What's all the noisy jargon of the schools,
But idle nonsense of laborious fools,
Who fetter reason with perplexing rules?
-Pomfret. Reason.

Though reason is not to be relied upon as universally sufficient to direct us what to do, yet it is generally to be relied upon and obeyed where it tells us what we are not to do.

WORDS.

Well-chosen words are like well-chosen friends;
We know not when they may return to bless,
If hasty spoken, words can make amends,

And words are merely thoughts in plainer dress.

-J. C. H.

The words of a language resemble the strings of a musical instrument, which yield only uninteresting tones when struck by an ordinary hand, but from which a skilful performer draws forth the soul of harmony, awakening and captivating the passions of the mind.

-W. B. Clulow.

By winning words to conquer willing hearts,
And make persuasion do the work of fear.
-Milton. Paradise Regained, Bk. I., line 222.

Win her with gifts, if she respect not words:
Dumb jewels often, in their silent kind,

More than quick words, do move a woman's mind.

-Shakspere. Two Gentlemen of Verona (Valentine), Act III., Sc. I.

Big words do not smite like war clubs,
Boastful breath is not a bow-string,
Taunts are not so sharp as arrows,
Deeds are better things than words are,
Actions mightier than boastings.

-Longfellow. Hiawatha, IX.

Copiousness of words, however ranged, is always false eloquence, though it will ever impose on some sort of understandings.

-Lady M. Montagu. Letter to Countess of Bute, 20th July, 1754.

Will fortune never come with both hands full,
But write her fair words still in foulest letters ?
She either gives a stomach, and no food,—
Such are the poor, in health; or else a feast,
And takes away the stomach,-such are the rich,
That have abundance and enjoy it not.

-Shakspere. Henry IV., Pt. II. (King
Henry), Act IV., Sc. IV.

A moment's thinking is an hour in words.
-Hood. Hero and Leander, XLI.

Love reflects the thing beloved;
My words are only words, and moved
Upon the topmost froth of thought.

-Tennyson. In Memoriam, LII.

Immodest words admit of no defence,
For want of decency is want of sense.
—Roscommon. Essay on Translateď
Verse.

'Twas a thief said the last kind word to Christ, Christ took the kindness and forgave the theft. -R. Browning. The Ring and the Book, VI., line 869.

Good words are better than bad strokes.
-Shakspere. Julius Cæsar (Brutus,
Act) V., Sc. I.

Harsh words, though pertinent, uncouth appear; None please the fancy who offend the ear. -Garth. The Dispensary, Can. IV., line 204.

A word to the wise is enough.

B. Franklin.

Poor Richard's Almanac.

(Religion-freedom-vengeance-what you will,) A word's enough to raise mankind to kill. -Byron. Lara, Can. II., VIII.

But every page having an ample marge,
And every marge enclosing in the midst
A square of text that looks a little blot.

-Tennyson. Merlin and Vivien.

[You shall see them on] a beautiful quarto page, where a neat rivulet of text shall meander through a meadow of margin.

-Sheridan. School for Scandal (Sir B.
Backbite), Act I., Sc. I.

Mankind in general are so little in the habit of looking steadily at their own meaning, or of weighing the words by which they express it, that the writer who is careful to do both will some

times mislead his readers through the very excellence which qualifies him to be their instructor. -Coleridge.

Our words have wings, but fly not where we would.

-George Eliot. The Spanish Gipsy (Fedelma).

A blow with a word strikes deeper than a blow with a sword.

-Burton. Anat. of Melancholy, Pt. I., Sec. II., Mem. IV., Subs. ÏV.

Oaths are but words, and words but wind. -Butler. Hudibras, Pt. II., Can. II., line 107.

There are words which are worth as much as the best actions, for they contain the germ of them all.

-Madame Swetchine.

How forcible are right words!

-Bible.

Words, "those fickle daughters of the earth," are the creation of a being that is finite, and when applied to explain that which is infinite, they fail; for that which is made surpasses not the maker; nor can that which is immeasurable by our thoughts be measured by our tongues.

-Colton.