HANDY DICTIONARY
OF
POETICAL QUOTATIONS
COMPILED BY
GEORGE W. POWERS
AUTHOR OF "IMPORTANT EVENTS," ETC.
NEW YORK
THOMAS Y. CROWELL & CO.
PUBLISHERS
1901
BY T.Y. CROWELL & COMPANY.
Henry W. Longfellow
Table of Contents
[Transcriber's note: The original text did not contain a table of contents. It has been added for the reader's convenience.]
PREFACE.
It has been the aim of the compiler of this little book to present a Dictionary of Poetical Quotations which will be a ready reference to many of the most familiar stanzas and lines of the chief poets of the English language, with a few selections from Continental writers; and also some less familiar selections from more modern poets, which may in time become classic, or which at least have a contemporary interest. Readers of English literature are aware that the few great poets of our language have struck perhaps every chord of human sentiment capable of illustration in verse, and even these few have borrowed the ideas, and sometimes almost the exact words, of predecessors or contemporaries.
But often old ideas in a new dress are welcome to readers who might not have been attracted by the old forms; and each generation has its peculiar modes of expression if not its new lines of thought. It is hoped that this mingling of the old and the new will not be without interest. To carry out the plan of making this a "handy" dictionary of quotations and, at the same time, as comprehensive as the space permitted, it has been necessary to confine the illustration of the topics selected to brief extracts from each author. Of course, in all books of quotations the great name of Shakespeare fills the largest space; and the compiler of this book, as well as all students of Shakespeare, is under obligation to the painstaking compilers of the concordances to this poet, and especially to Mr. Bartlett's monumental work. To many other compilers of quotations, especially to the Poetical Quotations of Anna L. Ward (published by Messrs. T.Y. Crowell & Co.), the author is under obligations; while he has made an independent examination of the more recent poets, as well as many of the older ones. The topics illustrated number 2138, selected from the writings of 255 authors. The indexes, which will be found full and complete, were prepared by Mrs. Grace E. Powers, who has also rendered valuable assistance in preparing the copy for the press and in reading the proofs.
G.W.P.
DORCHESTER, MASS., July, 1901.
HANDY DICTIONARY OF POETICAL
QUOTATIONS.
A.
Abashed.
Abash'd the devil stood,
And felt how awful goodness is, and saw
Virtue in her shape how lovely.
1
MILTON:
Par. Lost, Bk. iv., Line 846.
Abbots.
To happy convents bosom'd deep in vines,
Where slumber abbots purple as their wines.
2
POPE:
Dunciad, Bk. iv., Line 301.
Abdication.
I give this heavy weight from off my head,
And this unwieldy sceptre from my hand,
The pride of kingly sway from out my heart;
With mine own tears I wash away my balm,
With mine own hands I give away my crown,
With mine own tongue deny my sacred state,
With mine own breath release all duteous oaths.
3
SHAKS.:
Richard II., Act iv., Sc. 1.
Abdiel.
So spake the seraph Abdiel, faithful found;
Among the faithless, faithful only he.
4
MILTON:
Par. Lost, Bk. v., Line 896.
Ability.
I profess not talking; only this,
Let each man do his best.
5
SHAKS.:
1 Henry IV., Act v., Sc. 2.
Absence.
What! keep a week away! Seven days and nights?
Eight score eight hours? and lovers' absent hours,
More tedious than the dial eight score times?
O weary reckoning!
6
SHAKS.:
Othello, Act iii., Sc. 1.
Though lost to sight, to memory dear
Thou ever wilt remain.
7
GEORGE LINLEY:
Song, Though Lost to Sight.
Condemn'd whole years in absence to deplore,
And image charms he must behold no more.
8
POPE:
Eloisa to A., Line 361.
O last love! O first love!
My love with the true heart,
To think I have come to this your home,
And yet—we are apart!
9
JEAN INGELOW:
Sailing Beyond Seas.
'Tis said that absence conquers love;
But oh believe it not!
I've tried, alas! its power to prove,
But thou art not forgot.
10
FREDERICK W. THOMAS:
Absence Conquers Love.
Abstinence.
Against diseases here the strongest fence
Is the defensive virtue abstinence.
11
HERRICK:
Aph. Abstinence.
Abuse.
Thou thread, thou thimble,
Thou yard, three quarters, half-yard, quarter, nail,
Thou flea, thou nit, thou winter cricket thou:
Away thou rag, thou quantity, thou remnant.
12
SHAKS.:
Tam. of the S., Act iv., Sc. 3.
Accident.
As the unthought-on accident is guilty
Of what we wildly do, so we profess
Ourselves to be the slaves of chance, and flies
Of every wind that blows.
13
SHAKS.:
Wint. Tale, Act iv., Sc. 3.
Wherein I spake of most disastrous chances,
Of moving accidents by flood and field.
14
SHAKS.:
Othello, Act i., Sc. 3.
Our wanton accidents take root, and grow
To vaunt themselves God's laws.
15
CHARLES KINGSLEY:
Saints' Tragedy, Act ii., Sc. 4.
By many a happy accident.
16
MIDDLETON:
No Wit, No Help, Like a Woman's, Act ii., Sc. 2.
Account.
No reckoning made, but sent to my account
With all my imperfections on my head.
17
SHAKS.:
Hamlet, Act i., Sc. 5.
Accusation.
Accuse not Nature: she hath done her part;
Do thou but thine.
18
MILTON:
Par. Lost, Bk. viii., Line 561.
Achievements.
Great things thro' greatest hazards are achiev'd,
And then they shine.
19
BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER:
Loyal Subject, Act i., Sc. 5.
Acquaintance.
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And days o' lang syne?
20
BURNS:
Auld Lang Syne.
Action.
Pleasure and action make the hours seem short.
21
SHAKS.:
Othello, Act ii., Sc. 3.
Of every noble action, the intent
Is to give worth reward—vice punishment.
22
BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER:
Captain, Act v., Sc. 5.
Only the actions of the just
Smell sweet and blossom in their dust.
23
JAMES SHIRLEY:
Death's Final Conquest, Sc. iii.
Who sweeps a room as for Thy laws
Makes that and th' action fine.
24
HERBERT:
The Elixir.
Activity.
If it were done, when 'tis done, then 'twere well
It were done quickly.
25
SHAKS.:
Macbeth, Act i., Sc. 7.
Wise men ne'er sit and wail their loss,
But cheerly seek how to redress their harms.
26
SHAKS.:
3 Henry VI., Act v., Sc. 4.
Actors.
A strutting player,—whose conceit
Lies in his hamstring, and doth think it rich
To hear the wooden dialogue and sound
'Twixt his stretched footing and the scaffoldage.
27
SHAKS.:
Troil. and Cress., Act i., Sc. 3.
The world's a theatre, the earth a stage
Which God and Nature do with actors fill.
28
THOMAS HEYWOOD:
Apology for Actors.
Adaptability.
All things are ready, if our minds be so.
29
SHAKS.:
Henry V., Act iv., Sc. 3.
Address.
And the tear that is wiped with a little address
May be follow'd perhaps by a smile.
30
COWPER:
The Rose.
Adieu.
Adieu, adieu! my native shore
Fades o'er the waters blue.
31
BYRON:
Ch. Harold, Canto i., St. 13.
Adieu, she cried, and waved her lily hand.
32
GAY:
Sweet William's Farewell to Black-eyed Susan.
Admiration.
Season your admiration for a while.
33
SHAKS.:
Hamlet, Act i., Sc 2.
Adoration.
The holy time is quiet as a nun
Breathless with adoration.
34
WORDSWORTH:
It is a Beauteous Evening.
Adorning.
Her modest looks the cottage might adorn,
Sweet as the primrose peeps beneath the thorn.
35
GOLDSMITH:
Des. Village, Line 232.
Loveliness
Needs not the foreign aid of ornament,
But is when unadorn'd, adorn'd the most.
36
THOMSON:
Seasons, Autumn, Line 204.
Adversity.
Sweet are the uses of adversity,
Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head;
And this our life, exempt from public haunt,
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones, and good in everything.
37
SHAKS.:
As You Like It, Act ii., Sc. 1.
A wretched soul, bruis'd with adversity,
We bid be quiet, when we hear it cry;
But were we burthen'd with like weight of pain,
As much, or more, we should ourselves complain.
38
SHAKS.:
Com. of Errors, Act ii., Sc. 1.
I am not now in fortune's power:
He that is down can fall no lower.
39
BUTLER:
Hudibras, Pt. i., Canto iii., Line 877.
For of fortunes sharpe adversite,
The worst kind of infortune is this,—
A man that hath been is prosperite,
And it remember whan it passed is.
40
CHAUCER:
Troilus and Creseide, Bk. iii., Line 1625.
Advice.
Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice;
Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment.
41
SHAKS.:
Hamlet, Act i., Sc. 3.
Know when to speak—for many times it brings
Danger, to give the best advice to kings.
42
HERRICK:
Aph. Caution in Council.
The worst men often give the best advice.
43
BAILEY
Festus, Sc.
A Village Feast.
'Twas good advice, and meant, my son, Be good.
44
CRABBE:
The Learned Boy.
Affectation.
There affectation, with a sickly mien,
Shows in her cheek the roses of eighteen;
Practis'd to lisp, and hang the head aside;
Faints into airs, and languishes with pride;
On the rich quilt sinks with becoming woe,
Wrapt in a gown, for sickness, and for show.
45
POPE:
R. of the Lock, Canto iv., Line 31.
Affection.
Why, she would hang on him,
As if increase of appetite had grown
By what it fed on.
46
SHAKS.:
Hamlet, Act i., Sc. 2.
Affection is a coal that must be cool'd,
Else, suffer'd, it will set the heart on fire.
47
SHAKS.:
Venus and A., Line 387.
Affliction.
Affliction is the good man's shining scene;
Prosperity conceals his brightest ray;
As night to stars, woe lustre gives to man.
48
YOUNG:
Night Thoughts, Night ix., Line 406.
Now let us thank the Eternal Power: convinced
That Heaven but tries our virtue by affliction.
49
JOHN BROWN:
Barbarossa, Act v., Sc. 3.
Affronts.
Young men soon give and soon forget affronts;
Old age is slow in both.
50
ADDISON:
Cato, Act ii., Sc. 5.
Age.
When the age is in, the wit is out.
51
SHAKS.:
Much Ado, Act iii., Sc. 5
His silver hairs
Will purchase us a good opinion,
And buy men's voices to commend our deeds;
It shall be said,—his judgment rul'd our hands.
52
SHAKS.:
Jul. Cæsar, Act ii., Sc. 1.
Manhood, when verging into age, grows thoughtful.
53
CAPEL LOFFT'S
Aphorisms. Published in 1812.
I am declin'd into the vale of years.
54
SHAKS.:
Othello, Act iii., Sc. 3.
Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale
Her infinite variety; other women
Cloy th' appetites they feed; but she makes hungry
Where most she satisfies.
55
SHAKS.:
Ant. and Cleo., Act ii., Sc. 2.
An old man, broken with the storms of State,
Is come to lay his weary bones among ye;
Give him a little earth for charity!
56
SHAKS.:
Henry VIII., Act iv., Sc. 2.
We see time's furrows on another's brow...
How few themselves in that just mirror see!
57
YOUNG:
Night Thoughts, Night v., Line 627.
O, sir! I must not tell my age.
They say women and music should never be dated.
58
GOLDSMITH:
She Stoops to Con., Act iii.
What is the worst of woes that wait on age?
What stamps the wrinkle deeper on the brow?
To view each loved one blotted from life's page,
And be alone on earth as I am now.
59
BYRON:
Ch. Harold, Canto ii., St. 98.
Old age comes on apace to ravage all the clime.
60
BEATTIE:
The Minstrel, Bk. i., St. 25.
But an old age serene and bright,
And lovely as a Lapland night,
Shall lead thee to thy grave.
61
WORDSWORTH:
To a Young Lady.
Agony.
A solitary shriek, the bubbling cry
Of some strong swimmer in his agony.
62
BYRON:
Don Juan, Canto ii., St. 53.
Agreement.
Could we forbear dispute and practise love,
We should agree as angels do above.
63
WALLER:
Divine Love, Canto iii.
Where order in variety we see,
And where, though all things differ, all agree.
64
POPE:
Windsor Forest, Line 13.
Aim.
Better have failed in the high aim, as I,
Than vulgarly in the low aim succeed.
65
ROBERT BROWNING:
The Inn Album, iv.
Air.
When he speaks,
The air, a chartered libertine, is still
66
SHAKS.:
Henry V., Act i., Sc. 1.
Alacrity.
I have a kind of alacrity in sinking.
67
SHAKS.:
Mer. W. of W., Act iii., Sc. 5.
Ale.
Then to the spicy nut-brown ale.
68
MILTON:
L'Allegro, Line 100.
A Rechabite poor Will must live,
And drink of Adam's ale.
69
PRIOR:
The Wandering Pilgrim.
Alexandrine.
A needless Alexandrine ends the song,
That, like a wounded snake, drags its slow length along.
70
POPE:
E. on Criticism, Pt. ii., Line 156.
Alone.
Alone, alone,—all, all alone;
Alone on a wide, wide sea.
71
COLERIDGE:
The Ancient Mariner, Pt. iv.
Amazement.
But look! Amazement on thy mother sits;
O step between her and her fighting soul:
Conceit in weakest bodies strongest works.
72
SHAKS.:
Hamlet, Act iii., Sc. 4.
Amber.
Pretty! in amber to observe the forms
Of hairs, or straws, or dirt, or grubs, or worms!
The things, we know, are neither rich nor rare,
But wonder how the devil they got there.
73
POPE:
Epis. to Arbuthnot, Line 169.
Ambition.
Fling away ambition;
By that sin fell the angels: how can man then,
The image of his Maker, hope to win by it?
74
SHAKS.:
Henry VIII., Act iii, Sc. 2.
I have no spur
To prick the sides of my intent, but only
Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself,
And falls on the other.
75
SHAKS.:
Macbeth, Act i, Sc. 7.
