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Yet dare arraign the whole stupendous plan,
If but that little part incongruous seem,
Nor is that part perhaps what mortals deem;
Oft from apparent ill our blessings rise.
O then renounce that impious self-esteem,
That aims to trace the secrets of the skies:
For thou art but of dust; be humble and be wise.
Beattie's Minstrel.

Yes, thou art ever present, Power Supreme!
Not circumscrib'd by time, nor fixt to space,
Confin'd to altars, nor to temples bound.
In wealth, in want, in freedom, or in chains,
In dungeons, or on thrones, the faithful find Thee!
Hannah More's Belshazzar.

Just as a mother, with sweet pious face,
Yearns tow'rds her children from her seat,
Gives one a kiss, another an embrace,
Takes this upon her knee, that on her feet;
And while from actions, looks, complaints, pre-

tences,

She learns their feelings and their various will,
To this a look, to that a word dispenses,
And whether stern or smiling, loves them still :-
So Providence for us, high, infinite,
Makes our necessities its watchful task,
Hearkens to all our prayers, helps all our wants.
And even if it denies what seems our right,
Either denies because 'twould have us ask,
Or seems but to deny, or in denying grants.

Anon.

Prudence, thou virtue of the mind, by which
We do consult of all that's good or evil,
Conducting to felicity; direct

My thoughts and actions by the rules of reason.
Teach me contempt of all inferior vanities;
Pride in a marble portal gilded o'er,
Assyrian carpets, chairs of ivory,
The luxuries of a stupendous house,
Garments perfum'd, gems valued not for use,
But needless ornament: a sumptuous table,
And all the baits of sense. A vulgar eye
Sees not the dangers which beneath them lie.
Nabb's Microcosmus.

Look forward what's to come, and back what's

past;

Thy life will be with praise and prudence grac'd, What loss or gain may follow, thou may'st guess; Thou then wilt be secure of the success.

Denham

Prudence, thou vainly in our youth art sought, And with age purchas'd, art too dearly bought: We're past the use of wit for which we toil: Late fruit, and planted in too cold a soil.

Dryden.

Prudence protects and guides us; wit betrays;
A splendid source of ill ten thousand ways;
A certain snare to miseries immense;
A gay prerogative from common sense;
Unless strong judgment that wild thing can tame,
And break to paths of virtue and of fame.

Young,
Consult your means, avoid the tempter's wiles,
Shun grinning hosts of unreccipted files,
Let Heaven-ey'd prudence battle with desire,
And win the victory, though it be through fire.
James T. Fields' Poems.

PRUDENCE.

Rightly to be great,

Is not to stir without great argument; But greatly to find quarrel in a straw, When honour's at the stake.

Shakspeare.

She's a majestic ruler, and commands
Even with terror of her awful brow.
As in a throng, sedition being rais'd,
Th' ignoble multitude inflam'd with madness,
Firebrands and stones fly; fury shows them

weapons:

Till spying some grave man, honour'd for wisdom
They straight are silent, and erect their ears;
Whilst he, with his sage counsel, doth assuage
Their mind's disorder and appease their rage:
So prudence, when rebellious appetites
Have rais'd temptations, with their batteries
Assaulting reason, then doth interpose,
And keep it safe

Nabb's Microcosmus.

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As dare with rigour execute the laws.
Her fester'd members must be lanc'd and tented:
He's a bad surgeon that for pity spares
The part corrupted till the gangrene spread,
And all the body perish: he that's merciful
Unto the bad, is cruel to the good.

Randolph's Muses' Looking-Glass.

The laws are sinfully contriv'd. Justice
Should weigh the present crime, not future
Inference on deeds; but now they cheapen
Blood; 'tis spilt

To punish the example, not the guilt.

Let me be pure!

Oh! I wish I was a pure child again,
When life was calm as is a sister's kiss.

Bailey's Festus.

