To rise by human weaknesses. His nights
Bring him no rest in all their blessed hours.
His kindred are forgotten or estranged.
Unhealthful fires burn constant in his eye.
His lip grows restless, and its smile is curl'd
Half into scorn-till the bright, fiery boy,
That was a daily blessing but to see,
His spirit was so bird-like and so pure,
Is frozen, in the very flush of youth,
Into a cold, care-fretted, heartless man.

And what is its reward? At best, a name ! Praise-when the ear has grown too dull to hear, [dead; Gold-where the senses it should please are Wreaths-where the hair they cover has grown gray,

Fame when the heart it should have thrill'd is numb;

All things but love-when love is all we want; And close behind comes Death, and ere we know

That ev'n these unavailing gifts are ours,
He sends us, stripp'd and naked, to the
grave!
N. P. Willis.

99. AMBITION, Check to.

fin'd:

Go, climb the rugged Alps, ambitious fool,
To please the boys and be a theme at school.
One world suffic'd not Alexander's mind;
Coop'd up, he seem'd in earth and seas con-
[about
And, struggling, stretch'd his restless limbs
The narrow globe, to find a passage out.
Yet, enter'd in the brick-built town, he tried
The tomb, and found the strait dimensions
wide;

"Death only this mysterious truth unfolds, The mighty soul, how small a body holds." Juvenal, tr. by John Dryden.

100. AMBITION, Christian. "Ambition is the vice of noble souls!" If 'tis a vice, then let those souls beware, Thrice noble though they be, and passing fair

In the world's eye, and high upon the scrolls, Her favor'd minions where the world enrolls, Lest it conduct to shame! Be thine the care, Soldier of Christ, that nobler strife to dare, Which the rash spirit of the world controls, And makes ambition virtue! Be it thine

shine

To win thy bright unfading diadem By works of love! Around his brows shall [beam, In heaven from glory's source the purest Whose aspect here, with beauty most divine, Reflects the image of the GOOD SUPREME. Bp. Mant.

101. AMBITION, Curse of. Woe to thee, wild Ambition! I employ Despair's low notes thy dread effects to tell; Born in high heaven, her peace thou could'st destroy;

But for thee, there had not been a hell. Through the celestial domes thy clarion pealed; [ranged Angels, entranced, beneath thy banners

And straight were fiends; hurled from the shrinking field,

They waked in agony to wail the change. Darting through all her veins the subtle fire, The world's fair mistress first inhaled thy breath;

To lot of higher beings learned to aspire,
Dared to attempt, and doomed the world
to death.
Maria A. Brooks.

102. AMBITION, Devil of. How, like a mounting devil in the heart, Rules the unrein'd ambition! Let it once But play the monarch, and its haughty brow Glows with a beauty that bewilders thought And unthrones peace forever. Putting on The very pomp of Lucifer, it turns The heart to ashes, and with not a spring Left in the bosom for the spirit's lip, We look upon our splendor and forget [life The thirst for which we perish! Yet hath Many a falser idol. N. P. Willis.

What though we wade in wealth, or soar in Why all this toil for triumphs of an hour? Earth's highest station ends in "Here he [lies "

fame ?

And "Dust to dust" concludes her noblest song. Edward Young.

104. AMBITION, Example of.

On what foundations stands the warrior's pride, [cide: How just his hopes, let Swedish Charles deA frame of adamant, a soul of fire, No dangers fright him, and no labors tire; O'er love, o'er fear, extends his wide domain, Unconquered lord of pleasure and of pain. No joys to him pacific sceptres yield, War sounds the trump, he rushes to the field; Behold surrounding kings their power comAnd one capitulate, and one resign; [bine, Peace courts his hand, but spreads her charms in vain;

"Think nothing gained," he cries, "till naught remain,

On Moscow's walls till Gothic standards fly,
And all be mine beneath the polar sky.'
The march begins in military state,
And nations on his eye suspended wait;
Stern famine guards the solitary coast,
And winter barricades the realms of frost.
He comes, nor want nor cold his course delay;
Hide, blushing glory, hide Pultowa's day!
The vanquished hero leaves his broken bands,
And shows his miseries in distant lands;