Ambition has but one reward for all:
A little power, a little transient fame,
A grave to rest in, and a fading name.
76
WILLIAM WINTER:
Queen's Domain.
To reign is worth ambition, though in hell:
Better to reign in hell, than serve in heaven.
77
MILTON:
Par. Lost, Bk. i., Line 262.
Such joy ambition finds.
78
MILTON:
Par. Lost, Bk. iv., Line 92.
America.
America! half brother of the world!
With something good and bad of every land;
Greater than thee have lost their seat—
Greater scarce none can stand.
79
BAILEY:
Festus, Sc.
The Surface.
Anarchy.
Where eldest Night
And Chaos, ancestors of Nature, hold
Eternal anarchy amidst the noise
Of endless wars, and by confusion stand.
80
MILTON:
Par. Lost, Bk. ii., Line 894.
Ancestry.
The sap which at the root is bred
In trees, through all the boughs is spread;
But virtues which in parents shine
Make not like progress through the line.
81
WALLER:
To Zelinda.
What can ennoble sots, or slaves, or cowards?
Alas! not all the blood of all the Howards.
82
POPE:
Essay on Man, Epis. iv., Line 215.
Angels.
Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.
83
POPE:
E. on Criticism, Pt. iii., Line 66.
The angels come and go, the messengers of God.
84
R.H. STODDARD:
Hymn to the Beautiful.
The good he scorn'd
Stalk'd off reluctant, like an ill-used ghost,
Not to return; or if it did, in visits
Like those of angels, short and far between.
85
BLAIR:
The Grave, Pt. ii., Line 586.
Anger.
Anger's my meat; I sup upon myself,
And so shall starve with feeding.
86
SHAKS.:
Coriolanus, Act iv., Sc. 2.
Never anger made good guard for itself.
87
SHAKS.:
Ant. and Cleo., Act iv., Sc. 1.
Angling.
The pleasant'st angling is to see the fish
Cut with her golden oars the silver stream,
And greedily devour the treacherous bait.
88
SHAKS.:
Much Ado, Act iii., Sc. 1.
'Twas merry when
You wager'd on your angling; when your diver
Did hang a salt-fish on his hook, which he
With fervency drew up.
89
SHAKS.:
Ant. and Cleo., Act ii., Sc. 5.
Anticipation.
Peace, brother, be not over-exquisite
To cast the fashion of uncertain evils;
For, grant they be so, while they rest unknown,
What need a man forestall his date of grief,
And run to meet what he would most avoid?
90
MILTON:
Comus, Line 359.
Antiquity.
O good old man! how well in thee appears
The constant service of the antique world,
When service sweat for duty, not for meed!
Thou art not for the fashion of these times,
Where none will sweat, but for promotion.
91
SHAKS.:
As You Like It, Act ii., Sc. 3.
Nor rough, nor barren, are the winding ways
Of hoar antiquity, but strewn with flowers.
92
WARTON:
Written on a Blank Leaf of Dugdale's Monasticon.
Apathy.
In lazy apathy let stoics boast
Their virtue fix'd; 'tis fixed as in a frost.
93
POPE:
Essay on Man, Epis. ii., Line 101.
Apparel.
Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,
But not expressed in fancy; rich, not gaudy:
For the apparel oft proclaims the man.
94
SHAKS.:
Hamlet, Act i., Sc. 3.
Apparitions.
How fading are the joys we dote upon!
Like apparitions seen and gone.
95
JOHN NORRIS:
The Parting.
Appeal.
I have done the state some service, and they know it.
No more of that; I pray you in your letters,
When you shall these unlucky deeds relate,
Speak of me as I am, nothing extenuate,
Nor set down aught in malice.
96
SHAKS.:
Othello, Act v., Sc. 2.
Appearances.
All that glisters is not gold,
Gilded tombs do worms infold.
97
SHAKS.:
M. of Venice, Act ii., Sc. 7.
Appearances to save, his only care;
So things seem right no matter what they are.
98
CHURCHILL:
Rosciad, Line 299.
Appetite.
Now good digestion wait on appetite,
And health on both.
99
SHAKS.:
Macbeth, Act iii., Sc. 4.
His thirst he slakes at some pure neighboring brook,
Nor seeks for sauce where appetite stands cook.
100
CHURCHILL:
Gotham, iii., Line 133.
Applause.
I would applaud thee to the very echo,
That should applaud again.
101
SHAKS.:
Macbeth, Act v., Sc. 3
Oh popular applause! what heart of man
Is proof against thy sweet, seducing charms?
102
COWPER:
Task, Bk. ii., Line 481.
The applause of list'ning senates to command.
103
GRAY:
Elegy, St. 16
April.
Whanne that Aprille with his shoures sote
The droughte of March hath perced to the rote.
104
CHAUCER:
Canterbury Tales, Prologue, Line 1.
April cold with dropping rain
Willows and lilacs brings again,
The whistle of returning birds,
And trumpet-lowing of the herds.
105
EMERSON:
May-day, Line 124.
When aince Aprile has fairly come,
An' birds may bigg in winter's lum,
An' pleisure's spreid for a' and some
O' whatna state,
Love, wi' her auld recruitin' drum,
Than taks the gate.
106
ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON:
Underwoods, Bk. ii., iii.
Argument.
In arguing, too, the parson owned his skill,
For e'en though vanquish'd, he could argue still.
107
GOLDSMITH:
Des. Village, Line 211
Aristocracy.
'Tis from high life high characters drawn;
A saint in crape is twice a saint in lawn.
108
POPE:
Moral Essays, Epis. i., Line 135.
Art.
Seraphs share with thee
Knowledge: But art, O man, is thine alone!
109
SCHILLER:
Artists, St 2.
Art is the child of Nature; yes,
Her darling child, in whom we trace
The features of the mother's face,
Her aspect and her attitude.
110
LONGFELLOW:
Kéramos.
Artist.
In framing an artist, art hath thus decreed,
To make some good, but others to exceed.
111
SHAKS.:
Pericles, Act ii., Sc. 3.
Aspect.
With grave
Aspect he rose, and in his rising seem'd
A pillar of state.
112
MILTON:
Par. Lost, Bk. ii., Line 300.
Aspiration.
'Tis he, I ken the manner of his gait;
He rises on the toe; that spirit of his
In aspiration lifts him from the earth.
113
SHAKS.:
Troil. and Cress., Act iv., Sc. 5.
Assurance.
I'll make assurance double sure,
And take a bond of fate.
114
SHAKS.:
Macbeth, Act iv., Sc. 1.
Atheism.
By night an atheist half believes a God.
115
YOUNG:
Night Thoughts, Night v., Line 176.
Athens.
Ancient of days! august Athena! where,
Where are thy men of might, thy grand in soul?
Gone—glimmering through the dream of things that were
First in the race that led to glory's goals
They won, and pass'd away.
116
BYRON:
Ch. Harold, Canto ii., St. 2.
Athens, the eye of Greece, mother of arts
And eloquence.
117
MILTON:
Par. Regained, Bk. iv., Line 240.
Attempt.
The attempt and not the deed
Confounds us.
118
SHAKS.:
Macbeth, Act ii., Sc. 2.
Attention.
The tongues of dying men
Enforce attention like deep harmony.
119
SHAKS.:
Richard II., Act ii., Sc. 1.
Audience.
Still govern thou my song,
Urania, and fit audience find, though few.
120
MILTON:
Par. Lost, Bk. vii., Line 30,
August.
Rejoice! ye fields, rejoice! and wave with gold,
When August round her precious gifts is flinging;
Lo! the crushed wain is slowly homeward rolled:
The sunburnt reapers jocund lays are singing.
121
RUSKIN:
The Months.
Aurora.
Aurora now, fair daughter of the dawn,
Sprinkled with rosy light the dewy lawn.
122
POPE:
Iliad, Bk. viii., Line 1.
Author.
Most authors steal their works, or buy;
Garth did not write his own Dispensary,
123
POPE:
E. on Criticism, Pt. iii., Line 59.
No author ever spar'd a brother.
124
GAY:
Fables, The Elephant and the Bookseller.
How many great ones may remember'd be,
Which in their days most famously did flourish,
Of whom no word we hear, nor sign now see,
But as things wip'd out with a sponge do perish.
125
SPENSER:
Ruins of Time, St. 52.
Authority.
Man, proud man,
Drest in a little brief authority,
Most ignorant of what he's most assur'd,
His glassy essence—like an angry ape,
Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven
As make the angels weep!
126
SHAKS.:
M. for M., Act ii., Sc. 2.
Autumn.
Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness!
Close bosom friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With, fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run;
To bend with apples the moss'd cottage trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core.
127
KEATS:
To Autumn.
Divinest autumn! who may paint thee best,
Forever changeful o'er the changeful globe?
Who guess thy certain crown, thy favorite crest,
The fashion of thy many-colored robe?
128
R.H. STODDARD:
Autumn.
Autumn wins you best by this its mute
Appeal to sympathy for its decay.
129
ROBERT BROWNING:
Paracelsus, Sc. i.
The lands are lit
With all the autumn blaze of Golden Rod;
And everywhere the Purple Asters nod
And bend and wave and flit.
130
HELEN HUNT:
Asters and Golden Rod.
I saw old Autumn in the misty morn
Stand shadowless like silence, listening
To silence, for no lonely bird would sing
Into his hollow ear from woods forlorn,
Nor lowly hedge nor solitary thorn.
131
HOOD:
Autumn.
Avarice.
The lust of gold succeeds the rags of conquest:
The lust of gold, unfeeling and remorseless!
The last corruption of degenerate man.
132
DR. JOHNSON:
Irene, Act i., Sc. 1.
So for a good old-gentlemanly vice,
I think I must take up with avarice.
133
BYRON:
Don Juan, Canto i., St. 216.
That disease
Of which all old men sicken,—avarice.
134
MIDDLETON:
Roaring Girl, Act i., Sc. 1.
Awkwardness.
Awkward, embarrassed, stiff, without the skill
Of moving gracefully, or standing still,
One leg, as if suspicious of his brother,
Desirous seems to run away from t'other.
135
CHURCHILL:
Rosciad, Line 438.
B.
Balances.
Jove lifts the golden balances that show
The fates of mortal men, and things below.
136
POPE:
Iliad, Bk. xxii., Line 271.
Ball.
I saw her at a county ball;
There when the sound of flute and fiddle
Gave signal sweet in that old hall,
Of hands across and down the middle.
137
PRAED:
Belle of the Ball-Room, St. 2.
Banishment.
Eating the bitter bread of banishment.
138
SHAKS.:
Richard II., Act iii., Sc. 1.
Banished?
O friar, the damned use that word in hell;
Howlings attend it: How hast thou the heart,
Being a divine, a ghostly confessor,
A sin-absolver, and my friend profess'd,
To mangle me with that word—banished?
139
SHAKS.:
Rom. and Jul., Act iii., Sc. 3
Banner.
Hang out our banners on the outward walls.
140
SHAKS.:
Macbeth, Act v., Sc. 5.
A banner with the strange device.
141
LONGFELLOW:
Excelsior.
Wave, Munich! all thy banners wave,
And charge with all thy chivalry.
142
CAMPBELL:
Hohenlinden.
Bard.
Be that blind bard who on the Chian strand,
By those deep sounds possessed with inward light,
Beheld the Iliad and the Odyssey
Rise to the swelling of the voiceful sea.
143
COLERIDGE:
Fancy in Nubibus.
Bars.
Stone walls do not a prison make,
Nor iron bars a cage.
144
LOVELACE:
To Althea from Prison, iv.
Baseness.
Since Cleopatra died,
I have lived in such dishonor that the gods
Detest my baseness.
145
SHAKS.:
Ant. and Cleo., Act iv., Sc. 14.
Bashfulness.
I pity bashful men, who feel the pain
Of fancied scorn, and undeserv'd disdain,
And bear the marks upon a blushing face,
Of needless shame, and self-impos'd disgrace.
146
COWPER:
Conversation, Line 347.
Battle.
Then more fierce
The conflict grew; the din of arms, the yell
Of savage rage, the shriek of agony,
The groan of death, commingled in one sound
Of undistinguish'd horrors.
147
SOUTHEY:
Madoc, Pt. ii.,
The Battle.
For freedom's battle, once begun,
Bequeath'd by bleeding sire to son,
Though baffled oft, is ever won.
148
BYRON:
Giaour, Line 123.
When the battle rages loud and long,
And the stormy winds do blow.
149
CAMPBELL:
Ye Mariners of England.
Beads.
The hooded clouds, like friars,
Tell their beads in drops of rain.
150
LONGFELLOW:
Midnight Mass.
Beams.
And like a lane of beams athwart the sea,
Thro' all the circle of the golden year.
151
TENNYSON:
The Golden Year.
Beard.
His beard was as white as snow,
All flaxen was his poll.
152
SHAKS.:
Hamlet, Act iv., Sc. 5.
His tawny beard was th' equal grace
Both of his wisdom and his face;
In cut and die so like a tile,
A sudden view it would beguile;
The upper part thereof was whey;
The nether, orange mix'd with grey.
153
BUTLER:
Hudibras, Pt. i., Canto i., Line 241.
Beast.
A beast, that wants discourse of reason.
154
SHAKS.;
Hamlet, Act i., Sc. 2.
Beauty.
My beauty, though but mean,
Needs not the painted flourish of your praise;
Beauty is bought by judgment of the eye,
Not utter'd by base sale of chapmen's tongues.
155
SHAKS.:
Love's L. Lost, Act ii., Sc. 1.
Beauty is but a vain and doubtful good;
A shining gloss that fadeth suddenly;
A flower that dies, when first it 'gins to bud;
A brittle glass that's broken presently;
A doubtful good, a gloss, a glass, a flower,
Lost, faded, broken, dead within an hour.
156
SHAKS.:
Pass. Pilgrim, St. 11
Beauty stands
In the admiration only of weak minds
Led captive; cease to admire, and all her plumes
Fall flat and shrink into a trivial toy,
At every sudden slighting quite abash'd.