Spring has no blossom fairer than thy form;
Winter no snow-wreath purer than thy mind;
The dew-drop trembling to the morning beam
Is like thy smile, pure, transient, heaven-refin'd.
Mrs. Lydia Jane Pierson.

A lovelier nymph the pencil never drew;
For the fond graces formed her easy mien,
And heaven's soft azure in her eye was seen.

Be purity of life the test,

Sir W. Davenant's Just Italian. Leave to the heart, to heaven, the rest.

Do not, if one but lightly thee offend,
The punishment beyond the crime extend;
Or after warning the offence forget;
So God himself our failings did remit.

Hayley

Sprague's Poems

"Tis not the fairest form that holds
The mildest, purest soul within;

Orgula, or the Fatal Error. "T is not the richest plant that folds
The sweetest breath of fragrance in.

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And the Power on high that can shield the good Cast my heart's gold into the furnace flame,

Thus from the tyrant of the wood,

Hath extended its mercy to guard me well
From the hands of the leaguering infidel.

Byron's Siege of Corinth.

And if it come not thence refined and pure.
I'll be a bankrupt to thy hope, and heaven
Shall shut its gates on me.

Mrs. Sigmurney.

Patience and hope, that keep the soul

Unruffled and secure,

Though floods of grief beneath it roll,
I learn, when calm and pure
I see the floating water-lily
Gleam amid shadows dark and chilly.

They are

Made all of terms and shreds; no less belyers Of great men's favours, than their own vile med'cines,

Which they will utter upon monstrous oaths: Selling that drug for two pence ere they part, Caroline May. Which they have valu'd at twelve crowns before. Jonson's Volpone.

Thine is a face to look upon and pray
That a pure spirit keep thee - I would meet
With one so gentle by the streams away,
Living with nature; keeping thy pure feet
For the unfingered moss, and for the grass
Which leaneth where the gentle waters pass.
The autumn leaves should sigh thee to thy sleep;
And the capricious April, coming on,

Awake thee like a flower; and stars should keep
A vigil o'er thee like Endymion;

And thou for very gentleness shouldst weep
As dews of the night's quietness come down.

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There was a time when we beheld the quack,
On public stage, the licens'd trade attack;
He made his labour'd speech with poor parade,
And then a laughing zany lent him aid.

Crabbe's Borough

But now our quacks are gamesters, and they play

With craft and skill to ruin and betray;
With monstrous promise they delude the mind,
And thrive on all that tortures human-kind.
Crabbe's Borough

Void of all honour, avaricious, rash,
The daring tribe compound their boasted trash--
Tincture or syrup, lotion, drop or pill:

All tempt the sick to trust the lying bill;
There are among them those who cannot read,
And yet they'll buy a patent and succeed;
Will dare to promise dying sufferers aid,
For who, when dead, can threaten or upbraid?
With cruel avarice still they recommend
More draughts, more syrups to the journey's
end.

"I feel it not ;"—"Then take it every hour;" "It makes me worse;"-"Why then it shows its power:"

"I fear to die ;"-"Let not your spirits sink,"You're always safe, while you believe and

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The nostrum takes no trifling part away;
Time, too, with cash is wasted; 't is the fate

Robert Morris. Of real helpers, to be call'd too late;
This find the sick, when (time and patienes

Quack-salving cheating mountebanks-your skill Is to make sound men sick, and sick men kill. Massinger and Decker's Virgin Martyr.

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'RAIN.

RAIN-RAINBOW - REAPERS.

When the black'ng clouds in sprinkling showers
Distil, from the high summits down the rain
Runs trickling, with the fertile moisture cheer'd,
The orchards smile, joyous the farmers see
Their thriving plants, and bless the heavenly dew.
Philips's Cider.
The clouds consign their treasures to the fields,
And softly shaking on the dimpled pool
Prelusive drops, let all their moisture flow,
In large effusion, o'er the freshen'd world.
Thomson's Seasons.

The rain is o'er - How densely bright
Yon pearly clouds reposing lie!
Cloud above cloud, a glorious sight,
Contrasting with the deep-blue sky!
In grateful silence earth receives

The general blessing; fresh and fair
Each flower expands its little leaves,
As glad the common joy to share.

