Page images
PDF
EPUB

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 lire 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.

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.

POPE.

CARTWRIGHT.

CHURCHILL.

1.

2.

[blocks in formation]

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.

Oh! speak that again!

RANDOLPH

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.

222

9.

ELOQUENCE-ORATOR.

As I listen'd to thee,
The happy hours pass'd by us unperceiv'd,
So was my soul fix'd to the soft enchantment.

10. His words of learned length and thundering sound,
Amaz'd the gazing rustics rang'd around;
And still they gaz'd, and still the wonder grew,
That one small head should carry all he knew.

ROWE.

GOLDSMITH'S Deserted Village.

11. Here rills of oily eloquence in soft Meanders lubricate the course they take.

12.

-The grand debate,

The popular harangue, the tart reply,

CowPER.

The logic, and the wisdom, and the wit,
And the loud laugh-I long to know them all.

[blocks in formation]

Were aw'd, and every thought in silence hung,

And wondering expectation.

15. Thy words had such a melting flow,

And spoke of truth so sweetly well,
They dropp'd like heaven's serenest snow,
And all was brightness where they fell!

16. He scratch'd his ear, the infallible resource To which embarrass'd people have recourse.

AKENSIDE. I

MOORE.

BYRON'S Don Juan.

17. Henry, the forest-born Demosthenes,
Whose thunder shook the Philip of the seas.

BYRON'S Age of Bronze.

18. His talk is the sweet extract of all speech, And holds mine ear in blissful slavery.

BAILEY'S Festus.

19. Thus stor'd with intellectual riches,
Skill'd was our squire in making speeches,
Where strength of brains united centres
With strength of lungs surpassing Stentor's.

TRUMBULL'S MCFingal.

20. Oh! as the bee upon the flower, I hang Upon the honey of thy eloquent tongue.

21.

BULWER'S Lady of Lyons.

His words seem'd oracles

That pierc'd their bosoms; and each man would turn
And gaze in wonder on his neighbour's face,

That with the like dumb wonder answer'd him.

[ocr errors]

You could have heard

The beating of your pulses while he spoke.

22. Eloquence, that charms and burns, Startles, soothes, and wins, by turns.

GEORGE CROLY.

J. H. CLINCH.

23. There's a charm in deliv'ry, a magical art, That thrills, like a kiss, from the lip to the heart; 'Tis the glance-the expression-the well-chosen wordBy whose magic the depths of the spirit are stirr'dThe smile the mute gesture-the soul-stirring pauseThe eye's sweet expression, that melts while it awes→ The lip's soft persuasion-its musical tone:

Oh! such were the charms of that eloquent one!

24. Now with a giant's might

He heaves the ponderous thought,
Now pours the storm of eloquence
With scathing lightning fraught.

MRS. A. B. WELBY.

Vicksburg Whig.

« EelmineJätka »