157
MILTON:
Par. Regained, Bk. ii., Line 220.
Old as I am, for ladies' love unfit,
The power of beauty I remember yet.
158
DRYDEN:
Cym. and Iph., Line 1.
A thing of beauty is a joy forever:
Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness; but still will keep
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep
Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.
159
KEATS:
Endymion, Bk. i., Line 1.
What is this thought or thing
Which I call beauty? is it thought or thing?
Is it a thought accepted for a thing?
Or both? or neither—a pretext?—a word?
160
MRS. BROWNING:
Drama of Ex. Extrem. of Sword-Glare.
If eyes were made for seeing,
Then Beauty is its own excuse for being.
161
EMERSON:
The Rhodora.
Fair tresses man's imperial race insnare,
And beauty draws us with a single hair.
162
POPE:
R. of the Lock, Canto ii., Line 27.
True beauty dwells in deep retreats,
Whose veil is unremoved
Till heart with heart in concord beats,
And the lover is beloved.
163
WORDSWORTH:
To ——. Let Other Bards of Angels Sing.
Bed.
In bed we laugh, in bed we cry,
And born in bed, in bed we die;
The near approach a bed may show
Of human bliss and human woe.
164
ISAAC DE BENSERADE:
Trans. by Dr. Johnson.
Bees.
So work the honey-bees;
Creatures, that by a rule in nature, teach
The act of order to a peopled kingdom.
165
SHAKS.:
Henry V., Act i., Sc. 2.
The moan of doves in immemorial elms,
And murmuring of innumerable bees.
166
TENNYSON:
The Princess, Pt. vii., Line 203.
Beggars.
Beggars, mounted, run their horse to death.
167
SHAKS.:
3 Henry VI., Act i., Sc. 4.
When beggars die, there are no comets seen;
The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes.
168
SHAKS.:
Jul. Cæsar, Act ii., Sc. 2.
Behavior.
And puts himself upon his good behavior.
169
BYRON:
Don Juan, Canto v., St. 47.
Belial.
When night
Darkens the streets, then wander forth the sons
Of Belial, flown with insolence and wine.
170
MILTON:
Par. Lost, Bk. i., Line 500.
Bells.
Those evening bells! those evening bells!
How many a tale their music tells
Of youth, and home, and that sweet time,
When last I heard their soothing chime!
171
MOORE:
Those Evening Bells.
Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky!
Ring out old shapes of foul disease,
Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;
Ring out the thousand wars of old,
Ring in the thousand years of peace.
Ring in the valiant man and free,
The larger heart, the kindlier hand;
Ring out the darkness of the land,
Ring in the Christ that is to be.
172
TENNYSON:
In Memoriam, Pt. cv.
Hear the mellow wedding bells,
Golden bells!
What a world of happiness their harmony foretells!
173
EDGAR ALLAN POE:
The Bells.
Benediction.
The thought of our past years in me doth breed
Perpetual benediction.
174
WORDSWORTH:
Intimations of Immortality, St. 9.
Bible.
A glory gilds the sacred page,
Majestic like the sun;
It gives a light to every age;
It gives, but borrows none.
175
COWPER:
Olney Hymns, No. 30.
Bigotry.
Christians have burnt each other, quite persuaded
That all the Apostles would have done as they did.
176
BYRON:
Don Juan, Canto i., St. 83.
Birds.
You call them thieves and pillagers; but know
They are the winged wardens of your farms,
Who from the cornfields drive the insidious foe,
And from your harvests keep a hundred harms.
177
LONGFELLOW:
Birds of Killingworth, St. 19.
Birth.
Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:
The soul that rises with us our life's star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from afar.
178
WORDSWORTH:
Intimations of Immortality, St. 5.
While man is growing, life is in decrease;
And cradles rock us nearer to the tomb.
Our birth is nothing but our death begun.
179
YOUNG:
Night Thoughts, Night v., Line 717.
Birthday.
A birthday:—and now a day that rose
With much of hope, with meaning rife—
A thoughtful day from dawn to close:
The middle day of human life.
180
JEAN INGELOW.
A Birthday Walk.
Bivouac.
On Fame's eternal camping-ground
Their silent tents are spread,
And Glory guards with solemn round
The bivouac of the dead.
181
THEODORE O'HARA:
Bivouac of the Dead.
Blasphemy.
Great men may jest with saints; 'tis wit in them;
But, in the less, foul profanation.
That in the captain's but a choleric word,
Which in the soldier is flat blasphemy.
182
SHAKS.:
M. for M., Act ii., Sc. 2.
Bleakness.
A naked house, a naked moor,
A shivering pool before the door,
A garden bare of flowers and fruit,
And poplars at the garden foot:
Such is the place that I live in,
Bleak without and bare within.
183
ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON:
The House Beautiful.
Blessings.
How blessings brighten as they take their flight!
184
YOUNG:
Night Thoughts, Night ii., Line 602.
For blessings ever wait on virtuous deeds,
And though a late, a sure reward succeeds.
185
CONGREVE:
Mourning Bride, Act v., Sc. 12.
Blindness.
O dark, dark, dark, amid the blaze of noon;
Irrecoverably dark! total eclipse,
Without all hope of day.
186
MILTON:
Samson Agonistes, Line 80.
O, loss of sight, of thee I most complain!
Blind among enemies, O worse than chains,
Dungeons, or beggary, or decrepit age!
Light, the prime work of God, to me 's extinct,
And all her various objects of delight
Annul'd, which might in part my grief have eas'd,
187
MILTON:
Samson Agonistes, Line 67.
Bliss.
Condition, circumstance, is not the thing;
Bliss is the same in subject or in king.
188
POPE:
Essay on Man, Epis. iv., Line 57.
Vain, very vain, my weary search to find
That bliss which only centres in the mind.
189
GOLDSMITH:
Traveller, Line 423.
Blood.
When the blood burns, how prodigal the soul
Lends the tongue vows.
190
SHAKS.:
Hamlet, Act i., Sc. 3.
A ruddy drop of manly blood
The surging sea outweighs;
The world uncertain comes and goes,
The lover rooted stays.
191
EMERSON:
Epigraph to Friendship.
Blood is a juice of very special kind.
192
GOETHE:
Faust (Swanwick's Trans.), Line 1386.
Bloom.
O'er her warm cheek and rising bosom move
The bloom of young Desire and purple light of Love.
193
GRAY:
Prog. of Poesy, Pt. i., St. 1, Line 3.
Blossoms.
Who in life's battle firm doth stand
Shall bear hope's tender blossoms
Into the silent land.
194
J.G. VON SALIS:
The Silent Land.
Bluntness.
I have neither wit, nor words, nor worth,
Action, nor utterance, nor the power of speech,
To stir men's blood: I only speak right on.
195
SHAKS.:
Jul. Cæsar, Act iii., Sc. 2.
Blushing.
Girls blush, sometimes, because they are alive,
Half wishing they were dead to save the shame.
The sudden blush devours them, neck and brow;
They have drawn too near the fire of life, like gnats,
And flare up boldly, wings and all.
What then?
Who's sorry for a gnat ... or girl?
196
MRS. BROWNING:
Aurora Leigh, Bk. ii., Line 732.
Boasting.
Here's a large mouth, indeed,
That spits forth death, and mountains, rocks, and seas;
Talks as familiarly of roaring lions,
As maids of thirteen do of puppy dogs.
197
SHAKS.:
King John, Act ii., Sc. 2.
Boat.
Oh swiftly glides the bonnie boat;
Just parted from the shore,
And to the fisher's chorus-note
Soft moves the dipping oar.
198
BAILLIE:
Oh Swiftly Glides the Bonnie Boat.
Boldness.
In conversation boldness now bears sway,
But know, that nothing can so foolish be
As empty boldness.
199
HERBERT:
Temple, Church Porch, St. 34.
Bond.
I'll have my bond; I will not hear thee speak;
I'll have my bond; and therefore speak no more.
200
SHAKS.:
M. of Venice, Act iii., Sc. 3.
Bones.
Cursed be he that moves my bones.
201
SHAKS.:
Shakespeare's Epitaph.
Rattle his bones over the stones!
He's only a pauper, whom nobody owns!
202
THOMAS NOEL:
The Pauper's Ride.
Books.
A book! O rare one!
Be not, as is our fangled world, a garment
Nobler than that it covers.
203
SHAKS.:
Cymbeline, Act v., Sc. 4.
That place that does contain
My books, the best companions, is to me
A glorious court, where hourly I converse
With the old sages and philosophers;
And sometimes, for variety, I confer
With kings and emperors, and weigh their counsels.
204
BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER:
The Elder Brother, Act i., Sc. 2.
Books cannot always please, however good;
Minds are not ever craving for their food.
205
CRABBE:
The Borough, Letter xxiv.
Dreams, books, are each a world; and books, we know,
Are a substantial world, both pure and good;
Round these, with tendrils strong as flesh and blood,
Our pastime and our happiness will grow.
206
WORDSWORTH:
Personal Talk.
Deep vers'd in books, and shallow in himself.
207
MILTON:
Par. Regained, Bk. iv., Line 327.
Some books are lies frae end to end.
208
BURNS:
Death and Dr. Hornbook.
Bores.
Society is now one polish'd horde,
Formed of two mighty tribes, the
Bores and
Bored.
209
BYRON:
Don Juan, Canto xiii., St. 95.
Again I hear that creaking step!—
He's rapping at the door!—
Too well I know the boding sound
That ushers in a bore.
210
J.G. SAXE:
My Familiar.
Borrowing.
Neither a borrower nor a lender be,
For loan oft loses both itself and friend;
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
This above all,—to thine own self be true;
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
211
SHAKS.:
Hamlet, Act i., Sc. 3.
Boston.
Solid men of Boston, banish long potations!
Solid men of Boston, make no long orations!
212
CHARLES MORRIS:
American Song. From Lyra Urbanica.
Bough.
Cut is the branch that might have grown full straight,
And burned is Apollo's laurel bough,
That sometime grew within this learned man.
213
MARLOWE:
Faustus.
Bounds.
There's nothing situate under Heaven's eye,
But hath, his bound, in earth, in sea, in sky.
214
SHAKS.:
Com. of Errors, Act ii., Sc. 1
Bounty.
For his bounty,
There was no winter in 't; an autumn 't was,
That grew the more by reaping.
215
SHAKS.:
Ant. and Cleo., Act v., Sc. 2
Large was his bounty, and his soul sincere,
Heaven did a recompense as largely send;
He gave to mis'ry (all he had) a tear,
He gain'd from Heav'n ('t was all he wish'd) a friend.
216
GRAY:
Elegy, The Epitaph.
Bourn.
The undiscover'd country from whose bourn
No traveller returns.
217
SHAKS.:
Hamlet, Act iii., Sc. 1.
Bower.
I'd be a butterfly born in a bower,
Where roses and lilies and violets meet.
218
THOMAS HAYNES BAYLY:
I'd be a Butterfly.
Bowl.
There St. John mingles with my friendly bowl,
The feast of reason and the flow of soul.
219
POPE: Satire i., Line 6.
Boyhood.
The whining schoolboy, with his satchel,
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school.
220
SHAKS.:
As You Like It, Act ii., Sc. 7.
The smiles, the tears,
Of boyhood's years,
The words of love then spoken.
221
MOORE:
Oft in the Stilly Night.
Braes.
We twa hae run about the braes,
And pu'd the gowans fine.
222
BURNS:
Auld Lang Syne.
Braggart.
I know them, yea,
And what they weigh, even to the utmost scruple:
Scrambling, outfacing, fashion-monging boys,
That lie, and cog, and flout, deprave, and slander,
Go anticly, and show outward hideousness,
And speak off half a dozen dangerous words,
How they might hurt their enemies if they durst;
And this is all.
223
SHAKS.:
Much Ado, Act v., Sc. 1.
Brains.
The times have been
That, when the brains were out, the man would die,
And there an end; but now they rise again,
With twenty mortal murders on their crowns,
And push us from our stools.
224
SHAKS.:
Macbeth, Act iii., Sc. 4.
Bravery.
'Tis more brave
To live, than to die.
225
OWEN MEREDITH:
Lucile, Pt. ii., Canto vi., St. 11.
None but the brave deserves the fair.
226
DRYDEN:
Alex. Feast, St. 1.
How sleep the brave, who sink to rest,
By all their country's wishes blest!
227
COLLINS:
Lines in 1764.
Breach.
Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more,
Or close the wall up with our English dead!
228
SHAKS.:
Henry V., Act ii., Sc. 4.
Bread.
O God! that bread should be so dear,
And flesh and blood so cheap!
229
HOOD:
The Song of the Shirt.
Breast.
The yielding marble of her snowy breast.
230
WALLER:
On a Lady passing through a Crowd of People.
A word in season spoken
May calm the troubled breast.
231
CHARLES JEFFERYS:
A Word in Season.
Breath.
When the good man yields his breath
(For the good man never dies).
232
JAMES MONTGOMERY:
The Wanderer of Switzerland, Pt. v.
Breeches.
But the old three-cornered hat,
And the breeches, and all that,
Are so queer!
233
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES:
The Last Leaf.
Breezes.
Breezes of the South!
Who toss the golden and the flame-like flowers,
And pass the prairie-hawk that, poised on high,
Flaps his broad wings, yet moves not—ye have played
Among the palms of Mexico and vines
Of Texas, and have crisped the limpid brooks
That from the fountains of Sonora glide
Into the calm Pacific—have ye fanned
A nobler or a lovelier scene than this?
234
WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT:
The Prairies.
Brevity.
Since brevity is the soul of wit,
And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes—
I will be brief.
235
SHAKS.:
Hamlet, Act ii., Sc. 2.
For brevity is very good,
When we are, or are not, understood.
236
BUTLER:
Hudibras, Pt. i., Canto i., Line 669.
Bribes.
What! shall one of us,
That struck the foremost man of all this world,
But for supporting robbers;—shall we now
Contaminate our fingers with base bribes?
And sell the mighty space of our large honors
For so much trash as may be grasped thus?
