'T was never merry world

Since lowly feigning was called compliment.

Twelfth Night, Act iii. Sc. 1.

CONCEIT.

SHAKESPEARE.

'Tis with our judgments as our watches, none Go just alike, yet each believes his own. Essay on Criticism, Pt. I.

A. POPE

To observations which ourselves we make,
We grow more partial for the observer's sake.
Moral Essays, Epistle I.

In men this blunder still you find,
All think their little set mankind.

Florio, Pt. I. ·

A. POPE.

HANNAH MORE.

Conceit in weakest bodies strongest works. Hamlet, Act iii. Sc. 1.

SHAKESPEARE.

CONSCIENCE.

Whatever creed be taught or land be trod,
Man's conscience is the oracle of God.

The Island, Canto I.

LORD BYRON.

Oh, Conscience! Conscience! man's most faithful friend.
Him canst thou comfort, ease, relieve, defend;
But if he will thy friendly checks forego,
Thou art, oh! woe for me, his deadliest foe!
Struggles of Conscience.

G. CRABBE.

Conscience is harder than our enemies, Knows more, accuses with more nicety. Spanish Gypsy.

GEORGE ELIOT.

Of a' the ills that flesh can fear,
The loss o' frien's, the lack o' gear,
A yowlin' tyke, a glandered mear,
A lassie's nonsense-
There's just ae thing I cannae bear,
An' that's my conscience.

My Conscience.

R. L. STEVENSON.

My conscience hath a thousand several tongues,
And every tongue brings in a several tale,

And every tale condemns me for a villain.

K. Richard III., Act v. Sc. 3.

SHAKESPEARE.

Why should not Conscience have vacation
As well as other courts o' th' nation?
Have equal power to adjourn,
Appoint appearance and return?

Hudibras, Pt. II. Canto II.

S. BUTLER.

Soft, I did but dream.

O coward conscience, how dost thou afflict me! K. Richard III., Act v. Sc. 3.

SHAKESPEARE.

Let his tormentor conscience find him out.

Paradise Regained, Bk. IV.

MILTON.

Speak no more:

Thou turn'st mine eyes into my very soul;
And there I see such black and grained spots
As will not leave their tinct.

Hamlet, Act iii. Sc. 4.

SHAKESPEARE.

Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind:
The thief doth fear each bush an officer.

K. Richard II., Act v. Sc. 6.

SHAKESPEARE.

Leave her to Heaven,

And to those thorns that in her bosom lodge,
To prick and sting her.

Hamlet, Act i. Sc. 5.

Consideration, like an angel, came

SHAKESPEARE.

And whipped the offending Adam out of him.

K. Henry V., Act i. Sc. 1.

SHAKESPEARE.

True, conscious Honor is to feel no sin,

He 's armed without that 's innocent within;
Be this thy screen, and this thy wall of Brass.

First Book of Horace, Epistle I.

A. POPE.

I know myself now; and I feel within me
A peace above all earthly dignities;

A still and quiet conscience.

K. Henry VIII., Act iii. Sc. 2.

SHAKESPEARE.

A quiet conscience makes one so serene ! Christians have burnt each other, quite persuaded That all the Apostles would have done as they did. Don Juan, Canto I.

All is, if I have grace to use it so,

LORD BYRON.

As ever in my Great Task-Master's eye.

On being arrived at his Three-and-Twentieth Year.

MILTON.

And sure the eternal Master found
His single talent well employed.

Verses on Robert Levet.

CONSOLATION.

DR. S. JOHNSON.

With silence only as their benediction,

God's angels come.

Where in the shadow of a great affliction,
The soul sits dumb!

To my Friend on the Death of his Sister.

J. G. WHITTIER.

And, as she looked around, she saw how Death the consoler,

Laving his hand upon many a heart, had healed it forever. Evangeline.

H. W. LONGFELLOW.

Sprinkled along the waste of years

Full many a soft green isle appears:

Pause where we may upon the desert road, Some shelter is in sight, some sacred safe abode. The Christian Year. The First Sunday in Advent.

