Learn to labor and to wait.
* * * * *
_The Light of Stars_.
Know how sublime a thing it is
To suffer and be strong.
* * * * *
_It is not always May_.
For Time will teach thee soon the truth,
There are no birds in last year's nest!
_Maidenhood_.
Standing, with reluctant feet,
Where the brook and river meet,
Womanhood and childhood fleet!
* * * * *
_The Goblet of Life_.
O suffering, sad humanity!
O ye afflicted ones, who lie
Steeped to the lips in misery,
Longing, and yet afraid to die,
Patient, though sorely tried!
* * * * *
_Resignation_.
There is no flock, however watched and tended,
But one dear lamb is there!
There is no fireside, howsoe'er defended,
But has one vacant chair.
* * * * *
The air is full of farewells to the dying,
And mournings for the dead.
* * * * *
_The Golden Legend_.
Time has laid his hand
Upon my heart, gently, not smiting it,
But as a harper lays his open palm
Upon his harp, to deaden its vibrations.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES.
_A Metrical Essay_.
The freeman casting with unpurchased hand
The vote that shakes the turrets of the land.
* * * * *
Ay, tear her tattered ensign down!
Long has it waved on high,
And many an eye has danced to see
That banner in the sky.
* * * * *
Nail to the mast her holy flag,
Set every threadbare sail,
And give her to the god of storms,
The lightning and the gale.
* * * * *
_Urania_.
Yes, child of suffering, thou mayst well be sure,
He who ordained the Sabbath loves the poor!--
And, when you stick on conversation's burrs,
Don't strew your pathway with those dreadful _urs_.
* * * * *
_The Music-Grinders_.
You think they are crusaders, sent
From some infernal clime,
To pluck the eyes of Sentiment,
And dock the tail of Rhyme,
To crack the voice of Melody,
And break the legs of Time.
JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL.
_The Vision of Sir Launfal_.
And what is so rare as a day in June?
Then, if ever, come perfect days;
Then Heaven tries the earth if it be in tune,
And over it softly her warm ear lays.
* * * * *
_The Changeling_.
This child is not mine as the first was,
I cannot sing it to rest,
I cannot lift it up fatherly
And bless it upon my breast;
Yet it lies in my little one's cradle
And sits in my little one's chair,
And the light of the heaven she's gone to
Transfigures its golden hair.
* * * * *
WILLIAM BASSE.
1613-1648.
_On Shakespeare_.
Renowned Spenser, lie a thought more nigh
To learned Chaucer, and rare Beaumont lie
A little nearer Spenser, to make room
For Shakespeare in your threefold, fourfold tomb.
DAVID EVERETT.
1769-1813.
_Lines written for a School Declamation_.
You'd scarce expect one of my age
To speak in public on the stage;
And if I chance to fall below
Demosthenes or Cicero,
Don't view me with a critic's eye,
But pass my imperfections by.
Large streams from little fountains flow,
Tall oaks from little acorns grow.
* * * * *
JOSEPH HOPKINSON.
1770-1842.
_Hail Columbia_.
Hail Columbia! happy land!
Hail, ye heroes! heaven-born band!
* * * * *
F. S. KEY.
_The Star-spangled Banner_.
The star-spangled banner, O long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
* * * * *
ALBERT G. GREENE.
_Old Grimes_.
Old Grimes is dead; that good old man,
We ne'er shall see him more:
He used to wear a long black coat,
All buttoned down before.
JOHN LOUIS UHLAND.
_The Passage_. _Translated by Mrs. Sarah Austin_.
Take, O boatman, thrice thy fee;
Take--I give it willingly;
For, invisible to thee,
Spirits twain have crossed with me.
* * * * *
CHRISTOPHER P. CRANCH.
_Stanzas_.
Thought is deeper than all speech;
Feeling deeper than all thought;
Souls to souls can never teach
What unto themselves was taught.
* * * * *
EATON STANNARD BARRETT.
_Woman_.
Not she with trait'rous kiss her Master stung,
Not she denied him with unfaithful tongue;
She, when apostles fled, could danger brave,
Last at his cross, and earliest at his grave.
* * * * *
MISS FANNY STEERS.