I'd rather be a dog, and bay the moon,
Than such a Roman.
237
SHAKS.:
Jul. Cæsar, Act iv., Sc. 3.
Bride.
You are just a sweet bride in her bloom,
All sunshine, and snowy, and pure.
238
THOMAS B. ALDRICH:
An Untimely Thought.
Bridge.
By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April's breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattl'd farmers stood,
And fired the shot heard round the world.
239
EMERSON:
Hymn sung at the Completion of the Battle Monument.
Brooks.
A silvery brook comes stealing
From the shadow of its trees,
Where slender herbs of the forest stoop
Before the entering breeze.
240
WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT:
The Unknown Way.
Brotherhood.
I have shot mine arrow o'er the house,
And hurt my brother.
241
SHAKS.:
Hamlet, Act v., Sc. 2.
Affliction's sons are brothers in distress;
A brother to relieve,—how exquisite the bliss!
242
BURNS:
A Winter Night.
Bubbles.
The earth hath bubbles as the water has,
And these are of them.
243
SHAKS.:
Macbeth, Act i., Sc. 3.
Bucket.
The old oaken bucket, the iron-bound bucket,
The moss-covered bucket, which hung in the well.
244
WOODWORTH:
The Old Oaken Bucket.
Bud.
The bud is on the bough again.
The leaf is on the tree.
245
CHARLES JEFFERYS:
The Meeting of Spring and Summer
Bugle.
Blow, bugle, blow! set the wild echoes flying!
And answer, echoes, answer! dying, dying, dying.
246
TENNYSON:
The Princess, Pt. iii., Line 360.
Building.
The hand that rounded Peter's dome,
And groined the aisles of Christian Rome,
Wrought in a sad sincerity;
Himself from God he could not free;
He builded better than he knew:
The conscious stone to beauty grew.
247
EMERSON:
The Problem.
Burden.
A sacred burden is this life ye bear:
Look on it, lift it, bear it solemnly,
Stand up and walk beneath it steadfastly.
248
FRANCES ANNE KEMBLE:
To the Young
Gentlemen leaving Lenox Academy, Mass.
Bush.
For what are they all in their high conceit,
When man in the bush with God may meet?
249
EMERSON:
Good-Bye.
Business.
Let thy mind still be bent, still plotting, where
And when, and how thy business may be done,
Slackness breeds worms; but the sure traveller,
Though he alights sometimes, still goeth on.
250
HERBERT:
Temple, Church Porch, St. 57.
Buttercups.
All will be gay when noontide wakes anew
The buttercups, the little children's dower.
251
ROBERT BROWNING:
Home-Thoughts, From Abroad.
C.
Cadence.
Wit will shine
Through the harsh cadence of a rugged line.
252
DRYDEN:
To the Memory of Mr. Oldham, Line 15.
Cæsar.
Imperious Cæsar, dead and turn'd to clay,
Might stop a hole to keep the wind away.
253
SHAKS.:
Hamlet, Act v., Sc. 1.
But yesterday the word of Cæsar might
Have stood against the world; now lies he there,
And none so poor to do him reverence.
254
SHAKS.:
Jul. Cæsar, Act iii., Sc. 2.
Calamity.
Affliction is enamour'd of thy parts,
And thou art wedded to calamity.
255
SHAKS.:
Rom. and Jul., Act iii., Sc. 3.
Calmness.
And through the heat of conflict keeps the law
In calmness made, and sees what he foresaw.
256
WORDSWORTH:
Character of the Happy Warrior.
Calumny.
Calumny will sear
Virtue itself: these shrugs, these hums, and ha's.
257
SHAKS.:
Wint. Tale, Act ii., Sc. 1.
Camping.
The bed was made, the room was fit,
By punctual eve the stars were lit;
The air was still, the water ran,
No need was there for maid or man,
When we put up, my ass and I,
At God's green caravanserai.
258
ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON:
A Camp.
Candle.
How far that little candle throws his beams!
So shines a good deed in a naughty world.
259
SHAKS.:
M. of Venice, Act v., Sc. 1.
Candor.
Some positive, persisting fops we know,
Who, if once wrong, will needs be always so;
But you with pleasure own your errors past,
And make each day a critique on the last.
260
POPE:
E. on Criticism, Pt. iii., Line 9.
Cannons.
The cannons have their bowels full of wrath;
And ready mounted are they, to spit forth
Their iron indignation.
261
SHAKS.:
King John, Act ii., Sc. 1.
Canopy.
Seas roll to waft me, suns to light me rise;
My footstool earth, my canopy the skies.
262
POPE:
Essay on Man, Epis. i., Line 139.
Capacity.
That wondrous soul Charoba once possest,—
Capacious, then, as earth or heaven could hold,
Soul discontented with capacity,—
Is gone (I fear) forever.
263
WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR:
Gebir, Bk. ii.
Captain.
O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done,
The ship has weathered every rack, the prize we sought is won.
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring.
But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.
264
WALT WHITMAN:
O Captain! My Captain! (On Death of Lincoln.)
A rude and boisterous captain of the sea.
265
JOHN HOME:
Douglas, Act iv., Sc. 1.
Care.
Care keeps his watch in every old man's eye,
And where care lodges, sleep will never lie.
266
SHAKS.:
Rom. and Jul., Act ii., Sc. 1.
Care that is enter'd once into the breast,
Will have the whole possession, ere it rest.
267
BEN JONSON:
Tale of a Tub, Act i., Sc. 3.
Care, whom not the gayest can outbrave,
Pursues its feeble victim to the grave.
268
HENRY KIRKE WHITE:
Childhood, Pt. ii., Line 17.
Care to our coffin adds a nail, no doubt;
And every grin, so merry, draws one out.
269
PETER PINDAR:
Ex. Odes, Ode 15.
Hang sorrow! care will kill a cat,
And therefore let's be merry.
270
GEORGE WITHER:
Poem on Christmas.
Carefulness.
For my means, I'll husband them so well,
They shall go far with little.
271
SHAKS.:
Hamlet, Act iv., Sc. 5.
Cat.
A harmless necessary cat.
272
SHAKS.:
M. of Venice, Act iv., Sc. 1.
Let Hercules himself do what he may,
The cat will mew and dog will have his day.
273
SHAKS.:
Hamlet, Act v., Sc. 1.
Cataract.
The sounding cataract
Haunted me like a passion.
274
WORDSWORTH:
Lines composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey.
Cathedrals.
The high embower'd roof,
With antique pillars, massy proof,
And storied windows, richly dight,
Casting a dim religious light.
275
MILTON:
Il Penseroso, Line 157.
Cato.
Like Cato, give his little senate laws,
And sit attentive to his own applause.
276
POPE:
Prologue to the Satires, Line 207.
Cattle.
O Mary, go and call the cattle home,
And call the cattle home,
And call the cattle home,
Across the sands o' Dee.
277
CHARLES KINGSLEY:
The Sands of Dee.
Cause.
And therefore little shall I grace my cause
In speaking for myself.
278
SHAKS.:
Othello, Act i., Sc. 3.
Caution.
Let every eye negotiate for itself
And trust no agent.
279
SHAKS.:
Much Ado, Act ii, Sc. 1.
Know when to speak; for many times it brings
Danger, to give the best advice to kings.
280
HERRICK:
Aph. Caution in Council,
Vessels large may venture more,
But little boats should keep near shore.
281
FRANKLIN:
Poor Richard.
Caverns.
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.
282
COLERIDGE:
Kubla Khan.
Celibacy.
But earthly happier is the rose distill'd,
Than that, which, withering on the virgin thorn,
Grows, lives and dies in single blessedness.
283
SHAKS.:
Mid. N. Dream, Act i., Sc. 1.
Our Maker bids increase; who bids abstain
But our destroyer, foe to God and man?
284
MILTON:
Par. Lost, Bk. iv., Line 748.
Censure.
Praise from a friend, or censure from a foe,
Are lost on hearers that our merits know.
285
POPE:
Iliad, Bk. x., Line 293.
Ceremony.
Ceremony was but devised at first
To set a gloss on faint deeds—hollow welcomes,
Recanting goodness, sorry ere 't is shown;
But where there is true friendship, there needs none.
286
SHAKS.:
Timon of A., Act i., Sc. 2.
Challenge.
There I throw my gage,
To prove it on thee, to the extremest point
Of mortal breathing.
287
SHAKS.:
Richard II., Act iv., Sc. 1.
Chance.
That power
Which erring men call Chance.
288
MILTON:
Comus, Line 587.
All nature is but art unknown to thee,
All chance, direction, which thou canst not see.
289
POPE:
Essay on Man, Epis. i., Line 289.
Change.
All but God is changing day by day.
290
CHARLES KINGSLEY:
Prometheus.
When change itself can give no more,
'T is easy to be true.
291
CHARLES SEDLEY:
Reasons for Constancy.
Let the great world spin forever down the ringing
grooves of change.
292
TENNYSON:
Locksley Hall, Line 182.
Chaos.
For he being dead, with him is beauty slain,
And, beauty dead, black chaos comes again.
293
SHAKS.:
Venus and A., Line 1019.
Chaos of thought and passion, all confused;
Still by himself abused or disabused.
294
POPE:
Essay on Man, Epis. ii., Line 13.
Character.
There is a kind of character in thy life,
That to the observer doth thy history
Fully unfold.
295
SHAKS.:
M. for M., Act i., Sc. 1.
Worth, courage, honor, these indeed
Your sustenance and birthright are.
296
E.C. STEDMAN:
Beyond the Portals, Pt. 10.
Charity.
Charity itself fulfils the law,
And who can sever love from charity?
297
SHAKS.:
Love's L. Lost, Act iv., Sc. 3.
Alas for the rarity
Of Christian charity
Under the sun!
298
HOOD:
Bridge of Sighs.
Charms.
Charms strike the sight, but merit wins the soul.
299
POPE:
R. of the Lock, Canto v., Line 34.
Chastity.
So dear to heav'n is saintly chastity,
That when a soul is found sincerely so,
A thousand liveried angels lackey her.
300
MILTON:
Comus, Line 453.
Chatterton.
I thought of Chatterton, the marvellous boy,
The sleepless soul that perish'd in his pride.
Of him who walk'd in glory and in joy,
Following his plough along the mountain side.
301
WORDSWORTH:
Res. and Indep., St. 7.
Chaucer.
Dan Chaucer, well of English undefyled,
On Fame's eternall beadroll worthie to be fyled.
302
SPENSER:
Faerie Queene, Bk. iv., Canto ii., St. 32.
Cheating.
Doubtless the pleasure is as great,
Of being cheated as to cheat.
303
BUTLER:
Hudibras, Pt. ii., Canto iii., Line 1.
Cheerfulness.
It is good
To lengthen to the last a sunny mood.
304
JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL:
Legend of Brittany, Pt. i., St. 35.
Chickens.
To swallow gudgeons ere they 're catch'd,
And count their chickens ere they 're hatch'd.
305
BUTLER:
Hudibras, Pt. ii., Canto ii., Line 923.
Chiding.
Chide him for faults, and do it reverently,
When you perceive his blood inclined to mirth.
306
SHAKS.:
2 Henry IV., Sc. 4.
Child—Childhood—Children.
Ah! what would the world be to us
If the children were no more?
We should dread the desert behind us
Worse than the dark before.
307
LONGFELLOW:
Children.
Behold the child, by nature's kindly law,
Pleased with a rattle, tickled with a straw.
308
POPE:
Essay on Man. Epis. ii., Line 275.
The child is father of the man.
309
WORDSWORTH:
My Heart Leaps, Line 7.
Children are the keys of Paradise.
They alone are good and wise,
Because their thoughts, their very lives are prayer
310
R.H. STODDARD:
The Children's Prayer.
I have had playmates, I have had companions,
In my days of childhood, in my joyful school-days.
All, all are gone, the old familiar faces.
311
CHARLES LAMB:
Old Familiar Faces.
As children gath'ring pebbles on the shore.
312
MILTON:
Par. Regained, Bk. iv., Line 330.
Backward, turn backward, O Time, in your flight,
Make me a child again, just for to-night.
313
ELIZABETH AKERS ALLEN:
Rock Me to Sleep.
Chime.
Faintly as tolls the evening chime,
Our voices keep tune and our oars keep time.
314
MOORE:
A Canadian Boat-Song.
Chivalry.
Cervantes smil'd Spain's chivalry away.
315
BYRON:
Don Juan, Canto xiii., St. 11.
Choice.
There's small choice in rotten apples.
316
SHAKS.:
Tam. of the S., Act i., Sc. 1.
Follow thou thy choice.
317
WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT:
Alcayde of Molina.
Choler.
Must I give way and room to your rash choler?
Shall I be frighted when a madman stares?
318
SHAKS.:
Jul. Cæsar, Act iv., Sc. 3.
Chord.
Love took up the harp of Life, and smote on all the chords with might;
Smote the chord of Self, that, trembling, pass'd in music out of sight.
319
TENNYSON:
Locksley Hall, Line 33.
Christ.
In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,
With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me:
As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free.
320
JULIA WARD HOWE:
Battle Hymn of the Republic.
Hail to the King of Bethlehem,
Who weareth in his diadem
The yellow crocus for the gem
Of his authority.
321
LONGFELLOW:
Christus, Golden Legend, Pt. iii.
Christ—the one great word
Well worth all languages in earth or Heaven.
322
BAILEY:
Festus, Sc.
Heaven.
We kind o' thought Christ went agin war an' pillage.
323
JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL:
Biglow Papers, No. iii.
Christmas.
At Christmas play, and make good cheer,
For Christmas comes but once a year.
324
TUSSER: 500
Pts. Good Hus., Ch. 12.
Again at Christmas did we weave
The holly round the Christmas hearth;
The silent snow possess'd the earth.
325
TENNYSON:
In Memoriam, Pt. lxxvii., St. 1.
Bright be thy Christmas tide!
Carol it far and wide,
Jesus, the King and the Saviour, is come!
326
FRANCES R. HAVERGAL:
Christmas Mottoes.