105. AMBITION, Examples of. Napoleon, Frederic, Charles, and Cromwell— these [fire, Swept the earth with a besom dipped in They would have kings and nations bend their knees; [higher, Their's was the untamed thirst of something An energy of hope, that could not tire, The love of self to deeds of might sublimed,

Ambition wrought to habitudes of ire, Force, reckless force, unchecked, unbent, untimed, [never climbed. An aim to gain a height where power had They sought they knew not what,—they set no bound [ing grew, To their wide-clenching grasp,-their longAs grew their empire,-keenly, as the hound Catches the deer-track in the morning dew, They snuffed the scent of conquest,-victory threw

wave

Her laurels at their feet-awhile they gave Blood to the earth like water,-madly flew Their gore-fed eagles. But the wildest [in the grave. Breaks and subsides at last; their end was Now they are dust and ashes; other swarms People the ground they wasted, other men Rise to be torn and tossed by other storms. Ambition sleeps a moment in her den To gain new breath, and fire, and strength; [flame. She blows the embered coals, and they are So it must be, for it hath ever been:Age rolls on age, and heroes are the same,The rest, the crowd, the mob, the warlike

but then

hunter's game.

J. G. Percival.

106. AMBITION, Fever of.
Hew Atlas for my monument; upraise
A pyramid for my tomb, that, undestroyed
By rank, oblivion, and the hungry void,
My name shall echo through prospective days.
O careless conqueror! cold, abysmal grave!
Is it not sad—is it not sad, my heart-
To smother young ambition, and depart
Unhonored and unwilling, like death's
slave?

No rare immortal remnant of my thought
Embalms my life; no poem, firmly reared
Against the shock of time, ignobly feared,
But all my life's progression come to naught.
Hew Atlas! build a pyramid in a plain!
O, cool the fever burning in my brain!
David Gray.

107. AMBITION, Fling Away.

By that sin fell the angels: how can man then,
I charge thec, fling away ambition;
The image of his Maker, hope to win by 't?
Love thyself last, cherish those hearts that
hate thee,

Still, in thy right hand, carry gentle peace,
Corruption wins not more than honesty.
To silence envious tongues. Be just, fear
not,
[try's,
Let all the ends thou aimest at be thy coun-
Thy God's, and truth's. Wm. Shakespeare.
108. AMBITION, Ingratitude of.
Brutus-The abuse of greatness is, when it
disjoins
Remorse from power: and to speak truth of
[Cæsar,
I have not known when his affections sway'd
More than his reason. But 'tis a common
That lowliness is young ambition's ladder,
proof,
Whereto the climber upward turns his face:
He then unto the ladder turns his back,
But when he once attains the upmost round,
Looks in the clouds, scorning the base de-
By which he did ascend.
[grees

Wm. Shakespeare.

109. AMBITION, Mortification of.

For when I feel my virtue fail,
And my ambitious thoughts prevail,
I'll take a turn among the tombs,
And see whereto all glory comes.
There the vile foot of every clown
Tramples the sons of honor down;
Beggars with awful ashes sport,
And tread the Caesars in the dirt.
Isaac Watts.

110. AMBITION, True.
First, what is true ambition? The pursuit
of glory nothing less than man can share.
Were they as vain as gaudy-minded man,
As flatulent with fumes of self-applause,
And claim their laurel crowns as well as we;
Their arts and conquests animals might boast,
But not celestial.
As in our form, distinct, pre-eminent.
Here, we stand alone;
If prone in thought, our stature is our shame;
And man should blush his forehead meets the
The visible and present are for brutes; [skies.
A slender portion! and a narrow bound!
These, Reason, with energy divine,
O'erleaps, and climbs the future and unseen,
The vast unseen! the future fathomless!
When the great soul buoys up to this high
point,

Leaves gross Nature's sediments below,
Then, and then only, Adam's offspring quits
The sage and hero of the fields and woods,
Asserts his rank, and rises into man.
This is ambition; this is human fire.
Other ambition nature interdicts;
Nature proclaims it most absurd in man
By pointing at his origin and end: [mand-
Milk and a swathe, at first, his whole de-
His whole domain, at last, a turf, a stone;
To whom, between, a world may seem too
small.
Edward Young.

