Born to himself, by no possession led, Roscommon. POSTERITY. HENCE, lastly, spring cares of posterities, For things their kind would everlasting make, Hence is it that old men do plant young trees, The fruit whereof another age shall take.-Davies. Daughter of time, sincere posterity, Always new-born, yet no man knows thy birth, The arbitress of pure sincerity, Yet changeable (like Proteus) on the earth, Truth’s idioms of the things are past, And more injurious at the first than last, Preserving others while their own do waste: From England's Parnassus. POTENTATES. Kings and mightiest potentates must die.—Shakspere. Each potentate as wary fear, or strength, Phillips. POVERTY. Poor and content is rich, and rich enough; But riches endless are as poor as winter, To him that ever fears he shall be poor.—Shakspere. To mortal man great loads allotted be, But of all packs, no pack like poverty. Herrick. Be honest poverty thy boasted wealth; So shall thy friendships be sincere tho' few; So shall thy sleep be sound, thy waking cheerful. Havard. O, blissful poverty! Nature, too partial, to thy lot assigns Health, freedom, innocence, and downy peaceHer real goods—and only mocks the great With empty pageantries. Fenton. Many a Prince is worse, Who, proud of pedigree, is poor of purse. Pope. 0, the poor, Are the poor's almoners, else would die crowds Anon. God help the poor, who in lone valleys dwell, Samuel Bamford. POWER. Rowe. Martyn. Still she spake on, and still she spake of power, Which in all action is the end of all; Power fitted to the season; wisdom-bred And throned of wisdom-from all neighbour crown Alliance and allegiance, till thy hand Fail from the sceptre-staff. Tennyson. Love may die and hatred slumber, And their mem'ry will decay, Of the drought of yesterday. What shall give repose again? W. E. Aytoun. Were half the power that fills the world with terror, Were half the wealth bestowed on camps and courts, Given to redeem the human mind from error, There were no need of arsenals nor forts. And every nation that should lift again Longfellow They tell thee in their dreaming school Of power from old dominion hurled, When rich and poor with juster rule, Shall share the altered world. Alas! since time itself began, This subject bath but fooled the hour; Each hour that ripens power in man, But subjects man to power. Bulwer. PRAISE. Or strive in virtue others to excel, Due praise, that is the spur of doing well? Spenser. They praise and they admire they know not what, And know not whom, but as one leads the other: And what delight to be by such extollid, To live upon their tongues, and be their talk, Of whom to be dispraised were no small praise? Milton. The noisy praise Of giddy crowds is changeable as winds; Still vehement, and still without a cause; Servant to change, and blowing in the tide Of swoln success; but veering with the ebb, It leaves the channel dry. Dryden. The love of praise, howe'er conceal’d by art, Reigns, more or less, and glows in every heart; The proud, to gain it, toils on toils endure, The modest shun it, but to make it sure. Young. For praise that 's due, does give no more Butler. Whitehead. PRAYER. WE, ignorant of ourselves, Beg often our own harms, which the wise powers Deny us for our good; so we find profit By Iosing of our prayers. Shakspere. Heaven is the magazine wherein God puts Both good and evil; prayer's the key that shuts And opens this great treasure; ’t is a key Whose words are Faith, and Hope, and Charity. Would'st thou prevent a judgment due to sin? Turn but the key, and thou may’st lock it in. Or would'st thou have a blessing fall upon thee? Open the door and it will shower on thee. Quarles. And if by prayer Incessant, I could hope to change the will Of Him who all things can, I would not cease To weary him with my assiduous cries. Milton. I was not born for courts or state affairs; I pay my debts, believe, and say my prayers. Pope. That work which is begun well, is half done, And without prayer no work is well begun. Fawnshaw, from the Italian of Guarini. True adoration, what a voice is thine! For prayer is man's omnipotence below, A soul's companionship with Christ and God, Communion with Eternity begun! R. Montgomery. Oh! when the heart is full-when bitter thoughts Come crowding up for utterance, And the poor common words of courtesy Are such a very mockery, how much The bursting heart may pour itself in prayer. N. P. Willis. The grateful song, the fervent prayer, Pierpont. |