Heap on more wood! the wind is chill;
But let it whistle as it will,
We'll keep our Christmas merry still.
327
SCOTT:
Marmion, Canto vi., Introduction.
'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring,—not even a mouse.
328
CLEMENT C. MOORE:
A Visit from St. Nicholas.
Church.
Who builds a church to God, and not to fame,
Will never mark the marble with his name.
329
POPE:
Moral Essays, Epis. iii., Line 285.
"What is a church?" Let truth and reason speak;
They would reply—"The faithful pure and meek,
From Christian folds, the one selected race,
Of all professions, and in every place."
330
CRABBE:
The Borough, Letter ii.
Churchyard.
The solitary, silent, solemn scene,
Where Cæsars, heroes, peasants, hermits lie,
Blended in dust together; where the slave
Rests from his labors; where th' insulting proud
Resigns his power; the miser drops his hoard;
Where human folly sleeps.
331
DYER:
Ruins of Rome, Line 540.
Churlishness.
My master is of churlish disposition,
And little recks to find the way to heaven,
By doing deeds of hospitality.
332
SHAKS.:
As You Like It, Act ii., Sc. 4.
Circumstance.
And grasps the skirts of happy chance,
And breasts the blows of circumstance.
333
TENNYSON:
In Memoriam, Pt. lxiii., St. 2.
Citadel.
A tower'd citadel, a pendent rock,
A forked mountain, or blue promontory
With trees upon't.
334
SHAKS.:
Ant. and Cleo., Act iv., Sc. 14.
Citizens.
Before man made us citizens, great Nature made us men.
335
JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL:
The Capture of Fugitive Slaves.
City.
As one who long in populous city pent,
Where houses thick and sewers annoy the air.
336
MILTON:
Par. Lost, Bk. ix., Line 445.
Civilities.
Love taught him shame; and shame, with love at strife,
Soon taught the sweet civilities of life.
337
DRYDEN:
Cym. and Iph., Line 133.
Clay.
Tho' he trip and fall,
He shall not blind his soul with clay.
338
TENNYSON:
The Princess, Pt. vii., Line 308.
Cleanliness.
E'en from the body's purity, the mind
Receives a secret sympathetic aid.
339
THOMSON:
Seasons, Summer, Line 1269.
Clergyman.
Near yonder copse, where once the garden smil'd,
And still where many a garden flow'r grows wild,
There, where a few torn shrubs the place disclose,
The village preacher's modest mansion rose.
A man he was to all the country dear,
And passing rich with forty pounds a year.
340
GOLDSMITH:
Des. Village, Line 137.
Cliff.
As some tall cliff that lifts its awful form,
Swells from the vale, and midway leaves the storm,—
Though round its breast the rolling clouds are spread,
Eternal sunshine settles on its head.
341
GOLDSMITH:
Des. Village, Line 189.
Clime.
Forc'd from their homes, a melancholy train,
To traverse climes beyond the western main.
342
GOLDSMITH:
Traveller, Line 409.
Cloak.
Itt 's pride that putts the countrye doune,
Then take thine old cloake about thee.
343
PERCY:
Take Thy Old Cloak About Thee.
Clock.
Till like a clock worn out with eating time,
The wheels of weary life at last stood still.
344
DRYDEN:
Oedipus, Act iv., Sc. 1.
Clothes.
The naked every day he clad
When he put on his clothes.
345
GOLDSMITH:
Elegy on the Death of a Mad Dog.
Clouds.
Circling the mountains the gray clouds go
Heavy with storms as a mother with child,
Seeking release from their burden of snow
With calm slow motion they cross the wild—
Stately and sombre, they catch and cling
To the barren crags of the peaks in the west,
Weary with waiting, and mad for rest.
346
HAMLIN GARLAND:
The Clouds.
Clouds on the western side
Grow gray and grayer, hiding the warm sun.
347
CHRISTINA G. ROSSETTI:
Twilight Calm.
Those clouds are angels' robes.—That fiery west
Is paved with smiling faces.
348
CHARLES KINGSLEY:
Saint's Tragedy, Act i., Sc. 3.
Coach.
Go, call a coach, and let a coach be call'd,
And let the man who calleth be the caller,
And in his calling let him nothing call
But coach! coach! coach! oh, for a coach, ye gods!
349
CAREY:
Chrononhotonthologos, Act i., Sc. 3.
Cock-crowing.
The early village cock
Hath twice done salutation to the morn.
350
SHAKS.:
Richard III., Act v., Sc. 3.
Coincidence.
A "strange coincidence," to use a phrase
By which such things are settled nowadays.
351
BYRON:
Don Juan, Canto vi., St. 78.
Cold.
The cold in clime are cold in blood,
Their love can scarce deserve the name.
352
BYRON:
Giaour, Line 1099.
For this relief much thanks: 'tis bitter cold,
And I am sick at heart.
353
SHAKS.:
Hamlet, Act i., Sc. 1.
Coliseum.
"While stands the Coliseum, Rome shall stand;
When falls the Coliseum, Rome shall fall;
And when Rome falls—the world."
354
BYRON:
Ch. Harold, Canto iv., St. 145.
Colossus.
Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world
Like a Colossus, and we petty men
Walk under his huge legs and peep about
To find ourselves dishonorable graves.
355
SHAKS.:
Jul. Cæsar, Act i., Sc. 2.
Colors.
I took it for a faery vision
Of some gay creatures of the element,
That in the colors of the rainbow live,
And play i' th' plighted clouds.
356
MILTON:
Comus, Line 298.
Columbia.
Columbia, Columbia, to glory arise,
The queen of the world and child of the skies!
Thy genius commands thee; with rapture behold,
While ages on ages thy splendors unfold.
357
TIMOTHY DWIGHT:
Columbia.
Column.
Where London's column, pointing at the skies,
Like a tall bully, lifts the head and lies.
358
POPE:
Moral Essays, Epis. iii., Line 339.
Combat.
The combat deepens. On, ye brave,
Who rush to glory or the grave!
359
CAMPBELL:
Hohenlinden.
Comet.
Incens'd with indignation Satan stood
Unterrify'd, and like a comet burn'd
That fires the length of Ophiuchus huge
In th' Arctic sky, and from his horrid hair
Shakes pestilence and war.
360
MILTON:
Par. Lost, Bk. ii., Line 707.
Comfort.
O, my good lord, that comfort comes too late;
'Tis like a pardon after execution;
That gentle physic, given in time, had cur'd me;
But now I'm past all comforts here but prayers.
361
SHAKS.:
Henry VIII., Act iv., Sc. 2.
Commandments.
Could I come near your beauty with my nails,
I'd set my ten commandments in your face.
362
SHAKS.:
2 Henry VI., Act i., Sc. 3.
Commentators.
How commentators each dark passage shun,
And hold their farthing candle to the sun.
363
YOUNG:
Love of Fame, Satire vii., Line 97.
Commerce.
Where wealth and freedom reign contentment fails,
And honor sinks where commerce long prevails.
364
GOLDSMITH:
Traveller, Line 91.
Communion.
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,
'Tis e'en as if an angel shook his wings.
365
COWPER:
Charity, Line 435.
Companions.
Oh could I fly, I'd fly with thee!
We'd make with joyful wing
Our annual visit o'er the globe,
Companions of the spring.
366
JOHN LOGAN:
To the Cuckoo.
Comparisons.
When the moon shone, we did not see the candle;
So doth the greater glory dim the less.
367
SHAKS.:
M. of Venice, Act v., Sc. 1.
In virtues nothing earthly could surpass her,
Save thine "incomparable oil," Macassar!
368
BYRON:
Don Juan, Canto i., St. 17.
Compass.
Though pleased to see the dolphins play,
I mind my compass and my way.
369
MATTHEW GREEN:
Spleen, Line 93.
Compassion.
O, heavens! can you hear a good man groan,
And not relent, or not compassion him?
370
SHAKS.:
Titus And., Act iv., Sc. 1.
Compensation.
Under the storm and the cloud to-day,
And to-day the hard peril and pain—
To-morrow the stone shall be rolled away,
For the sunshine shall follow the rain.
Merciful Father, I will not complain,
I know that the sunshine shall follow the rain.
371
JOAQUIN MILLER:
For Princess Maud.
Complexion.
Mislike me not for my complexion,
The shadow'd livery of the burnish'd sun.
372
SHAKS.:
M. of Venice, Act ii., Sc. 1.
Compulsion.
Such sweet compulsion doth in music lie.
373
MILTON:
Arcades, Line 68.
Concealment.
She never told her love,
But let concealment, like a worm i' the bud,
Feed on her damask cheek.
374
SHAKS.:
Tw. Night, Act ii., Sc. 3.
Conceit.
Conceit in weakest bodies strongest works.
375
SHAKS.:
Hamlet, Act iii., Sc. 4.
Conclusion.
But this denoted a foregone conclusion.
376
SHAKS.:
Othello, Act iii., Sc. 3.
Concord.
Pour the sweet milk of concord into hell,
Uproar the universal peace, confound
All unity on earth.
377
SHAKS.:
Macbeth, Act iv., Sc. 3.
Condemnation.
To each his suff'rings; all are men,
Condemn'd alike to groan,—
The tender for another's pain,
Th' unfeeling for his own.
378
GRAY:
On a Distant Prospect of Eton College.
Confession.
Come, now again thy woes impart,
Tell all thy sorrows, all thy sin;
We cannot heal the throbbing heart,
Till we discern the wounds within.
379
CRABBE:
Hall of Justice, Pt. ii.
Confidence.
I will believe
Thou wilt not utter what thou dost not know;
And so far will I trust thee.
380
SHAKS.:
1 Henry IV., Act ii., Sc. 3.
Conflict.
Arms on armor clashing bray'd
Horrible discord, and the madding wheels
Of brazen chariots rag'd; dire was the noise
Of conflict.
381
MILTON:
Par. Lost, Bk. vi., Line 209.
Confusion.
Ruin seize thee, ruthless king!
Confusion on thy banners wait!
382
GRAY:
The Bard, Pt. i., St. 1.
With ruin upon ruin, rout on rout,
Confusion worse confounded.
383
MILTON:
Par. Lost, Bk. ii., Line 995.
Congregation.
Wherever God erects a house of prayer,
The Devil always builds a chapel there;
And 't will be found, upon examination,
The latter has the largest congregation.
384
DEFOE:
True-Born Englishman, Pt. i., Line 1.
Conquest.
Though fann'd by Conquest's crimson wing,
They mock the air with idle slate.
385
GRAY:
The Bard, Pt. i., St. 1.
Conscience.
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought;
And enterprises of great pith and moment,
With this regard their currents torn awry,
And lose the name of action.
386
SHAKS.:
Hamlet, Act iii., Sc. 1.
O conscience, into what abyss of fears
And horrors hast thou driven me; out of which
I find no way, from deep to deeper plung'd!
387
MILTON:
Par. Lost, Bk. x., Line 842.
But, at sixteen, the conscience rarely gnaws
So much, as when we call our old debts in
At sixty years, and draw the accounts of evil,
And find a deuced balance with the devil.
388
BYRON:
Don Juan, Canto i., St. 167.
Consideration.
Consideration like an angel came,
And whipp'd the offending Adam out of him.
389
SHAKS.:
Henry V., Act i., Sc. 1.
Consistency.
Gineral C. is a dreffle smart man;
He's ben on all sides thet give places or pelf;
But consistency still wuz a part of his plan,—
He's ben true to one party, an' thet is himself.
390
JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL:
Biglow Papers, No. ii.
Consolation.
This grief is crowned with consolation.
391
SHAKS.:
Ant. and Cleo., Act i., Sc. 2.
Canst thou not minister to a mind diseas'd;
Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow;
Raze out the written troubles of the brain;
And, with some sweet oblivious antidote,
Cleanse the stuff'd bosom of that perilous stuff,
Which weighs upon the heart?
392
SHAKS.:
Macbeth, Act v., Sc. 3.
Conspiracy.
Conspiracies no sooner should be formed
Than executed.
393
ADDISON:
Cato, Act i., Sc. 2.
Constancy.
I am constant as the northern star,
Of whose true-fix'd, and resting quality
There is no fellow in the firmament.
394
SHAKS.:
Jul. Cæsar, Act iii., Sc. 1.
Alas! they had been friends in youth;
But whispering tongues can poison truth,
And constancy lives in realms above.
395
COLERIDGE:
Christabel, Pt. ii.
Consummation.
To die: to sleep:
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heartache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to,—'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd.
396
SHAKS.:
Hamlet, Act iii., Sc. 1.
Contemplation.
For contemplation he and valor form'd,
For softness she and sweet attractive grace.
397
MILTON:
Par. Lost, Bk. iv., Line 297.
Contempt.
From no one vice exempt,
And most contemptible to shun contempt.
398
POPE:
Moral Essays, Epis. i., Line 194.
Contention.
Sons and brothers at a strife!
What is your quarrel? how began it first?
—No quarrel, but a slight contention.
399
SHAKS.:
3 Henry VI., Act i., Sc. 2.
Contentment.
He that commends me to mine own content,
Commends me to the thing I cannot get.
400
SHAKS.:
Com. of Errors, Act i., Sc. 2.
This is the charm, by sages often told,
Converting all it touches into gold:
Content can soothe, where'er by fortune placed,
Can rear a garden in the desert waste.
401
HENRY KIRKE WHITE:
Clifton Grove, Line 139.
Contradiction.
Woman's at best a contradiction still.
402
POPE:
Moral Essays, Epis. ii., Line 270.
Controversy.
Great contest follows, and much learned dust
Involves the combatants; each claiming truth,
And truth disclaiming both.
403
COWPER:
Task, Bk. iii., Line 161.
Conversation.
A dearth of words a woman need not fear;
But 't is a task indeed to learn—to hear:
In that the skill of conversation lies;
That shows or makes you both polite and wise.
404
YOUNG:
Love of Fame, Satire v., Line 57.
Converts.
More proselytes and converts use t' accrue
To false persuasions than the right and true;
For error and mistake are infinite,
But truth has but one way to be i' th' right.