Andrew Norton.

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My heart leaps up when I behold A rainbow in the sky!

Triumphal arch, that fill'st the sky,
When storms prepare to part,
I ask not proud Philosophy

To tell me what thou art.
Still seem, as to my childhood's sight,
A midway station given
For happy spirits to alight,

Betwixt the earth and heaven!

437

Wordsworth.

Campbell's Poems

The rainbow dies in heaven and not on earth.
Bailey's Festus.

Far up the blue sky a fair rainbow unroll'd
Its soft-tinted pinions of purple and gold;
'T was born in a moment, yet quick at its birth,
It had stretch'd to the uttermost ends of the earth,
And fair as an angel, it floated as free,
With a wing on the earth and a wing on the sea
Mrs. Welby's Poems.
O, beautiful rainbow;-all woven of light!--
There's not in thy tissue, one shadow of night;
Heaven surely is open when thou dost appear,
And, bending above thee, the angels draw near,
And sing -"The rainbow! the rainbow!
"The smile of God is here."

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I see the errors that I would avoid,
And have my reason still, but not the use on 't:
It hangs upon me like a wither'd limb
Bound up and numb'd by some disease's frost,
The form the same, but all the use is lost.
Sir R. Howard's Great Favourite.
Thought

Precedes the will to think, and error lives
Ere reason can be born. Reason, the power

To guess at right and wrong, the twinkling lamp
Of wand'ring life, that winks and wakes by turns,
Fooling the follower betwixt shade and shining.

Within the brain's most secret cells,
A certain lord chief justice dwells,
Of sov'reign power, whom one and all,
With common voice we reason call.

Congreve.

Churchill.

The Infinite speaks in our silent hearts,
And draws our being to himself, as deep
Calleth unto deep. He who all thought imparts,
Demands the pledge, the bond of soul to keep;
But reason, wandering from its fount afar,

And stooping downward, breaks the subtle chain
That binds it to itself, like star to star,
And sun to sun, upward to God again.

Mrs. E. Oakes Smith.

Every creature knoweth its capacities, running in the road of instinct,

And reason must not lag behind, but serve itself of all proprieties.

Tupper's Proverbial Philosophy.

I would not always reason. The straight path
Wearies us with its never-varying lines,
And we grow melancholy. I would make
Reason my guide, but she should sometimes sit
Patiently by the wayside, while I trac'd
The mazes of the pleasant wilderness
Around me.
She should be my counsellor
But not my tyrant. For the spirit needs
Impulses from a deeper source than hers,
And there are motions, in the mind of man,
That she must look upon with awe.

Bryant's Poems
When I see cold man of reason proud,
My solitude is sad- I'm lonely in the crowd.
Dana's Poems

REBELLION.

White beards have arm'd their thin and hairless

scalps

Against thy majesty; boys with women's voice Strive to speak big, and clap their female joints In stiff unwieldy arms against thy crown.

Shaks. Richard II.
God omnipotent

Is mustering in his clouds, on our behalf,
Armies of pestilence; and they shall strike
Your children yet unborn, and unbegot,
That lift your vassal hands against my head,
And threat the glory of my precious crown.
Shaks. Richard II.

The bay-trees in our country are all wither'd,
The meteors fight the fixed stars of heaven;
The pale-fac'd moon looks bloody on the earth,
And lean-look'd prophets whisper fearful change:
Rich men look sad, and ruffians dance and leap.
Shaks. Richard II.

Go thou, and like an executioner
Cut off the heads of two fast growing sprays,
That look too lofty in our commonwealth:
All must be even in our government.

Shaks. Richard II.

Here do we make his friends Blush, that the world goes well; who rather had, Though they themselves did suffer by 't, behold Dissentious numbers pestering streets, than see Our tradesmen singing in their shops, and going About their functions friendly. Shaks. Coriolanus,

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