_Letter i. On a Regicide Peace. Vol. v. p. 331._
Early and provident fear is the mother of safety.
_Speech on the Petition of the Unitarians. Vol. vii. p. 50._
There never was a bad man that had ability for good service.
_Speech in opening the Impeachment of Warren Hastings. Third Day. Vol. x.
p. 54._
The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion.
_Speech at County Meeting of Bucks, 1784._
I would rather sleep in the southern corner of a little country
churchyard than in the tomb of the Capulets.[412-1]
_Letter to Matthew Smith._
It has all the contortions of the sibyl without the
inspiration.[412-2]
_Prior's Life of Burke._[412-3]
He was not merely a chip of the old block, but the old block
itself.[412-4]
_On Pitt's First Speech, Feb. 26, 1781. From Wraxall's Memoirs, First
Series, vol. i. p. 342._
FOOTNOTES:
[407-1] Boston edition. 1865-1867.
[407-2] In the adversity of our best friends we always find
something which is not wholly displeasing to us.--ROCHEFOUCAULD:
_Reflections, xv._
[407-3] Lord Brougham says of Bacon, "He it was who first employed
the well-known phrase of 'the wisdom of our ancestors.'"
SYDNEY SMITH: _Plymley's Letters, letter v._ LORD ELDON: _On Sir
Samuel Romilly's Bill, 1815._ CICERO: _De Legibus, ii. 2, 3._
[408-1] See Fielding, page 364.
[408-2] See Goldsmith, page 401.
[408-3] The march of intellect.--SOUTHEY: _Progress and Prospects
of Society, vol. ii. p. 360._
[409-1] Quid velit et possit rerum concordia discors (What the
discordant harmony of circumstances would and could
effect).--HORACE: _Epistle i. 12, 19._
Mr. Breen, in his "Modern English Literature," says: "This
remarkable thought Alison the historian has turned to good
account; it occurs so often in his disquisitions that he seems to
have made it the staple of all wisdom and the basis of every
truth."
[410-1] This expression was tortured to mean that he actually
thought the people no better than swine; and the phrase "the
swinish multitude" was bruited about in every form of speech and
writing, in order to excite popular indignation.
[411-1] See Appendix, page 859.
[411-2] I know no way of judging of the future but by the
past.--PATRICK HENRY: _Speech in the Virginia Convention, March,
1775._
[411-3] We set ourselves to bite the hand that feeds us.--_Cause
of the Present Discontents, vol. i. p. 439._
[412-1] Family vault of "all the Capulets."--_Reflections on the
Revolution in France, vol. iii. p. 349._
[412-2] When Croft's "Life of Dr. Young" was spoken of as a good
imitation of Dr. Johnson's style, "No, no," said he, "it is not a
good imitation of Johnson; it has all his pomp without his force;
it has all the nodosities of the oak, without its strength; it has
all the contortions of the sibyl, without the
inspiration."--PRIOR: _Life of Burke._
The gloomy comparisons of a disturbed imagination, the melancholy
madness of poetry without the inspiration.--JUNIUS: _Letter No.
viii. To Sir W. Draper._
[412-3] At the conclusion of one of Mr. Burke's eloquent
harangues, Mr. Cruger, finding nothing to add, or perhaps as he
thought to add with effect, exclaimed earnestly, in the language
of the counting-house, "I say ditto to Mr. Burke! I say ditto to
Mr. Burke!"--PRIOR: _Life of Burke, p. 152._
[412-4] See Sir Thomas Browne, page 219.
CHARLES CHURCHILL. 1731-1764.
He mouths a sentence as curs mouth a bone.
_The Rosciad. Line 322._
But, spite of all the criticising elves,
Those who would make us feel--must feel themselves.[412-5]
_The Rosciad. Line 961._
Who to patch up his fame, or fill his purse,
Still pilfers wretched plans, and makes them worse;
Like gypsies, lest the stolen brat be known,
Defacing first, then claiming for his own.[413-1]
_The Apology. Line 232._
No statesman e'er will find it worth his pains
To tax our labours and excise our brains.