405
BUTLER:
Misc. Thoughts, Line 113.
Cooks.
Heaven sends us good meat; but the devil sends cooks.
406
GARRICK:
Epigr. on Goldsmith's Retal.
Coquette.
Or light or dark, or short or tall,
She sets a springe to snare them all;
All 's one to her—above her fan
She 'd make sweet eyes at Caliban.
407
T.B. ALDRICH:
Coquette.
Corruption.
Corruption is a tree, whose branches are
Of an unmeasurable length: they spread
Ev'rywhere; and the dew that drops from thence
Hath infected some chairs and stools of authority.
408
BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER:
Hon. Man's For., Act iii., Sc. 3
At length corruption, like a general flood,
(So long by watchful ministers withstood,)
Shall deluge all; and avarice creeping on,
Spread like a low-born mist, and blot the sun.
409
POPE:
Moral Essays, Epis. iii., Line 135.
Counsel.
Bosom up my counsel,
You'll find it wholesome.
410
SHAKS.:
Henry VIII., Act i., Sc. 1.
Here thou, great Anna! whom three realms obey,
Dost sometimes counsel take—and sometimes tea.
411
POPE:
R. of the Lock, Canto iii., Line 7.
Country.
God made the country, and man made the town;
What wonder, then, that health and virtue, gifts,
That can alone make sweet the bitter draught
That life holds out to all, should most abound,
And least be threatened in the fields and groves?
412
COWPER:
Task, Bk. i., Line 749.
True patriots all; for be it understood
We left our country for our country's good.
413
GEORGE BARRINGTON:
Prologue written for
the Opening of the Playhouse at New South
Wales, Jan. 16, 1796.
Courage.
What man dare, I dare.
Approach thou like the rugged Russian bear,
The arm'd Rhinoceros, or th' Hyrcanian tiger.
Take any shape but that, and my firm nerves
Shall never tremble.
414
SHAKS.:
Macbeth, Act iii., Sc. 4.
I dare do all that may become a man:
Who dares do more is none.
415
SHAKS.:
Macbeth, Act i., Sc. 7.
No thought of flight,
None of retreat, no unbecoming deed
That argued fear; each on himself relied,
As only in his arm the moment lay
Of victory.
416
MILTON,
Par. Lost, Bk. vi., Line 236.
Court—Courtiers.
The caterpillars of the commonwealth,
Whom I have soon to weed and pluck away.
417
SHAKS.:
Richard II., Act ii., Sc. 3.
Not a courtier,
Although they wear their faces to the bent
Of the king's looks, hath a heart that is not
Glad at the thing they scowl at.
418
SHAKS.:
Cymbeline, Act i., Sc. 1.
A mere court butterfly,
That flutters in the pageant of a monarch.
419
BYRON:
Sardanapalus, Act v., Sc. 1.
Courtesy.
How sweet and gracious, even in common speech,
Is that fine sense which men call Courtesy!
Wholesome as air and genial as the light,
Welcome in every clime as breath of flowers,—
It transmutes aliens into trusting friends,
And gives its owner passport round the globe.
420
JAMES T. FIELDS:
Courtesy.
Courtship.
Bring, therefore, all the forces that you may,
And lay incessant battery to her heart;
Plaints, prayers, vows, ruth, and sorrow, and dismay,—
These engines can the proudest love convert.
421
SPENSER:
Amoretti and Epithalamion, Sonnet xiv.
She is a woman, therefore may be woo'd;
She is a woman, therefore may be won.
422
SHAKS.:
Titus And., Act ii., Sc. 1.
He that would win his dame must do
As love does when he draws his bow;
With one hand thrust the lady from,
And with the other pull her home.
423
BUTLER:
Hudibras, Pt. ii., Canto i., Line 449.
Covetousness.
When workmen strive to do better than well,
They do confound their skill in covetousness.
424
SHAKS.:
King John, Act iv., Sc. 2.
Cowardice.
O, that a mighty man, of such descent,
Of such possessions, and so high esteem,
Should be infused with so foul a spirit!
425
SHAKS.:
Tam. of the S., Introduction, Sc. 2.
Cowards die many times before their deaths;
The valiant never taste of death but once.
426
SHAKS.:
Jul. Cæsar, Act ii., Sc. 2.
The man that lays his hand upon a woman,
Save in the way of kindness, is a wretch
Whom 't were gross flattery to name a coward.
427
JOHN TOBIN:
Honeymoon, Act ii., Sc. 1.
The coward never on himself relies,
But to an equal for assistance flies.
428
CRABBE: Tale iii., Line 84.
Cowslips.
With cowslips wan that hang the pensive head,
And every flower that sad embroidery wears.
429
MILTON:
Lycidas, Line 139.
Coxcombs.
So by false learning is good sense defac'd;
Some are bewilder'd in the maze of schools,
And some made coxcombs, nature meant but fools.
430
POPE:
E. on Criticism, Pt. i., Line 25.
And coxcombs vanquish Berkeley by a grin.
431
JOHN BROWN:
An Essay on Satire.
Cradle.
Me let the tender office long engage
To rock the cradle of reposing age.
432
POPE:
Prologue to the Satires, Line 408.
Craftiness.
That for ways that are dark
And for tricks that are vain,
The heathen Chinee is peculiar.
433
BRET HARTE:
Plain Language from Truthful James.
Creation.
Creation sleeps! 'T is as the general pulse
Of life stood still, and Nature made a pause,—
An awful pause! prophetic of her end.
434
YOUNG:
Night Thoughts, Night i., Line 23.
Credit.
Bless paper credit! last and best supply!
That lends corruption lighter wings to fly.
435
POPE:
Moral Essays, Epis. iii., Line 39.
Creed.
Shall I ask the brave soldier who fights by my side
In the cause of mankind, if our creeds agree?
Shall I give up the friend I have valued and tried,
If he kneel not before the same altar with me?
436
MOORE:
Come, Send Round the Wine.
Crime.
Between the acting of a dreadful thing
And the first motion, all the interim is
Like a phantasma, or a hideous dream.
437
SHAKS.:
Jul. Cæsar, Act ii., Sc. 1.
One murder made a villain,
Millions a hero. Princes were privileged
To kill, and numbers sanctified the crime.
438
BEILBY PORTEUS:
Death, Line 154.
Criticism—Critics.
I am nothing if not critical.
439
SHAKS.:
Othello, Act ii., Sc. 1.
Critics I saw, that other names deface,
And fix their own, with labor, in their place.
440
POPE:
Temple of Fame, Line 37.
Cromwell.
Cromwell, our chief of men, who through a cloud,
Not of war only, but detractions rude,
Guided by faith and matchless fortitude,
To peace and truth thy glorious way hast plough'd.
441
MILTON:
Sonnets, To the Lord General Cromwell.
Cross.
The moon of Mahomet
Arose, and it shall set;
While, blazoned as on heaven's immortal noon,
The cross leads generations on.
442
SHELLEY:
Hellas, Line 221.
Crowd.
Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife
Their sober wishes never learn'd to stray.
443
GRAY:
Elegy, St. 19.
Crown.
Upon my head they placed a fruitless crown,
And put a barren sceptre in my gripe.
444
SHAKS.:
Macbeth, Act iii., Sc. 1.
What seem'd his head
The likeness of a kingly crown had on.
Satan was now at hand.
445
MILTON:
Par. Lost, Bk. ii., Line 666.
Cruelty.
A stony adversary, an inhuman wretch,
Uncapable of pity, void and empty
From any dram of mercy.
446
SHAKS.:
M. of Venice, Act iv., Sc. 1.
Cupid.
Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind,
And therefore is wing'd Cupid painted blind.
447
SHAKS.:
Mid. N. Dream, Act i., Sc. 1.
Cupid is a casuist,
A mystic, and a cabalist,—
Can your lurking thought surprise,
And interpret your device....
Heralds high before him run;
He has ushers many a one;
He spreads his welcome where he goes,
And touches all things with his rose.
All things wait for and divine him,—
How shall I dare to malign him?
448
EMERSON:
Daem. and Celes., Love, Pt. i.
Cure.
'T is an ill cure
For life's worst ills, to have no time to feel them.
449
SIR HENRY TAYLOR:
Philip Van Artevelde, Pt. i., Act i., Sc. 5.
Curfew.
The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,
The lowing herd winds slowly o'er the lea,
The ploughman homeward plods his weary way,
And leaves the world to darkness and to me.
450
GRAY:
Elegy, St. 1.
Curiosity.
I loathe that low vice, curiosity.
451
BYRON:
Don Juan, Canto i., St. 23.
Curls.
Shakes his ambrosial curls, and gives the nod,—
The stamp of fate, and sanction of the god.
452
POPE:
Iliad, Bk. i., Line 684.
Current.
We must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our ventures.
453
SHAKS.:
Jul. Cæsar, Act iv., Sc. 3.
Curses.
Let this pernicious hour
Stand aye accursed in the calendar.
454
SHAKS.:
Macbeth, Act iv., Sc. 1.
But in their stead
Curses, not loud but deep, mouth-honor, breath,
Which the poor heart would fain deny, and dare not.
455
SHAKS.:
Macbeth, Act v., Sc. 3.
It was that fatal and perfidious bark,
Built in th' eclipse, and rigg'd with curses dark.
456
MILTON:
Lycidas, Line 100.
Custom.
How use doth breed a habit in a man!
457
SHAKS.:
Two Gent. of V., Act v., Sc. 4.
Custom calls me to 't;—
What custom wills, in all things should we do 't?
458
SHAKS.:
Coriolanus, Act ii., Sc. 3.
Assume a virtue, if you have it not.
That monster, custom, who all sense doth eat,
Of habits devil, is angel yet in this.
459
SHAKS.:
Hamlet, Act iii., Sc. 4
Cypress.
Dark tree! still sad when others' grief is fled,
The only constant mourner o'er the dead.
460
BYRON:
Giaour, Line 286.
D.
Daffadills.
Fair daffadills, we weep to see
You haste away so soon:
As yet the early rising sun
Has not attained his noon.
461
HERRICK:
To Daffadills.
Dagger.
Is this a dagger which I see before me,
The handle toward my hand?...
or art thou but
A dagger of the mind, a false creation,
Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?
462
SHAKS.:
Macbeth, Act ii., Sc. 1
Daisy.
The daisy's cheek is tipp'd with a blush,
She is of such low degree.
463
HOOD:
Flowers.
Damnation.
And deal damnation round the land.
464
POPE:
The Universal Prayer, St. 7.
Damsel.
A damsel with a dulcimer
In a vision once I saw.
465
COLERIDGE:
Kubla Khan.
Dancing.
Alike all ages: dames of ancient days
Have led their children through the mirthful maze:
And the gay grandsire, skill'd in gestic lore,
Has frisk'd beneath the burden of threescore.
466
GOLDSMITH:
Traveller, Line 251.
Her feet beneath her petticoat,
Like little mice, stole in and out,
As if they feared the light;
But, oh! she dances such a way!
No sun upon an Easter-day
Is half so fine a sight.
467
SUCKLING:
On a Wedding.
Come and trip it as you go
On the light fantastic toe.
468
MILTON:
L'Allegro, Line 33.
On with the dance! let joy be unconfined!
No sleep till morn, when youth and pleasure meet,
To chase the glowing hours with flying feet.
469
BYRON:
Ch. Harold, Canto iii., St. 22.
You have the Pyrrhic dance as yet,
Where is the Pyrrhic phalanx gone?
470
BYRON:
Don Juan, Canto iii., St. 86. 10.
Danger.
He that stands upon a slippery place,
Makes nice of no vile hold to stay him up.
471
SHAKS.:
King John, Act iii., Sc. 4.
Out of this nettle, danger, we pluck this flower, safety.
472
SHAKS.:
1 Henry IV., Act ii., Sc. 3.
Whom neither shape of danger can dismay,
Nor thought of tender happiness betray.
473
WORDSWORTH:
Character of the Happy Warrior.
Dante.
Oh their Dante of the dread Inferno,
Wrote one song—and in my brain I sing it.
474
ROBERT BROWNING:
One Word More, xvii.
Daring.
I dare do all that may become a man;
Who dares do more is none.
475
SHAKS.:
Macbeth, Act i., Sc. 7
The bravest are the tenderest,—
The loving are the daring.
476
BAYARD TAYLOR:
The Song of the Camp.
Darkness.
Lo! darkness bends down like a mother of grief
On the limitless plain, and the fall of her hair
It has mantled a world.
477
JOAQUIN MILLER:
From Sea to Sea, St. 4.
Thy hand, great Anarch, lets the curtain fall,
And universal darkness buries all.
478
POPE:
Dunciad, Bk. iv., Line 649.
Dart.
Th' adorning thee with so much art
Is but a barb'rous skill;
'Tis like the pois'ning of a dart,
Too apt before to kill.
479
ABRAHAM COWLEY:
The Waiting Maid.
Daughter.
Still harping on my daughter.
480
SHAKS.:
Hamlet, Act ii., Sc. 2.
Farewell, farewell to thee, Araby's daughter!
Thus warbled a Peri beneath the dark sea.
481
MOORE:
Lalla Rookh, The Fire-Worshippers.
Dawn.
The morning steals upon the night,
Melting the darkness.
482
SHAKS.:
Tempest, Act v., Sc. 1.
The day begins to break, and night is fled,
Whose pitchy mantle over-veil'd the earth.
483
SHAKS.:
1 Henry VI., Act ii., Sc. 2.
Clothing the palpable and familiar
With golden exhalations of the dawn.
484
COLERIDGE:
Death of Wallenstein, Act i., Sc. 1.
Day, Days.
At the close of the day when the hamlet is still,
And mortals the sweets of forgetfulness prove,
When naught but the torrent is heard on the hill,
And naught but the nightingale's song in the grove.
485
BEATTIE:
The Hermit.
My days are in the yellow leaf;
The flowers and fruits of love are gone;
The worm, the canker, and the grief
Are mine alone!
486
BYRON:
On my Thirty-sixth Year.
One of those heavenly days that cannot die.