111. AMBITION, Works of.

It opened the niggard's purse; clothed nakedness;

Gave beggars food; and threw the Pharisee
Upon his knees, and kept him long in act
Of prayer. It spread the lace upon the fop,
His language trimmed, and planned his cu-
rious gait,

It struck the feather on the gay coquette,
And on her finger laid the heavy load
Of jewelry; it did what did it not? [sent
The gospel preached, the gospel paid, and
The gospel; conquered nations; cities built;
Measured the furrow of the field with nice
Directed share; shaped bulls, and cows, and

Abortively; though sometimes not unpraised.
He left the sage's chair, and home returned,
Making his simple mother think that she
Had borne a man. In schools, designed to
Sin up, and plant the seeds of holiness [root
In youthful minds, it held a signal place.
The little infant man, by nature proud,
Was taught the Scriptures by the love of
praise,

hell,

And grew religious as he grew in fame.
And thus the principle, which out of heaven
The devil threw, and threw him down to
[ment
And keeps him there, was made an instru-
To moralize and sanctify mankind,
And in their hearts beget humility.
Robert Pollok.

112. AMERICA, Fame of.
Land of the West, though passing brief
The record of thine age,
Thou hast a name that darkens all

On History's wide page!

Let all the blasts of fame ring out-
Thine shall be loudest far:
Let others boast their satellites-
Thou hast the morning star.
Thou hast a name whose characters
Of light shall ne'er depart;

'Tis stamped upon the dullest brain,
And warms the coldest heart,
A war-cry fit for any land,

Where Freedom's to be won; Land of the West! it stands aloneIt is thy Washington! Eliza Cook. 113. AMERICA, Liberty in. "Here," might they say, "shall power's divided reign

Evince that patriots have not bled in vain. Here godlike liberty's herculean youth, Cradled in peace, and nurtur'd up by truth To full maturity of nerve and mind,

Shall crush the giants that bestride mankind. Here shall religion's pure and balmy draught

In form no more from cups of state be quaff'd, [sect, But flow for all through nation, rank, and Free as that heaven its tranquil waves reflect. Around the columns of the public shrine Shall growing arts their gradual wreath intwine, [braid, Nor breathe corruption from the flowering Nor mine that fabric which they bloom to shade.

No longer here shall Justice bound her view, Or wrong the many, while she rights the few; But take her range through all the social frame,

Pure and pervading as that vital flame [part,

Which warms at once our best and meanest

And thrills a hair while it expands a heart." Thomas Moore.

114. AMERICA, Mission of. The queen of the world, and child of the Columbia, Columbia, to glory arise, [skies! Thy genius commands thee; with rapture While ages on ages thy splendors unfold. behold, Thy reign is the last and the noblest of time, Most fruitful thy soil, most inviting thy clime; [thy name,

Let the crimes of the east ne'er encrimson

Be freedom and science and virtue thy fame. To conquest and slaughter let Europe aspire; Whelm nations in blood, and wrap cities in fire; [fend, Thy heroes the rights of mankind shall deAnd triumph pursue them, and glory attend. A world is thy realm; for a world be thy laws, [cause; Enlarged as thine empire, and just as thy On Freedom's broad basis that empire shall rise, [skies.

Extend with the main, and dissolve with the

Fair Science her gates to thy sons shall unbar, And the east see thy morn hide the beams of her star, [soar

New bards and new sages unrivalled shall To fame unextinguished when time is no

more;

kind;

To thee, the last refuge of virtue designed, Shall fly from all nations the best of man[bring Here grateful to heaven, with transport shall Their incense, more fragrant than odors of spring.