_Night. Line 271._
Apt alliteration 's artful aid.
_The Prophecy of Famine. Line 86._
There webs were spread of more than common size,
And half-starved spiders prey'd on half-starved flies.
_The Prophecy of Famine. Line 327._
With curious art the brain, too finely wrought,
Preys on herself, and is destroyed by thought.
_Epistle to William Hogarth. Line 645._
Men the most infamous are fond of fame,
And those who fear not guilt yet start at shame.
_The Author. Line 233._
Be England what she will,
With all her faults she is my country still.[413-2]
_The Farewell. Line 27._
Wherever waves can roll, and winds can blow.[413-3]
_The Farewell. Line 38._
FOOTNOTES:
[412-5]
Si vis me flere, dolendum est
Primum ipsi tibi
(If you wish me to weep, you yourself must first feel grief).
HORACE: _Ars Poetica, v. 102._
[413-1] Steal! to be sure they may; and, egad, serve your best
thoughts as gypsies do stolen children,--disguise them to make 'em
pass for their own.--SHERIDAN: _The Critic, act. i. sc. i._
[413-2]
England, with all thy faults I love thee still,
My country!
COWPER: _The Task, book ii. The Timepiece, line 206._
[413-3] Far as the breeze can bear, the billows foam.--BYRON: _The
Corsair, canto i. stanza 1._
WILLIAM COWPER. 1731-1800.
Is base in kind, and born to be a slave.
_Table Talk. Line 28._
As if the world and they were hand and glove.
_Table Talk. Line 173._
Happiness depends, as Nature shows,
Less on exterior things than most suppose.
_Table Talk. Line 246._
Freedom has a thousand charms to show,
That slaves, howe'er contented, never know.
_Table Talk. Line 260._
Manner is all in all, whate'er is writ,
The substitute for genius, sense, and wit.
_Table Talk. Line 542._
Ages elapsed ere Homer's lamp appear'd,
And ages ere the Mantuan swan was heard:
To carry nature lengths unknown before,
To give a Milton birth, ask'd ages more.
_Table Talk. Line 556._
Elegant as simplicity, and warm
As ecstasy.
_Table Talk. Line 588._
Low ambition and the thirst of praise.[414-1]
_Table Talk. Line 591._
Made poetry a mere mechanic art.
_Table Talk. Line 654._
Nature, exerting an unwearied power,
Forms, opens, and gives scent to every flower;
Spreads the fresh verdure of the field, and leads
The dancing Naiads through the dewy meads.
_Table Talk. Line 690._
Lights of the world, and stars of human race.
_The Progress of Error. Line 97._
How much a dunce that has been sent to roam
Excels a dunce that has been kept at home!
_The Progress of Error. Line 415._
Just knows, and knows no more, her Bible true,--
A truth the brilliant Frenchman never knew.
_Truth. Line 327._
The sounding jargon of the schools.[414-2]
_Truth. Line 367._
When one that holds communion with the skies
Has fill'd his urn where these pure waters rise,
And once more mingles with us meaner things,
'T is e'en as if an angel shook his wings.
_Charity. Line 435._
A fool must now and then be right by chance.
_Conversation. Line 96._
He would not, with a peremptory tone,
Assert the nose upon his face his own.
_Conversation. Line 121._
A moral, sensible, and well-bred man
Will not affront me,--and no other can.
_Conversation. Line 193._
Pernicious weed! whose scent the fair annoys,
Unfriendly to society's chief joys:
Thy worst effect is banishing for hours
The sex whose presence civilizes ours.
_Conversation. Line 251._
I cannot talk with civet in the room,
A fine puss-gentleman that 's all perfume.