487
WORDSWORTH:
Nutting.
Death.
Of all the wonders that I yet have heard,
It seems to me most strange that men should fear;
Seeing that death, a necessary end,
Will come, when it will come.
488
SHAKS.:
Jul. Cæsar, Act ii., Sc. 2.
Kings and mightiest potentates must die,
For that's the end of human misery.
489
SHAKS.:
1 Henry VI., Act iii., Sc. 2.
Death lies on her, like an untimely frost
Upon the sweetest flower of all the field.
490
SHAKS.:
Rom. and Jul., Act iv., Sc. 5.
Though death be poor, it ends a mortal woe.
491
SHAKS.:
Richard II., Act ii., Sc. 1.
Behind her death,
Close following pace for pace, not mounted yet
On his pale horse.
492
MILTON:
Par. Lost, Bk. x., Line 588.
Come to the bridal chamber, Death!
Come to the mother's, when she feels,
For the first time, her first-born's breath;
Come when the blessed seals
That close the pestilence are broke,
And crowded cities wail its stroke;
Come in consumption's ghastly form,
The earthquake shock, the ocean storm;
Come when the heart beats high and warm,
With banquet song, and dance, and wine;
And thou art terrible,—the tear,
The groan, the knell, the pall, the bier,
And all we know, or dream, or fear
Of agony are thine.
493
FITZ-GREENE HALLECK:
Marco Bozzaris.
Death loves a shining mark, a signal blow.
494
YOUNG:
Night Thoughts, Night v., Line 1011.
To every man upon this earth
Death cometh soon or late.
495
MACAULAY:
Lays Anc. Rome, Horatius, xxvii.
Leaves have their times to fall,
And flowers to wither at the north wind's breath,
And stars to set—but all,
Thou hast all seasons for thine own, O death.
496
MRS. HEMANS:
Hour of Death.
Death is only kind to mortals.
497
SCHILLER:
Complaint of Ceres, St. 4.
What a strange, delicious amazement is Death,
To be without body and breathe without breath.
498
EDWIN ARNOLD:
She and He.
There is no Death! What seems so is transition;
This life of mortal breath
Is but a suburb of the life elysian,
Whose portal we call death.
499
LONGFELLOW:
Resignation, St. 5.
Our days begin with trouble here,
Our life is but a span,
And cruel death is always near,
So frail a thing is man.
500
From the New England Primer.
Death rides on every passing breeze,
He lurks in every flower.
501
HEBER:
At a Funeral, No. i.
How wonderful is Death!
Death and his brother Sleep.
502
SHELLEY:
Queen Mab, St. i.
And Death is beautiful as feet of friend
Coming with welcome at our journey's end.
503
JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL:
To George William Curtis.
Death in itself is nothing; but we fear
To be we know not what, we know not where.
504
DRYDEN:
Aurengzebe, Act iv., Sc. 1.
Debt.
You say, you nothing owe; and so I say:
He only owes, who something hath to pay.
505
MARTIAL: (
Hay), ii., 3.
Decay.
Before decay's effacing fingers
Have swept the lines where beauty lingers.
506
BYRON:
Giaour, Line 68.
The ruins of himself! now worn away
With age, yet still majestic in decay.
507
POPE:
Odyssey, Bk. xxiv., Line 271.
Deceit.
Ah, that deceit should steal such gentle shapes,
And with a virtuous visor hide deep vice.
508
SHAKS.:
Richard III., Act ii., Sc. 2.
O, what a tangled web we weave,
When first we practise to deceive.
509
SCOTT:
Marmion, Canto vi., St. 17
December.
And after him came next the chill December:
Yet he, through merry feasting which he made
And great bonfires, did not the cold remember;
His Saviour's birth his mind so much did glad.
510
SPENSER:
Faerie Queene, Bk. vii., Canto vii., St. 41.
As soon
Seek roses in December, ice in June.
511
BYRON:
English Bards and Scotch Reviewers, Line 75.
Decency.
Immodest words admit of no defence,
For want of decency is want of sense.
512
EARL OF ROSCOMMON:
Essay on Translated Verse; Line 113.
Decision.
If it were done, when 't is done, then 't were well
It were done quickly.
513
SHAKS.:
Macbeth, Act i., Sc. 7.
Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide,
In the strife of Truth with Falsehood, for the good or evil side;
Some great cause, God's new Messiah, offering each the bloom or blight,
Parts the goats upon the left hand, and the sheep upon the right;
And the choice goes by forever 'twixt that darkness and that light.
514
JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL:
Present Crisis.
Deeds.
And with necessity,
The tyrant's plea, excus'd his devilish deeds.
515
MILTON:
Par. Lost, Bk. iv., Line 393.
Oh! 't is easy
To beget great deeds; but in the rearing of them—
The threading in cold blood each mean detail,
And furze brake of half-pertinent circumstance—
There lies the self-denial.
516
CHARLES KINGSLEY:
Saint's Tragedy, Act iv., Sc. 3.
Deep.
Embosom'd in the deep where Holland lies,
Methinks her patient sons before me stand,
Where the broad ocean leans against the land.
517
GOLDSMITH:
Traveller, Line 282.
Defeat.
Such a numerous host
Fled not in silence through the frighted deep,
With ruin upon ruin, rout on rout,
Confusion worse confounded.
518
MILTON:
Par. Lost, Bk. ii., Line 993.
Defect.
So may a glory from defect arise.
519
ROBERT BROWNING:
Deaf and Dumb.
Defence.
What boots it at one gate to make defence,
And at another to let in the foe?
520
MILTON:
Samson Agonistes, Line 560.
Defiance.
I do defy him, and I spit at him;
Call him a slanderous coward, and a villain:
Which to maintain, I would allow him odds;
And meet him, were I tied to run a-foot,
Even to the frozen ridges of the Alps.
521
SHAKS.:
Richard II., Act i., Sc. 1.
Deity.
Hail, source of being! universal soul
Of heaven and earth! essential presence, hail!
To Thee I bend the knee; to Thee my thoughts
Continual, climb; who, with a master hand,
Hast the great whole into perfection touch'd.
522
THOMSON:
Seasons, Spring, Line 556.
Dejection.
As high as we have mounted in delight,
In our dejection do we sink as low.
523
WORDSWORTH:
Resolution and Independence, St. 4.
Delay.
Delay leads impotent and snail-paced beggary.
524
SHAKS.:
Richard III., Act iv., Sc. 3.
Be wise to-day; 't is madness to defer;
Next day the fatal precedent will plead;
Thus on, till wisdom is push'd out of life.
525
YOUNG:
Night Thoughts, Night i., Line 390.
Deliberation.
Deep on his front engraven,
Deliberation sat, and public care.
526
MILTON:
Par. Lost, Bk. ii., Line 300.
Delight.
She was a phantom of delight
When first she gleamed upon my sight,
A lovely apparition, sent
To be a moment's ornament.
527
WORDSWORTH:
She was a Phantom of Delight.
Delusion.
For love of grace,
Lay not that flattering unction to your soul
That not your trespass but my madness speaks:
It will but skin and film the ulcerous place.
Whiles rank corruption, mining all within,
Infects unseen.
528
SHAKS.:
Hamlet, Act iii., Sc. 4.
Denmark.
Something is rotten in the State of Denmark.
529
SHAKS.:
Hamlet, Act i., Sc. 4.
Deportment.
What's a fine person, or a beauteous face,
Unless deportment gives them decent grace?
Blest with all other requisites to please,
Some want the striking elegance of ease;
The curious eye their awkward movement tires;
They seem like puppets led about by wires.
530
CHURCHILL:
Rosciad, Line 741.
Depravity.
God's love seemed lost upon him.
531
BAILEY:
Festus, Sc.
Heaven.
Depression.
All day the darkness and the cold
Upon my heart have lain,
Like shadows on the winter sky,
Like frost upon the pane.
532
WHITTIER:
On Receiving an Eagle's Quill.
Desert.
In the cold grave, under the deep, deep sea,
Or in the wide desert where no life is found.
533
HOOD.
Sonnet, Silence.
The keenest pangs the wretched find
Are rapture to the dreary void,
The leafless desert of the mind,
The waste of feelings unemployed.
534
BYRON:
Giaour, Line 957.
Desire (Love).
It liveth not in fierce desire,
With dead desire it doth not die.
535
SCOTT:
Lay of the Last Minstrel, Canto v., St. 13.
Desolation.
Desolate! Life is so dreary and desolate.
Women and men in the crowd meet and mingle,
Yet with itself every soul standeth single,
Deep out of sympathy moaning its moan;
Holding and having its brief exultation;
Making its lonesome and low lamentation;
Fighting its terrible conflicts alone.
536
ALICE CARY:
Life.
Despair.
Despair defies even despotism; there is
That in my heart would make its way thro' hosts
With levell'd spears.
537
BYRON:
Two Foscari, Act i., Sc. 1.
Then black despair,
The shadow of a starless night, was thrown
Over the world in which I moved alone.
538
SHELLEY:
Revolt of Islam, Dedication, St. 6
The strongest and the fiercest spirit
That fought in heaven, now fiercer by despair.
539
MILTON:
Par. Lost, Bk. ii., Line 44.
Destiny.
That old miracle—Love-at-first-sight—
Needs no explanations. The heart reads aright
Its destiny sometimes.
540
OWEN MEREDITH:
Lucile, Pt. ii., Canto vi., St. 16.
Where'er she lie,
Locked up from mortal eye,
In shady leaves of destiny.
541
RICHARD CRASHAW:
Wishes to his Supposed Mistress.
Determination.
I'll speak to it, though hell itself should gape,
And bid me hold my peace.
542
SHAKS.:
Hamlet, Act i., Sc. 2.
Detraction.
Happy are they that hear their detractions,
And can put them to mending.
543
SHAKS.:
Much Ado, Act ii., Sc. 3.
A third interprets motions, looks, and eyes;
At every word a reputation dies.
544
POPE:
R. of the Lock, Canto iii., Line 15.
Devil.
'T is the eye of childhood
That fears a painted devil.
545
SHAKS.:
Macbeth, Act ii., Sc. 2.
The devil was sick, the devil a saint would be;
The devil was well, the devil a saint was he.
546
RABELAIS:
Works, Bk. iv., Ch. xxiv.
Devotion.
As down in the sunless retreats of the ocean
Sweet flowers are springing no mortal can see,
So deep in my soul the still prayer of devotion
Unheard by the world, rises silent to Thee.
547
MOORE:
As Down in the Sunless Retreats.
Dew.
What gentle ghost, besprent with April dew,
Hails me so solemnly to yonder yew?
548
BEN JONSON:
Elegy on the Lady Jane Pawlet.
Dial.
True as the dial to the sun,
Although it be not shin'd upon.
549
BUTLER:
Hudibras, Pt. iii., Canto ii., Line 175.
Difficulty.
It is as hard to come, as for a camel
To thread the postern of a needle's eye.
550
SHAKS:
Richard II., Act v., Sc. 5.
Dignity.
Grace was in all her steps, heaven in her eye,
In every gesture dignity and love.
551
MILTON:
Par. Lost, Bk. viii., Line 488.
Digression.
And there began a lang digression
About the lords o' the creation.
552
BURNS:
The Twa Dogs.
Dinner.
Since Eve ate apples, much depends on dinner.
553
BYRON:
Don Juan, Canto xiii., St. 99.
Disappointment.
Oh! that a dream so sweet, so long enjoy'd,
Should be so sadly, cruelly destroy'd!
554
MOORE:
Lalla Rookh, Veiled Prophet of Khorassan.
Discord.
Discord oft in music makes the sweeter lay.
555
SPENSER:
Faerie Queene, Bk. iii., Canto ii., St. 15.
From hence, let fierce contending nations know
What dire effects from civil discord flow.
556
ADDISON:
Cato, Act ii., Sc. 4.
Discourse.
Sure, he that made us with such large discourse,
Looking before and after, gave us not
That capability and godlike reason
To fust in us unused.
557
SHAKS.:
Hamlet, Act iv., Sc. 4.
Discretion.
Let's teach ourselves that honorable stop,
Not to outsport discretion.
558
SHAKS.:
Othello, Act ii., Sc. 3.
It shewed discretion, the best part of valor.
559
BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER:
King and No King, Act iv., Sc. 3.
Diseases.
Diseases, desperate grown,
By desperate appliance are reliev'd,
Or not at all.
560
SHAKS.:
Hamlet, Act iv., Sc. 3.
Disguise.
'T is great, 't is manly, to disdain disguise;
It shows our spirit, or it proves our strength.
561
YOUNG:
Night Thoughts, Night viii., Line 372.
Dislike.
I do not love thee, Doctor Fell,
The reason why I cannot tell;
But this alone I know full well,
I do not love thee, Doctor Fell.
562
TOM BROWN:
Trans. of Martial's Ep. I., 33.
Disobedience.
Of man's first disobedience, and the fruit
Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste
Brought death into the world, and all our woe.
563
MILTON:
Par. Lost, Bk. i., Line 1.
Disorder.
You have displac'd the mirth, broke the good meeting,
With most admir'd disorder.
564
SHAKS.:
Macbeth, Act iii., Sc. 4.
Disposition.
He is of a very melancholy disposition.
565
SHAKS.:
Much Ado, Act i., Sc. 1.
Dispute.
'T is strange how some men's tempers suit,
Like bawd and brandy, with dispute,
That for their own opinions stand fast,
Only to have them claw'd and canvass'd.
566
BUTLER:
Hudibras, Pt. ii., Canto ii., Line 1.
Dissension.
Now join your hands, and with your hands your hearts,
That no dissension hinder government.
567
SHAKS.:
3 Henry VI., Act iv., Sc. 6.
Dissimulation.
Away and mock the time with fairest show;
False face must hide what the false heart doth know.
568
SHAKS.:
Macbeth, Act i., Sc. 7.
Dissolution.
Like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve;
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind.
569
SHAKS.:
Tempest, Act iv., Sc. 1.
Distance.
'T is distance lends enchantment to the view,
And robes the mountain in its azure hue.