Nor less shall thy fair ones to glory ascend, And genius and beauty in harmony blend; The graces of form shall awake pure desire, And the charms of the soul ever cherish the fire; [refined, Their sweetness unmingled, their manners And virtue's bright image, enstamped on the mind,

With peace and soft rapture shall teach life to glow,

And light up a smile on the aspect of woe.

Thy fleets to all regions thy power shall dis

play,

The nations admire, and the ocean obey; Each shore to thy glory its tribute unfold, And the east and the south yield their spices and gold.

As the day-spring unbounded thy splendor
shall flow,
[bow,
And earth's little kingdoms before thee shall
While the ensigns of union, in triumph un-
furled,
[the world.
Hush the tumult of war, and give peace to
Thus, as down a lone valley, with cedars
o'erspread,
[strayed-
From war's dread confusion, I pensively
The gloom from the face of fair heaven
retired;
[expired;
The winds ceased to murmur, the thunders
Perfumes, as of Eden, flowed sweetly along,
And a voice, as of angels, enchantingly sung :
"Columbia, Columbia, to glory arise,
The queen of the world, and the child of the
skies."
Timothy Dwight.

115. AMERICA, Prophesy of
The Muse disgusted at an age and clime
Barren of every glorious theme,
In distant lands now waits a better time,
Producing subjects worthy fame.

In happy climes, where from the genial sun
And virgin earth such scenes ensue,
The force of art by nature seems outdone,
And fancied beauties by the true;

In happy climes, the seat of innocence,

Where Nature guides, and virtue rules, Where men shall not impose for truth and The pedantry of courts and schools. [sense There shall be sung another Golden Age,

The rise of empire and of arts,
The good and great inspiring epic rage,
The wisest heads and noblest hearts:

Not such as Europe breeds in her decay;

Such as she bred when fresh and young, When heavenly flame did animate her clay, By future poets shall be sung.

Westward the course of empire takes its way; The four first acts already past,

A fifth shall close the drama with the day: Time's noblest offspring in the last. George Berkeley.

116. AMUSEMENTS, Empty. Behold the child, by Nature's kindly law, Pleased with a rattle, tickled with a straw: Some livelier plaything gives his youth deA little louder, but as empty quite: [light, Scarfs, garters, gold, amuse his riper stage, And beads and prayer-books are the toys of age:

Pleas'd with this bauble still, as that before, Till tir'd he sleeps, and life's poor play is o'er. Alexander Pope.

117. ANCESTRY, Boasting of.

Boast not the titles of your ancestors,

Brave youths; they're their possessions, none of yours;

When your own virtues equal'd have their

names,

Ben Jonson.

118. ANCESTRY, Pride of.
Of all the notable things on earth,
The queerest one is pride of birth
Among our "fierce democracy" "!
A bridge across a hundred years,
Without a prop to save it from sneers,
Not even a couple of rotten peers,—
A thing for laughter, fleers, and jeers,
Is American aristocracy!

English and Irish, French and Spanish,
Germans, Italians, Dutch and Danish,
Crossing their veins until they vanish

In one conglomeration!

So subtle a tangle of blood, indeed,
No Heraldry Harvey will ever succeed
In finding the circulation.

Depend upon it, my snobbish friend,
Your family thread you can't ascend,
Without good reason to apprehend
You may find it waxed, at the farther end,
By some plebeian vocation!
Or, worse than that, your boasted line
May end in a loop of stronger twine,
That plagued some worthy relation!
John G. Saxe.

119. ANGELS, Care of the.
'Tis your office, spirits bright,

Still to guard us night and day,
And before your heavenly might
Powers of darkness flee away,
Ever doth our unseen host
Camp around us, and avert
All that seek to do us hurt,
Curbing Satan's malice most.
And ye come on ready wing,

When we drift toward sheer despair,
Seeing naught where we might cling,
Suddenly, lo! ye are there!
And the wearied heart grows strong,

As an angel strengthened Him,
Fainting in the garden dim,
'Neath the world's vast woe and wrong.
Johann Rist.