J. KEBLE.

O weary hearts! O slumbering eyes!
O drooping souls, whose destinies
Are fraught with fear and pain,
Ye shall be loved again.

Endymion.

H. W. LONGFELLOW.

Love is indestructible:

Its holy flame forever burneth:

From Heaven it came, to Heaven returneth;

It soweth here with toil and care,
But the harvest-time of Love is there.

Curse of Kehama, Canto X.

CONSTANCY.

O heaven! were man

R. SOUTHEY.

But constant, he were perfect. That one error

Fills him with faults; makes him run through all the sins: Inconstancy falls off ere it begins.

Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act v. Sc. 4. SHAKESPEARE.

They sin who tell us Love can die:

With Life all other passions fly,

All others are but vanity.

Curse of Kehama, Canto X.

R. SOUTHEY.

Doubt thou the stars are fire,
Doubt that the sun doth move;

Doubt truth to be a liar.

But never doubt I love.

Hamlet, Act ii. Sc. 2.

SHAKESPEARE.

When love begins to sicken and decay,
It useth an enforced ceremony.

There are no tricks in plain and simple faith.
Julius Cæsar, Act iv. Sc. 2.

SHAKESPEARE.

You say to me-wards your affection 's strong;
Pray love me little, so you love me long.
Love me little, love me long.

R. HERRICK.

When change itself can give no more,
'T is easy to be true.

Reasons for Constancy.

If ever thou shalt love,

SIR C. SEDLEY.

In the sweet pangs of it remember me ;
For such as I am all true lovers are,
Unstaid and skittish in all motions else,
Save in the constant image of the creature
That is beloved.

Twelfth Night, Act ii. Sc. 4.

SHAKESPEARE.

I could be well moved if I were as you;

If I could pray to move, prayers would move me;
But I am constant as the northern star,
Of whose true fixed and resting quality
There is no fellow in the firmament.
Julius Caesar, Act iii. Sc. 1

CONTENTMENT.

SHAKESPEARE.

Happy the man, of mortals happiest he,
Whose quiet mind from vain desires is free;
Whom neither hopes deceive, nor fears torment,
But lives at peace, within himself content;
In thought, or act, accountable to none
But to himself, and to the gods alone.

Epistle to Mrs. Higgons.

LORD LANSDOWNE.

Yes! in the poor man's garden grow,

Far more than herbs and flowers,

Kind thoughts, contentment, peace of mind,
And joy for weary hours.

The Poor Man's Garden.

M. HOWITT.

Whate'er the passion, knowledge, fame, or pelf, Not one will change his neighbor with himself. Essay on Man, Epistle II.

A. POPE.

Poor and content is rich and rich enough, But riches, fineless, is as poor as winter To him that ever fears he shall be poor. Othello, Act iii. Sc. 3.

SHAKESPEARE.

From labor health, from health contentment spring;
Contentment opes the source of every joy.
The Minstrel, Bk. I.

J. BEATTIE.

What happiness the rural maid attends,
In cheerful labor while each day.she spends!
She gratefully receives what Heaven has sent,
And, rich in poverty, enjoys content.

Rural Sports, Canto II.

J. GAY.

My crown is in my heart, not on my head;
Not decked with diamonds and Indian stones,
Nor to be seen my crown is called content;
A crown it is that seldom kings enjoy.
K. Henry VI., Pt. III. Act iii. Sc. 1.

In measureless content.

Macbeth, Act ii. Sc. 1.

SHAKESPEARE.

Shut up

SHAKESPEARE.

CONVERSATION.

Discourse, the sweeter banquet of the mind.

The Odyssey, Bk. XV.

HOMER. Trans. of POPE.

With good and gentle-humored hearts
I choose to chat where'er I come,
Whate'er the subject be that starts.
But if I get among the glum

I hold my tongue to tell the truth
And keep my breath to cool my broth.
Careless Content.

LORD BYRON.

But conversation, choose what theme we may, And chiefly when religion leads the way, Should flow, like waters after summer show'rs, Not as if raised by mere mechanic powers. Conversation.

W. COWPER.

In general those who nothing have to say Contrive to spend the longest time in doing it. An Oriental Apologue.

J. R. LOWELL.