570
CAMPBELL:
Pl. of Hope, Pt. i., Line 7.
Sweetest melodies
Are those that are by distance made more sweet.
571
WORDSWORTH:
Personal Talk, St. 2.
Distrust.
The saddest thing that can befall a soul
Is when it loses faith in God and woman.
572
ALEXANDER SMITH:
A Life Drama, Sc. 12.
Divinity.
There's a divinity that shapes our ends,
Rough-hew them how we will.
573
SHAKS.:
Hamlet, Act v., Sc. 2.
Doctrine.
And prove their doctrine orthodox,
By apostolic blows and knocks.
574
BUTLER:
Hudibras, Pt. i., Canto i., Line 205.
Dogs.
Ay, in the catalogue ye go for men;
As hounds, and greyhounds, mongrels, spaniels, curs,
Shoughs, water-rugs, and demi-wolves, are 'clept
All by the name of dogs.
575
SHAKS.:
Macbeth, Act iii., Sc. 1.
Dominion.
Here we may reign secure, and in my choice
To reign is worth ambition, though in Hell:
Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven.
576
MILTON:
Par. Lost, Bk. i., Line 261.
Doom.
What, will the line stretch out to the crack of doom?
577
SHAKS.:
Macbeth, Act iv., Sc. 1.
Doubt.
Modest doubt is call'd
The beacon of the wise, the tent that searches
To the bottom of the worst.
578
SHAKS.:
Troil. and Cress., Act ii., Sc. 2.
Our doubts are traitors,
And make us lose the good we oft might win,
By fearing to attempt.
579
SHAKS.:
M. for M., Act i., Sc. 5.
Drama.
The drama's laws the drama's patrons give,
For we that live to please, must please to live.
580
DR. JOHNSON:
Pro. On Opening Drury Lane Theatre.
Dreams.
I talk of dreams
Which are the children of an idle brain,
Begot of nothing but vain fantasy;
Which is as thin of substance as the air;
And more inconstant than the wind.
581
SHAKS.:
Rom. and Jul., Act i., Sc. 4.
Dreams in their development have breath,
And tears, and tortures, and the touch of joy.
582
BYRON:
Dream, St. 1.
Some dreams we have are nothing else but dreams,
Unnatural and full of contradictions;
Yet others of our most romantic schemes
Are something more than fictions.
583
HOOD:
The Haunted House.
Like glimpses of forgotten dreams.
584
TENNYSON:
The Two Voices, St. cxxvii.
Dress.
Be plain in dress, and sober in your diet;
In short, my deary, kiss me, and be quiet.
585
LADY M.W. MONTAGU:
A Summary of Lord Lyttelton's Advice.
We sacrifice to dress, till household joys
And comforts cease. Dress drains our cellar dry,
And keeps our larder lean; puts out our fires,
And introduces hunger, frost, and woe,
Where peace and hospitality might reign.
586
COWPER:
Task, Bk. ii., Line 614.
Drink—Drinking—Drunkenness.
Oh, that men should put an enemy in
Their mouths, to steal away their brains! that we
Should, with joy, pleasance, revel and applause,
Transform ourselves into beasts!
587
SHAKS.:
Othello, Act ii., Sc. 3,
Give him strong drink until he wink,
That's sinking in despair;
An' liquor guid to fire his bluid,
That's prest wi' grief an' care,
There let him house and deep carouse,
Wi' bumpers flowing o'er,
Till he forgets his loves or debts,
An' minds his griefs no more.
588
BURNS:
Scotch Drink.
Dryden.
Waller was smooth; but Dryden taught to join
The varying verse, the full resounding line,
The long majestic march, and energy divine.
589
POPE: Satire v., Line 267.
Duelling.
Some fiery fop, with new commission vain,
Who sleeps on brambles till he kills his man;
Some frolic drunkard, reeling from a feast,
Provokes a broil, and stabs you for a jest.
590
DR. JOHNSON:
London.
Dunce.
How much a dunce, that has been sent to roam,
Excels a dunce, that has been kept at home.
591
COWPER:
Prog. of Error, Line 415.
Dungeon.
Dweller in yon dungeon dark,
Hangman of creation, mark!
592
BURNS:
Ode on Mrs. Oswald.
Duty.
Stern Daughter of the Voice of God!
O Duty! if that name thou love
Who art a light to guide, a rod
To check the erring, and reprove;
Thou, who art victory and law
When empty terrors overawe;
From vain temptations dost set free;
And calm'st the weary strife of frail humanity!
593
WORDSWORTH:
Ode to Duty.
E.
Eagle.
So the struck eagle, stretch'd upon the plain,
No more through rolling clouds to soar again,
View'd his own feather on the fatal dart,
And wing'd the shaft that quiver'd in his heart.
594
BYRON:
English Bards and Scotch Reviewers, Line 826.
Ear.
Where more is meant than meets the ear.
595
MILTON:
Il Penseroso, Line 120.
Earth.
The earth doth like a snake renew
Her winter weeds outworn.
596
SHELLEY:
Hellas, Line 1060.
Earth felt the wound; and Nature from her seat,
Sighing through all her works, gave signs of woe
That all was lost.
597
MILTON:
Par. Lost, Bk. ix., Line 782.
Upon my burned body lie lightly, gentle earth.
598
BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER:
Maid's Tragedy, Act i., Sc. 2.
Earth with her thousand voices praises God.
599
COLERIDGE:
Hymn in the Vale of Chamouni.
Ease.
Ease would recant
Vows made in pain, as violent and void.
600
MILTON:
Par. Lost, Bk. iv., Line 96.
East.
An hour before the worshipp'd sun
Peered forth the golden window of the east.
601
SHAKS.:
Rom. and Jul., Act i., Sc. 1.
Easter.
Rise, heart; thy Lord is risen. Sing His praise
Without delays,
Who takes thee by the hand, that thou likewise
With Him mayst rise:
That, as His death calcined thee to dust,
His life may make thee gold, and, much more, just.
602
HERBERT:
The Church. Easter.
Eating.
Unquiet meals make ill digestions.
603
SHAKS.:
Com. of Errors, Act v., Sc. 1.
Some hae meat and canna eat,
And some would eat that want it;
But we hae meat, and we can eat,
Sae let the Lord be thankit.
604
BURNS:
Grace before Meat.
Echo.
Echo waits with art and care
And will the faults of song repair.
605
EMERSON:
May-Day, Line 439.
O love, they die, in yon rich sky,
They faint on hill or field or river:
Our echoes roll from soul to soul,
And grow for ever and for ever.
606
TENNYSON:
The Princess, Pt. iii.,
Song.
Eclipse.
The sun, ...
In dim eclipse, disastrous twilight sheds
On half the nations, and with fear of change
Perplexes monarchs.
607
MILTON:
Par. Lost, Bk. i., Line 597.
Eden.
They hand in hand, with wand'ring steps and slow,
Through Eden took their solitary way.
608
MILTON:
Par. Lost, Bk. xii., Line 645.
Education.
'Tis education forms the common mind;
Just as the twig is bent, the tree's inclin'd.
609
POPE:
Moral Essays, Epis. i., Line 149.
Eloquence.
His tongue
Dropt manna, and could make the worse appear
The better reason, to perplex and dash
Maturest counsels.
610
MILTON:
Par. Lost, Bk. ii., Line 113.
Emerson.
There comes Emerson first, whose rich words, every one,
Are like gold nails in temples to hang trophies on.
611
JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL:
A Fable for Critics.
Eminence.
He who ascends to mountain tops shall find
The loftiest peaks most wrapp'd in clouds and snow;
He who surpasses or subdues mankind,
Must look down on the hate of those below.
612
BYRON:
Ch. Harold, Canto iii., St. 45.
Empire.
Hands that the rod of empire might have sway'd,
Or waked to ecstasy the living lyre.
613
GRAY:
Elegy, St. 12.
End.
Life's but a means unto an end; that end
Beginning, mean, and end to all things,—God.
614
BAILEY:
Festus, Sc.
A Country Town.
Endurance.
'Tis not now who's stout and bold?
But who bears hunger best, and cold?
And he's approv'd the most deserving,
Who longest can hold out at starving.
615
BUTLER:
Hudibras, Pt. iii., Canto iii., Line 353.
England.
O England!—model to thy inward greatness,
Like little body with a mighty heart,—
What mightst thou do, that honor would thee do,
Were all thy children kind and natural!
616
SHAKS.:
Henry V., Act i.,
Chorus.
Enmity.
'Tis death to me to be at enmity;
I hate it, and desire all good men's love.
617
SHAKS.:
Richard III., Act ii., Sc. 1.
Ensign.
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.
618
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES:
Old Ironside.
Enthusiasm.
Rash enthusiasm, in good society
Were nothing but a moral inebriety.
619
BYRON:
Don Juan, Canto xiii., Line 35.
Envy.
Fools may our scorn, not envy, raise,
For envy is a kind of praise.
620
GAY:
Fables, Pt. i., Fable 44.
Envy will merit, as its shade, pursue;
But, like a shadow, proves the substance true.
621
POPE:
E. on Criticism, Pt. ii., Line 266.
Base envy withers at another's joy,
And hates that excellence it cannot reach.
622
THOMSON:
Seasons, Spring, Line 284.
Epitaphs.
Nobles and heralds, by your leave,
Here lies what once was Matthew Prior,
The son of Adam and of Eve:
Can Bourbon or Nassau claim higher?
623
PRIOR:
Ep. Extempore.
Here rests his head, upon the lap of earth,
A youth to fortune and to fame unknown;
Fair Science frown'd not on his humble birth,
And Melancholy mark'd him for her own.
624
GRAY:
Elegy, Epitaph.
Equality.
The trickling rain doth fall
Upon us one and all;
The south wind kisses
The saucy milkmaid's cheek,
The nun's demure and meek,
Nor any misses.
625
E.C. STEDMAN:
A Madrigal, St. 3.
Error.
Shall Error in the round of time
Still father Truth?
626
TENNYSON:
Love and Duty.
But Error, wounded, writhes with pain,
And dies among his worshippers.
627
WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT:
The Battle-Field.
Eternity.
Beyond is all abyss,
Eternity, whose end no eye can reach.
628
MILTON:
Par. Lost, Bk. xii., Line 555.
Eternity! thou pleasing, dreadful thought!
629
ADDISON:
Cato, Act v., Sc. 1.
Europe.
Better fifty years of Europe than a cycle of Cathay.
630
TENNYSON:
Locksley Hall, Line 184.
Eve.
Adam the goodliest man of men since born
His sons, the fairest of her daughters, Eve.
631
MILTON:
Par. Lost., Bk. iv., Line 323.
Evening.
The day is done, and the darkness
Falls from the wings of Night,
As a feather is wafted downward
From an eagle in his flight.
632
LONGFELLOW:
The Day is Done.
The sun is set; the swallows are asleep;
The bats are flitting fast in the gray air;
The slow soft toads out of damp corners creep;
And evening's breath, wandering here and there
Over the quivering surface of the stream,
Wakes not one ripple from its silent dream.
633
SHELLEY:
Evening.
Evil.
Farewell hope! and with hope, farewell fear!
Farewell remorse! all good to me is lost.
Evil, be thou my good; by thee at least
Divided empire with heaven's king I hold.
634
MILTON:
Par. Lost, Bk. iv., Line 108.
Evil springs up, and flowers, and bears no seed,
And feeds the green earth with its swift decay,
Leaving it richer for the growth of truth.
635
JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL:
Prometheus.
Example.
The evil that men do lives after them,
The good is oft interred with their bones.
636
SHAKS.:
Jul. Cæsar, Act iii., Sc. 2.
By his life alone,
Gracious and sweet, the better way was shown.
637
WHITTIER:
The Pennsylvania Pilgrim.
Excess.
To gild refined gold, to paint the lily,
To throw a perfume on the violet,
To smooth the ice, or add another hue
Unto the rainbow, or with taper-light
To seek the beauteous eye of Heaven to garnish,
Is wasteful and ridiculous excess.
638
SHAKS.:
King John, Act iv., Sc. 2.
Exile.
Beheld the duteous son, the sire decayed,
The modest matron, and the blushing maid,
Forc'd from their homes, a melancholy train,
To traverse climes beyond the Western main.
639
GOLDSMITH:
Traveller, Line 407.
Expectation.
'Tis expectation makes a blessing dear;
Heaven were not heaven if we knew what it were.
640
SUCKLING:
Against Fruition.
Experience.
Experience is by industry achieved,
And perfected by the swift course of time.
641
SHAKS.:
Two Gent, of V., Act i., Sc. 3.
His head was silver'd o'er with age,
And long experience made him sage.
642
GAY,
Fables, Pt. i.,
The Shepherd and the Philosopher.
Extremes.
Extremes in nature equal good produce,
Extremes in man concur to general use.
643
POPE:
Moral Essays, Epis. iii., Line 161.
Eyes.
Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven,
Having some business, do entreat her eyes
To twinkle in their spheres till they return.
644
SHAKS.:
Rom. and Jul., Act ii., Sc. 2.
True eyes
Too pure and too honest in aught to disguise
The sweet soul shining thro' them.
645
OWEN MEREDITH:
Lucile, Pt. ii., Canto ii., St. 3.
There are eyes half defiant,
Half meek and compliant;
Black eyes, with a wondrous, witching charm
To bring us good or to work us harm,
646
PHOEBE CARY:
Doves' Eyes.
Soul-deep eyes of darkest night.
647
JOAQUIN MILLER:
Californian, Pt. iv.
Her eyes are homes of silent prayer.
648
TENNYSON:
In Memoriam, Pt. xxxii., St. 1.
The bright black eye, the melting blue,—
I cannot choose between the two.
649
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES:
The Dilemma.
These poor eyes, you called, I ween,
"Sweetest eyes were ever seen."
650
MRS. BROWNING:
Catarina to Camoens.
Soft eyes look'd love to eyes which spake again,
And all went merry as a marriage bell.
651
BYRON:
Ch. Harold, Canto iii., St. 21.