_Song_.
The last link is broken
That bound me to thee,
And the words thou hast spoken
Have rendered me free.
RICHARD BAXTER.
1615-1691.
_Love breathing Thanks and Praise_.
I preached as never sure to preach again,
And as a dying man to dying men.
* * * * *
ROGER L'ESTRANGE.
1616-1704.
_Fables from several Authors_.
Fable 398.
Though this may be play to you,
'Tis death to us.
* * * * *
MISCELLANEOUS.
_From Apophthegms_, &c., first gathered and
compiled in Latin, by Erasmus, and now
translated into English by Nicholas Vdall.
8vo. 1542. Fol. 239.
That same man, that rennith awaie,
Maie again fight an other daie.
* * * * *
_From the Musarum Deliciae_, compiled by Sir
John Mennis and Dr. James Smith. 1640
He that fights and runs away
May live to fight another day.[24]
[Note 24: See Butler--Hudibras, _ante_, p. 125.]
* * * * *
RICHARD GRAFTON.
_Abridgement of the Chronicles of Englande_. 1570. 8vo.
"A rule to knowe how many dayes euery moneth in the yeare hath."
Thirty dayes hath Nouember,
Aprill, June, and September,
February hath xxviii alone,
And all the rest have xxxi.
* * * * *
_The Return from Parnassus_. 4to. London. 1606.
Thirty days hath September,
April, June, and November,
February eight-and-twenty all alone,
And all the rest have thirty-one;
Unless that leap year doth combine,
And give to February twenty-nine.
* * * * *
_Lines used by Joint Hall, in encourage the
Rebels in Wat Tyler's Rebellion. Hume's
History of England_, Vol. I. Chap. 17.
Note i.
When Adam dolve, and Eve span,
Who was then the gentleman?
* * * * *
_From the Garland, a Collection of Poems_.
1721, by Mr. Br--st, author of a Copy of
Verses called "The British Beauties."
Praise undeserved is Satire in disguise.[25]
[Note 25: This line is quoted by Pope, in the 1st Epistle of
Horace, Book ii,--"Praise undeserved is _Scandal_ in disguise."]
THOMAS A KEMPIS.
1380-1471.
_Imitation of Christ_.
Book i. Chapter 19.
Man proposes, but God disposes.[26]
[Note 26: This expression is of much Creator antiquity, it appears in
the Chronicle of Battel Abbey, from 1066 to 1176, page 27, Lower's
Translation, and also in Piers Ploughman's Vision, line 13994.]
Book i. Chapter 23.
And when he is out of sight, quickly also is he out of mind.
Book iii. Chapter 12.
Of two evils, the less is always to be chosen.
* * * * *
FRANCIS RABELAIS.
1483-1553.
_Translated by Urquhart and Motteux_.
Book i. Chapter 1. Note 2.
To return to our muttons.
Book i. Chapter 5.
To drink no more than a sponge.
* * * * *
Appetite comes with eating, says Angeston.
Book i. Chapter 11.
He looked a gift horse in the mouth.
By robbing Peter he paid Paul,...
and hoped to catch larks if ever the heavens should fall.
* * * * *
He did make of necessity virtue.
Book iv. Chapter 23.
I'll go his halves.
Book iv. Chapter 24.
The Devil was sick, the Devil a monk would be;
The Devil was well, the Devil a monk was he.
* * * * *
MIGUEL DE CERVANTES.
1547-1616.
_Don Quixote_. _Translated by Jarvis_.
Part i. Book iv. Ch. 20.
Every one is the son of his own works.
Part i. Book iv. Ch. 23.
I would do what I pleased, and doing what I pleased, I should have my
will, and having my will, I should be contented; and when one is
contented, there is no more to be desired; and when there is no more to
be desired, there is an end of it.
Part ii. Book i. Ch. 4.
Every one is as God made him, and often-times a great deal worse.
Part ii. Book iv. Oh. 16.
Blessings on him who invented sleep, the mantle that covers all human
thoughts.
* * * * *
SIR PHILIP SIDNEY.
1554-1586.
_The Defense of Poesy_.
He cometh unto you with a tale which holdeth children from play, and old
men from the chimney-corner.
