Page images
PDF
EPUB

15. True wit is nature to advantage drest,

16.

That oft was thought, but ne'er so well exprest,
Something whose truth, convinc'd at sight, we find,
That gives us back the image of our mind.

POPE'S Essay on Criticism.

What is it to be wise?

"Tis but to know how little can be known,
To see all others' faults, and feel our own.

POPE'S Essay on Man.

17. Nature and nature's laws lay hid in night; God said, let Newton be! and all was light.

18. O'er nature's laws God cast the veil of night, Out blaz'd a Newton's soul-and all was light.

19. His very name a title-page, and next His life a commentary on the text.

POPE.

AARON HILL.

WOODBRIDGE.

20. He learn'd the arts of riding, fencing, gunnery, And how to scale a fortress or―a nunnery.

21. The languages-especially the dead,

BYRON'S Don Juan.

The sciences and most of all the abstruse,
The arts at least all such as could be said
To be the most remote from common use.

BYRON'S Don Juan.

22. And stoic Franklin's energetic shade,
Rob'd in the lightning which his hand allay'd.

BYRON'S Age of Bronze.

23. Sorrow is knowledge; they, who know the most,
Must mourn the deepest o'er the fatal truth,
The tree of knowledge is not that of life.

24.

For Plato's love sublime,

BYRON'S Manfred.

And all the wisdom of the Stagyrite,
Enrich'd and beautified his studious mind.

WORDSWORTH-From the Italian.

218

EDUCATION - WISDOM, &c.

25. For any man, with half an eye,
What stands before him may espy;
But optics sharp it needs, I ween,
To see what is not to be seen.

TRUMBULL'S McFingal.

26. On every point, in earnest or in jest,

His judgment, and his prudence, and his wit,
Were deem'd the very touchstone, and the test
Of what was proper, graceful, just, and fit.

27. The wish to know-the endless thirst,

Which even by quenching is awak'd,
And which becomes or bless'd or curs'd,
As is the fount whereat 't is slak'd.

J. H. FRERE.

MOORE's Loves of the Angels.

28. Extremes of fortune are true wisdom's test,

And he's of men most wise, who bears them best.

CUMBERLAND's Philemon.

29. Lur'd by its charms, he sits and learns to trace
The midnight wanderings of the orbs of space;
Boldly he knocks at wisdom's inmost gate,
With nature counsels, and communes with fate.

30.

She had read

CHARLES SPRAGUE.

Her father's well-fill'd library with profit,
And could talk charmingly; then she could sing
And play too, passably, and dance with spirit;
Yet she was knowing in all needle-work,
And shone in dairy and in kitchen too,

As in the parlour.

31. Youth it instructs, old age delights,
Adorns prosperity, and when

Of adverse fate we feel the blights,
"T will comfort and solace us then.

J. N. BARKER.

J. T. WATSON.

EGOTISM-SELF.

1. 'Tis with our judgments as our watches; none Are just alike, yet each believes his own.

POPE'S Essay on Criticism.

2. To observations which ourselves we make,
We grow more partial for the observer's sake.

POPE'S Moral Essays.

3. Whate'er the passion, knowledge, fame, or pelf,
No one will change his neighbour with himself;
The learn'd is happy nature to explore,
The fool is happy that he knows no more;
The rich is happy in the plenty given,

The

poor contents him with the care of heaven.

POPE'S Moral Essays.

4. The selfish heart deserves the pain it feels, More generous sorrow, while it sinks, exalts; And conscious virtue mitigates the pang.

YOUNG'S Night Thoughts.

5. All men think all men mortal but themselves.

YOUNG'S Night Thoughts.

6. In other men we faults can spy,

And blame the mote that dims their eye;
Each little speck and blemish find;
To our own stronger errors blind.

GAY's Fables.

7. For none more likes to hear himself converse.

8. What exile from himself can flee?

BYRON'S Don Juan.

BYRON'S Childe Harold.

9. Oh! wad some power the giftie gie us,

To see oursels as ithers see us!

BURNS.

[blocks in formation]

10. Self is the medium least refin’d of all,
Through which opinion's searching beams can fall:
And, passing there, the clearest, steadiest ray,
Will tinge its light, and turn its line astray.

11. For, as his own bright image he survey'd,
He fell in love with the fantastic shade;
And o'er the fair resemblance hung unmov'd,
Nor knew, fond youth, it was himself he lov'd.

12. How often, in this cold and bitter world,
Is the warm heart thrown back upon itself!
Cold, careless are we of another's grief;
We wrap ourselves in sullen selfishness.

MOORE.

From OVID.

MISS L. E. LANDON.

ELEGANCE.

1. The feeling heart, simplicity of life,

And elegance, and taste.

THOMSON.

2. Trifles themselves are elegant in him.

POPE.

3. To these resistless grace impart,
That look of sweetness, form'd to please,

That elegance, devoid of art,

That dignity that's lost in ease.

4. With all the wonders of external grace,
A person finely turn'd, a mould, a face,
Where (union rare,) expression's lively force,
With beauty's softest magic, holds discourse.

CARTWRIGHT.

CHURCHILL.

1.

2.

ELOQUENCE - ORATOR.

And when she spake.

Sweet words, like dropping honey, she did shed;
And 'twixt the pearls and rubies softly break

A silver sound, that heavenly music seem'd to make.
SPENSER'S Fairy Queen.

When he speaks,

The air, a charter'd libertine, is still,
And the mute wonder lurketh in men's ears,
To steal his sweet and honey'd sentences.

3. And aged ears play truant at his tales, And younger hearings are quite ravished, So sweet and voluble is his discourse.

SHAKSPEARE.

SHAKSPEARE.

4. Power above powers! O heavenly eloquence!
That, with the strong rein of commanding words,
Dost manage, guide, and master th' eminence
Of men's affections, more than all their swords!

[blocks in formation]

Dropp'd manna, and could make the worst appear
The better reason, to perplex and dash

Maturest counsels.

DANIEL.

MILTON'S Paradise Lost.

6. Men are more eloquent than women made, But women are more powerful to persuade.

RANDOLPH.

7.

Oh! speak that again!

Sweet as the syren's tongue those accents fall,

And charm me to my ruin.

SOUTHERN.

8. Your words are like the notes of dying swans,

Too sweet to last.

DRYDEN.

« EelmineJätka »