_Conversation. Line 283._
The solemn fop; significant and budge;
A fool with judges, amongst fools a judge.[415-1]
_Conversation. Line 299._
His wit invites you by his looks to come,
But when you knock, it never is at home.[415-2]
_Conversation. Line 303._
Our wasted oil unprofitably burns,
Like hidden lamps in old sepulchral urns.[415-3]
_Conversation. Line 357._
That good diffused may more abundant grow.
_Conversation. Line 443._
A business with an income at its heels
Furnishes always oil for its own wheels.
_Retirement. Line 614._
Absence of occupation is not rest,
A mind quite vacant is a mind distress'd.
_Retirement. Line 623._
An idler is a watch that wants both hands,
As useless if it goes as if it stands.
_Retirement. Line 681._
Built God a church, and laugh'd his word to scorn.
_Retirement. Line 688._
Philologists, who chase
A panting syllable through time and space,
Start it at home, and hunt it in the dark
To Gaul, to Greece, and into Noah's ark.
_Retirement. Line 691._
I praise the Frenchman,[416-1] his remark was shrewd,--
How sweet, how passing sweet, is solitude!
But grant me still a friend in my retreat,
Whom I may whisper, Solitude is sweet.
_Retirement. Line 739._
A kick that scarce would move a horse
May kill a sound divine.
_The Yearly Distress._
I am monarch of all I survey,
My right there is none to dispute.
_Verses supposed to be written by Alexander Selkirk._
O Solitude! where are the charms
That sages have seen in thy face?
_Verses supposed to be written by Alexander Selkirk._
But the sound of the church-going bell
These valleys and rocks never heard;
Ne'er sigh'd at the sound of a knell,
Or smiled when a Sabbath appear'd.
_Verses supposed to be written by Alexander Selkirk._
How fleet is a glance of the mind!
Compared with the speed of its flight
The tempest itself lags behind,
And the swift-winged, arrows of light.
_Verses supposed to be written by Alexander Selkirk._
There goes the parson, O illustrious spark!
And there, scarce less illustrious, goes the clerk.
_On observing some Names of Little Note._
But oars alone can ne'er prevail
To reach the distant coast;
The breath of heaven must swell the sail,
Or all the toil is lost.
_Human Frailty._
And the tear that is wiped with a little address,
May be follow'd perhaps by a smile.
_The Rose._
'T is Providence alone secures
In every change both mine and yours.
_A Fable. Moral._
I shall not ask Jean Jacques Rousseau
If birds confabulate or no.
_Pairing Time Anticipated._
Misses! the tale that I relate
This lesson seems to carry,--
Choose not alone a proper mate,
But proper time to marry.
_Pairing Time Anticipated._
That though on pleasure she was bent,
She had a frugal mind.
_History of John Gilpin._
A hat not much the worse for wear.
_History of John Gilpin._
Now let us sing, Long live the king!
And Gilpin, Long live he!
And when he next doth ride abroad,
May I be there to see!
_History of John Gilpin._
The path of sorrow, and that path alone,
Leads to the land where sorrow is unknown.
_To an Afflicted Protestant Lady._
United yet divided, twain at once:
So sit two kings of Brentford on one throne.[417-1]
_The Task. Book i. The Sofa. Line 77._
Nor rural sights alone, but rural sounds,
Exhilarate the spirit, and restore
The tone of languid nature.
_The Task. Book i. The Sofa. Line 181._
The earth was made so various, that the mind
Of desultory man, studious of change
And pleased with novelty, might be indulged.
_The Task. Book i. The Sofa. Line 506._
Doing good,
Disinterested good, is not our trade.
_The Task. Book i. The Sofa. Line 673._
God made the country, and man made the town.[417-2]
_The Task. Book i. The Sofa. Line 749._
Oh for a lodge in some vast wilderness,[418-1]
Some boundless contiguity of shade,
Where rumour of oppression and deceit,
Of unsuccessful or successful war,
Might never reach me more.
_The Task. Book ii. The Timepiece. Line 1._