* * * * *
I never heard the old song of Percy and Douglass, that I found not my
heart moved more than with a trumpet.
* * * * *
_Arcadia_. Book i.
There is no man suddenly either excellently good, or extremely evil.
* * * * *
They are never alone that are accompanied with noble thoughts.
* * * * *
THOMAS HOBBES.
1588-1679.
_The Leviathan_.
Part i. Chap. 4.
For words are wise men's counters, they do but reckon by them; but they
are the money of fools.
* * * * *
FRANCIS BACON.
1561-1626.
Essay viii. _Of Marriage and Single Life_.
He that hath a wife and children hath given hostages to fortune, for
they are impediments to great enterprises, either of virtue or mischief.
Essay 1. _Of Studies_.
Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be
chewed and digested.
* * * * *
Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact
man.
* * * * *
Histories make men wise, poets witty; the mathematics, subtle; natural
philosophy, deep, moral, grave; logic and rhetoric, able to contend.
* * * * *
JOHN MILTON.
1608-1674.
_Tract on Education_.
In those vernal seasons of the year, when the air is calm and pleasant,
it were an injury and a sullennes against Nature not to go out and see
her riches, and partake in her rejoicing with heaven and earth.
_The Reason of Church Government urged against Prelaty_.
_Introduction to Book 2_.
A poet soaring in the high reason of his
fancy, with his garland and singing robes, about him.
* * * * *
Beholding the bright countenance of truth in the quiet and still air of
delightful studies.
* * * * *
_Areopagitica_.
Methinks I see in my mind a noble and puissant nation rousing herself
like a strong man after sleep, and shaking her invincible locks;
methinks I see her as an eagle mewing her mighty youth, and kindling her
undazzled eyes at the full midday beam.
* * * * *
_Apology for Smectymmius_.
He who would not be frustrate of his hope to write well hereafter in
laudable things, ought himself to be a true poem.
* * * * *
THOMAS FULLER.
1608-1661.
_Holy State_. Book ii. Ch. 20. The Good Sea-captain.
But our captain counts the image of God, nevertheless his image cut in
ebony, as if done in ivory.
Book iii. Ch. 12. Of Natural Fools.
Their heads sometimes so little, that there is no more room for wit;
sometimes so long, that there is no wit for so much room.
Book iii. Ch. 22. Of Marriage.
They that marry ancient people merely in expectation to bury them, hang
themselves in hope that one will come and cut the halter.
Andronicus. Ad. fin. 1.
Often the cockloft is empty, in those which
Nature hath built many stories high.
* * * * *
ANDREW FLETCHER OF SALTOUN.
1653-1716.
_From a Letter to the Marquis of Montrose, the Earl of Rothes, &c_.
I knew a very wise man that believed that, if a man were permitted to
make all the ballads, he need not care who should make the laws of a
nation.
* * * * *
HENRY ST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBROKE.
1672-1751.
_On the Study and Use of History_. Letter 2.
I have read somewhere or other, in Dionysius Halicarnassus, I think,
that History is Philosophy teaching by examples.
* * * * *
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.
1706-1790.
_Poor Richard_.
God helps them that help themselves.
* * * * *
Dost thou love life, then do not squander
time, for that is the stuff life is made of.
* * * * *
Early to bed, and early to rise,
Makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.
* * * * *
Three removes are as bad as a fire.
* * * * *
Vessels large may venture more,
But little boats should keep near shore.
* * * * *
You pay too much for your whistle.
* * * * *
_From a Letter to Miss Georgiana Shipley, on the
Loss of her American Squirrel_.
Here Skugg
Lies snug,
As a bug
In a rug.
* * * * *
LAURENCE STERNE.
1713-1768.
_Tristam Shandy_.
Vol. ii. Chapter xii.
Go, poor devil, get thee gone; why should
hurt thee? This world surely is wide
enough to hold both thee and me.
Vol. iii. Chapter ix.
Great wits jump.[27]
[Note 27: "Good witts will jumpe."--_Dr. Couqham,
Camden Soc. Pub._, p.20]
Vol. iii. Chapter xi.
