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THER

ENVY

HE cankering rust corrodes the brightest steel; the moth frets out your garment, and the worm eats its slow way into the solid oak:

but envy, of all evil things the worst,

the same to-day, to-morrow and for ever,

saps and consumes the heart in which it lurks.

R. CUMBERLAND

FREQUENCY-ITS EFFECT ON PLEASURE

THE

'HE nightingale in summer's front doth sing, and stops his pipe in growth of riper days; not that the summer is more pleasant now than when her mournful hymns did hush the night; but that wild music burdens every bough

and sweets grown common lose their dear delight. W. SHAKESPEARE

POSSESSION MORE LANGUID THAN EXPECTATION

WHO riseth from a feast

WHO

with that keen appetite that he sits down? Where is the horse that doth untread again

his tedious measures with the unbated fire

that he did pace them first ?-All things that are, are with more spirit chased than enjoyed.

W. SHAKESPEARE

DESCRIPTION OF A STORM

NTEREA prope jam occidente sole inhorrescit

INTE

mare,

tenebræ conduplicantur, noctisque et nimbûm occæcat nigror:

flamma inter nubes coruscat, cœlum tonitru contremit:

grando mixta imbri largifluo subita turbine præcipitans cadit :

undique omnes venti erumpunt, sævi existunt turbines: fervit æstu pelagus.

AMBITION

M. PACUVIVS

AMBITION, like a torrent, ne'er looks back;

is a swelling and the last affection

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a high mind can put off, being both a rebel
unto the soul and reason, and enforceth
all laws, all conscience, treads upon religion,
and offereth violence to nature's self.

TH

THE SHEPherd's life

B. JONSON

'H' unbusied shepherd stretched beneath the haw-
thorn,

his careless limbs thrown out in wanton ease,
with thoughtless gaze perusing the arched heavens,
and idly whistling while his sheep feed round him,
enjoys a sweeter shade than that of canopies,
hemmed in with cares and shook by storms of treason.

HOPE

A. HILL

'HE ample proposition, that hope makes

TH

in all designs begun on earth below,

fails in the promised largeness: checks and disasters
grow in the veins of actions highest reared;

as knots, by the conflux of meeting sap,
infect the sound pine, and divert his grain
tortive and errant from his course of growth.
W. SHAKESPEARE

NO JOY UNMIXED

'HILKE ground that berith the wedis wicke,

THE

bereth eke these wholesome herbes as full oft,
and nexte to the foule nettle rough and thicke,
the rose ywexith sote and smothe and soft,
and next the valey is the hill aloft,

and next the derke night is the glad morowe,
and also joie is next the fyn of sorowe.

O

THE SAME

G. CHAUCER

SODEN wo, that ever art successour

to worldly blis! spreint is with bitternesse
th' ende of the joye of our worldly labour:
wo occupieth the fyn of our gladnesse.
Herken this conseil for thy sikernesse :

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upon thy glade day have in thy minde
the unware wo of harm that cometh behinde.

WHA

SOLITARY GRIEF

G. CHAUCER

HAT equal torment to the grief of mind
and pining anguish hid in gentle heart,
that inly feeds itself with thoughts unkind,
and nourisheth her own consuming smart?
What medicine can any leech's art

yield such a sore, that doth her grievance hide,
and will to none her malady impart?

USES OF SEVERITY

IN all growing empires

E. SPENSER

even cruelty is useful; some must suffer, and be set up examples to strike terror

in others, though far off: but, when a state

is raised to her perfection, and her bases

too firm to shrink or yield, we may use mercy,
and do't with safety.

P. MASSINGER

291 MORAL discernment SHOULD BE JUST AS QUICK

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AS VISUAL

HATH Nature given us eyes

to see this vaulted arch and the rich crop

of sea and land, which can distinguish twixt
the fiery orbs above and the twinned stones
upon th' unnumbered beach? and can we not
partition make with spectacles so precious
twixt fair and foul?

NECESSITY OF LAWS

W. SHAKESPEARE

RUST me, each state must have its policies,

TRU

kingdoms have chiefs, cities have their charters:

even the wild outlaw, in his forest-walk,

keeps yet some touch of civil discipline.

For not, since Adam wore his verdant apron,
hath man with man in social union dwelt,
but laws were made to draw that union closer.

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U

ALLOY IN THIS WORLD-UNIVERSAL

NRULY blasts wait on the tender spring;
unwholesome weeds take root with precious
flowers;

the adder hisseth where the sweet birds sing:
what virtue breeds iniquity devours.

We have no good that we can say is ours,
but ill-annexéd opportunity

or kills his life or else his quality.

W. SHAKESPEARE

294

TIM

TIME-HIS POWER AND OFFICE

IME'S glory is to calm contending kings;
to unmask falsehood and bring truth to light:

to stamp his awful seal on agéd things:

to wake the morn and centinel the night:
to scourge the wronger till he render right:
to ruinate proud buildings by his Hours,

and smear with dust their stately golden towers.

W. SHAKESPEARE

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E

MPTY men

SELF-PRAISE

are trumpets of their own deserts; but you that are not in opinion, but in proof,

really good, and full of glorious parts,

leave the report of what you are to fame;

which from the ready tongues of all good men
aloud proclaims you.

IF

DEATH THE LEVELLER

P. MASSINGER

F you would know of what frail stuff you're made,
go to the tombs of the illustrious dead:

there rest the bones of kings, there tyrants rot;
there sleep the rich, the noble, and the wise;
there Pride, Ambition, Beauty's fairest form,
all dust alike, compound one common mass:
reflect on these, and in them see yourself.

R. CUMBERLAND

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DECEIT

HAT man so wise, what earthly wit so ware,

WHAT

as to descry the crafty cunning train,

by which Deceit doth mask in visor fair,
and cast her colours, dyed deep in grain,

to seem like Truth, whose shape she well can fain, and fitting gesture to her purpose frame,

the guiltless man with guile to entertain?

THE WAYS OF PROVIDENCE

E. SPENSER

REMEMBER what our father oft has told us,

the ways of Heaven are dark and intricate : puzzled in mazes and perplexed with errors, our understanding traces them in vain, lost and bewildered in the fruitless search; nor sees with how much art the windings run, nor where the regular confusion ends.

J. ADDISON

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POVERTY

ND do not wonder, sire,

A cling to gain; for mortals, even if life

I

be far prolonged, still clutch with closest gripe
this profit; and, compared with wealth, all else
they hold as second. Some indeed there be
that laud the healthful: but in mine esteem
healthful is none that's poor, but aye unhealthful.

SORROW IN OLD AGE

ELL me not of it, friend-when the young weep

me not of weeld

eyes

sorrow falls down like hail-drops of the north,
chilling the furrows of our withered cheeks,
cold as our hopes, and hardened as our feeling;—
theirs, as they fall, sink sightless;-ours recoil,
heap the fair plain, and bleaken all before us.

SIR J. BEAUMONT

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