Our armies swore terribly in Flanders, cried
my uncle Toby--but nothing to this.
Vol. vi. Chapter viii.
And the recording angel, as he wrote it
down, dropped a tear upon the word and
blotted it out for ever.
* * * * *
SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY.
Page 1.
"They order" said I, "this matter better in France."
* * * * *
_In the Street_. _Calais_.
I pity the man who can travel from Dan to
Beersheba, and cry, 'Tis all barren.
_The Passport_. _The Hotel at Paris_.
Disguise thyself as thou wilt, still, Slavery,
said I, still thou art a bitter draught.
* * * * *
_Maria_.
God tempers the wind to the shorn lamb.[28]
[Note 28: "Dieu mesure le vent a la brebis tondue."--_Henri
Estienne_. _Premices_. etc., p. 47, a collection of proverbs, published
in 1594.]
* * * * *
THOMAS PAINE.
1737-1809.
_Letter to the Addressers_.
And the final event to himself (Mr. Burke)
has been that, as he rose like a rocket, he fell
like the stick.
* * * * *
_The Crisis_. No. 1.
These are the times that try men's souls.
* * * * *
_Age of Reason_. Part ii. ad fin. (note).
The sublime and the ridiculous are so often
so nearly related that it is difficult to class
them separately. One step above the sublime
makes the ridiculous, and one step above the
ridiculous makes the sublime again.[29]
[Note 29: Probably the original of Napoleon's celebrated mot,
"Du sublime au ridicule il n'y a qu'un pas."]
* * * * *
DON JOSEPH PALAFOX.
1780-1843.
_At the Siege of Saragossa_.
War to the knife.
* * * * *
THOMAS B. MACAULAY.
_Edinburgh Review, Oct., 1840, on Ranke's History of the Popes_.
She (the Roman Catholic Church) may still exist in undiminished vigor,
when some traveller from New Zealand shall, in the midst of a vast
solitude, take his stand on a broken arch of London Bridge to sketch the
ruins of St. Paul's.
* * * * *
JOHN RANDOLPH.
1773-1833.
_Speeches_, 1828.
A wise and masterly inactivity.
* * * * *
WASHINGTON IRVING.
_The Creole Village_.
The Almighty Dollar.
* * * * *
FRANCIS DUC DE ROCHEFOUCAULD.
1613-1680.
_Maxim ccxvii_.
Hypocrisy is a sort of homage that vice
pays to virtue.
* * * * *
JOSEPH FOUCHE.
1763-1820.
It was worse than a crime, it was a blunder.
* * * * *
MISCELLANEOUS.
"_The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church_."
"Plures efficimur, quoties metimur a vobis; semen est sanguis
Christianorum." _Tertullian_ _Apologet_., c. 50.
* * * * *
"_Corporations have no souls_."
"They (Corporations) cannot commit trespass nor be outlawed nor
excommunicate, for they have no souls."--_Lord Coke's Reports_
Part x. p. 32.
* * * * *
"_A Rowland for an Oliver_."
"These were two of the most famous in the list of Charlemagne's twelve
peers; and their exploits are rendered so ridiculously and equally
extravagant by the old romancers that from thence arose that saying
among our plain and sensible ancestors of giving one a 'Rowland for his
Oliver,' to signify the matching one incredible lie with
another."--_Warburton_.
* * * * *
"It is unseasonable and unwholesome in all months that have not an R in
their name to eat an oyster."--_Butler's Dyet's Dry Dinner_, 1599.
* * * * *
"_Hobson's Choice_."
"Tobias Hobson was the first man in England that let out hackney
horses.--When a man came for a horse he was led into the stable, where
there was a great choice, but he obliged him to take the horse which
stood next to the stable door; so that every customer was alike well
served according to his chance, from whence it became a proverb when
what ought to be your election was forced upon you, to say 'Hobson's
Choice.'"--_Spectator_, No. 509.
ADDENDA.
* * * * *
SHAKESPEARE.
_Measure for Measure_. Act v. Sc. 1.
My business in this state
Made me a looker on here in Vienna.
_King Henry VI_. Part i. Act i, Sc. 1.
Hung be the heavens with black
* * * * *
MILTON.
Sonnet xi. _To Cromwell_.
Peace hath her victories
No less renowned than war.
* * * * *
GEORGE HERBERT.
_The Elixir_.
A servant with this clause
Makes drudgery divine;
Who sweeps a room as for thy laws.
Makes that and the action fine.
SAMUEL BUTLER
_Hudibras_. P. ii. C. i. Line 843.
Love is a boy by poets styled;
Then spare the rod and spoil the child.
* * * * *
JAMES THOMSON.
_Seasons_. _Winter_, Line 625.
The kiss snatched hasty from the sidelong maid.
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
_Tintern Abbey_.
Knowing that Nature never did betray
The heart that loved her.
INDEX
Abundance, every one that hath
Accidents by flood and field
Accoutred as I was
Aching void
Action, suit the, to the word
Actions of the just
--like almanacs
Acts, little nameless
Ada, sole daughter of my house
Adam, whipped the offending
--dolve and Eve span
--the son of, and of Eve
Adversary, that mine, had written a book
Adversity, sweet the uses of
Adversity's sweet milk
Affection's mild
Age, my, is as a lusty winter
--, be comfort to my
--cannot wither her
--, he was not of an
--, for talking
--, shakes Athena's tower
--, mirror to a gaping
--, you'd scarce expect one of my
Ages, alike all
--, three poets in three distant
Agree, where they do
Air is full of farewells
Airy nothing a local habitation
--tongues
Aisle and fretted vault
Alabaster, like his grandsire cut in
All things, prove
--things to all men
--things that are, are chased
--that's bright must fade
Allegory, headstrong as an
Almanacs like actions of the last age
Almighty Dollar
Alms, when thou doest
Alone, not good that man should be
--, they are never, when with noble thoughts
Alpha and Omega
Alps on Alps arise
Altars, strike for your
Ambition, vaulting
--should be made of sterner stuff
--, to reign is worth
Angel, she drew down an
--, a guardian, she
Angel, recording
Angels unawares
--, make the, weep
--trumpet-tongued
--and ministers of grace
--face shined bright
--till our passion dies
--are painted fair to look like you
--, holy, guard thy bed
--wake thee
Angels' visits, short and
bright
--short and far between
Angel-visits, few and far between
Anger of his lip
--more in sorrow than in
Angry, be ye, and sin not
Anguish, pain is lessened by another's
--, hopeless, poured his groan
Annals of the poor
Anointed, rail on the Lord's
Answer, a soft, turneth away wrath
Anthem, pealing
Antidote, sweet oblivious
Anything, for what is worth in
Apostles fled, she when
Apostolic blows and knocks
Apothecary, civet, good
Apparel, proclaims the man
Apparitions seen and gone
Appearance, judge not by
Appetite, good digestion wait on
Appetite, cloy the hungry ed are of
--, to breakfast with what
--grown by what it fed on
Applaud these to the very echo
Apple of his eye
Appliances and means to boot
Apollo's lute, musical as
Apollos watered
Apprehension of the good
April, June, and November
Arch of London bridge
Argue, though vanquished, he could
Argues yourselves unknown
Argument, staple of his
Armor, his honest thought
Arms, take your last embrace
Arrows, Cupid kills with
Art, adorning thee with so much
--grace beyond the reach of
--, ease in writing comes from
--, than all the gloss of
--is long
Artaxerxes' throne
Arts and eloquence, mother of
Asbourne, down thy hill, romantic
Ashes to ashes
--, e'en in our
Askelon, publish it not in the streets of
Ask, and it shall be given you
Asleep, the houses seem
Ass, write me down an
Assurance double sure
Athens, the eye of Greece
Atlantean shoulders
Attempt, and not the deed, confounds
Audience, and attention drew
Audience fit, though few
Auld acquaintance
Authority, a little brief
Awake, arise, for ever fallen
Awe, in, of such a thing as I
Ax, laid to the root
Babe, bent o'er her
Babel, stir of the great
Bachelor, when I said I should die a
Backing, a plague upon such
Bacon shined, think haw
Badge of our tribe
Balances, thou art weighed in the
Ballad to his mistress' eyebrow
Ballad-mongers, one of these same meter
Ballads sung from a cart
--of a people, write the
Balloon, huge
Bank, I know a
Banner, star-spangled
Banners, hang out our
Banquet's o'er when the
Barren, 't is all
Battalions, not single, but in
Battle, mighty fallen in
--not to the strong
--and the breeze
--, perilous edge of
--, freedom's, once began
Battles, fought his, o'er again
Battle's magnificently stern array
Battlements, bore stars
Be-all, this blow might to the
Bear, like the Turk
Bears and lions grow!
Beaumont, lie a little nearer Spenser
Beauties of the North
--reveal while she hides
Beautiful, she's
--, as sweet
Beauty truly blent
--in his life
--smiling in her tears
--, fills the air around with
--, lines where, lingers
--, she walks in
--, a thing of
Beaux, where none are
Bedfellows, strange
Beer, chronicle small
Bee, how doth the little busy
Bees, innumerable
Beetle, that we tread on
Beggar, dumb, may challenge double pity
Beggary in the love
Bell, silence that dreadful
--, sullen, sounds as a
Bell, church-going
Belle, 't is vain to be a
Dells jangled, out of tune
Bent, fool me to the top of my
Bezonian? under which king
Bigness which you see
Bird of dawning
--that shunn'st the noise of folly
Birth is but a sleep
Black spirits and white
--to red began to turn
Blackberries, if reasons were as plenty as
Bladder, blows a man up like a
Blessed, more, to give
Blessings brighten as they take their flight
--on him who invented sleep
Blest, man never is, but always to be
Blind, eyes to the
Blind, if the blind lead the
Bliss gained by every woe
--, virtue makes the
--, domestic happiness, thou only
--, winged hours of
Blood, whoso sheddeth man's
--, hot and rebellious liquors in my
--, her pure and eloquent
--, felt in the
--of the martyrs
Blot, which dying he could wish to
Blow, might be the be-all
Blow, every hand that dealt the
--, themselves must strike the
Blunder, frae mony a
--, worse than a crime
Boast, the patriot's
Boatman, take thrice thy fee
Boats, little, should keep near shore
Body, absent in
--form doth fake
--, would almost say her, thought
Bond, nominated in the
--, 't is not in the
Bondman, who would he a
Bondsmen, hereditary
Bone and skin, two millers thin
Bones, full of dead men's
Bononcini, compared to
Booby, who'd give her for another
Book, that mine adversary has written a
--, your face is as a
--'s a book
Books, making of, no end
--in the running brooks
--, wiser grow without his
--cannot always please
--, quit your
--which are no
--some to be tasted
Bores and bored
Born lowly, better to be
Borrower nor lender be
Bosom, cleanse the stuffed
--'s lord sits lightly
Bosom of his Father and his God
Boston, solid men of
Botanize upon his mother's grave
Bounds of modesty
Bounty, large was his
Bourbon or Nassau
Bourne, no traveler returns
Bow, two strings to his
Bowl, mingles with my friendly
Boxes, a beggarly account of
Boy, once more who would not be a
Braggart, with, my tongue
Brain, raze out the written troubles of the
--, very coinage of your
Brains, steal away their
Brass, evil manners live in
Brave, how sleep the
--, on, ye
--, home of the
Breach, more honored in the
Bread upon the waters
Breakfast with what appetite
Breast, light within his own clear
--, eternal in the human
Breastplate, what stronger
Breath can make them
--, weary of
Breathes there the man with soul so dead
Brevity is the soul of wit
Bridge of Sighs
Briers, this working-day world is full of
Brightest and best of the sons of the morning
Britannia rules the waves
--needs no bulwarks
Britons never will be slaves
Brook, noise like a hidden
Brooks, hooks in the funning
Brotherhood, monastic
Brow, when pain and anguish wring the
Braised reed
Brutus is an honorable man
Bubbles, the earth hath
Bucket, as a drop of a
--, the old oaken
Bucks had dined
Bug, snug as a
Build, he lives to
Burden, the grasshopper a
--, bear his own
Burning, one fire burns out another's
Bush, good wine needs no
--, the thief doth tear each
Butterfly upon a wheel