Familiar Quotations - Part 9

_The Task. Book ii. The Timepiece. Line 29._


Slaves cannot breathe in England; if their lungs
Receive our air, that moment they are free!
They touch our country, and their shackles fall.[418-2]

_The Task. Book ii. The Timepiece. Line 40._


Fast-anchor'd isle.

_The Task. Book ii. The Timepiece. Line 151._


England, with all thy faults I love thee still,
My country![418-3]

_The Task. Book ii. The Timepiece. Line 206._


Presume to lay their hand upon the ark
Of her magnificent and awful cause.

_The Task. Book ii. The Timepiece. Line 231._


Praise enough
To fill the ambition of a private man,
That Chatham's language was his mother tongue.

_The Task. Book ii. The Timepiece. Line 235._


There is a pleasure in poetic pains
Which only poets know.[419-1]

_The Task. Book ii. The Timepiece. Line 285._


Transforms old print
To zigzag manuscript, and cheats the eyes
Of gallery critics by a thousand arts.

_The Task. Book ii. The Timepiece. Line 363._


Reading what they never wrote,
Just fifteen minutes, huddle up their work,
And with a well-bred whisper close the scene.

_The Task. Book ii. The Timepiece. Line 411._


Whoe'er was edified, themselves were not.

_The Task. Book ii. The Timepiece. Line 444._


Variety 's the very spice of life.[419-2]

_The Task. Book ii. The Timepiece. Line 606._


She that asks
Her dear five hundred friends.

_The Task. Book ii. The Timepiece. Line 642._


His head,
Not yet by time completely silver'd o'er,
Bespoke him past the bounds of freakish youth,
But strong for service still, and unimpair'd.

_The Task. Book ii. The Timepiece. Line 702._


Domestic happiness, thou only bliss
Of Paradise that has survived the fall!

_The Task. Book iii. The Garden. Line 41._


Great contest follows, and much learned dust.

_The Task. Book iii. The Garden. Line 161._


From reveries so airy, from the toil
Of dropping buckets into empty wells,
And growing old in drawing nothing up.[419-3]

_The Task. Book iii. The Garden. Line 188._


How various his employments whom the world
Calls idle, and who justly in return
Esteems that busy world an idler too!

_The Task. Book iii. The Garden. Line 352._


Who loves a garden loves a greenhouse too.

_The Task. Book iii. The Garden. Line 566._


I burn to set the imprison'd wranglers free,
And give them voice and utterance once again.
Now stir the fire, and close the shutters fast,
Let fall the curtains, wheel the sofa round,
And while the bubbling and loud-hissing urn
Throws up a steamy column, and the cups
That cheer but not inebriate[420-1] wait on each,
So let us welcome peaceful evening in.

_The Task. Book iv. The Winter Evening. Line 34._


Which not even critics criticise.

_The Task. Book iv. The Winter Evening. Line 51._


What is it but a map of busy life,
Its fluctuations, and its vast concerns?

_The Task. Book iv. The Winter Evening. Line 55._


And Katerfelto, with his hair on end
At his own wonders, wondering for his bread.
'T is pleasant, through the loopholes of retreat,
To peep at such a world,--to see the stir
Of the great Babel, and not feel the crowd.

_The Task. Book iv. The Winter Evening. Line 86._


While fancy, like the finger of a clock,
Runs the great circuit, and is still at home.

_The Task. Book iv. The Winter Evening. Line 118._


O Winter, ruler of the inverted year![420-2]

_The Task. Book iv. The Winter Evening. Line 120._


With spots quadrangular of diamond form,
Ensanguined hearts, clubs typical of strife,
And spades, the emblems of untimely graves.

_The Task. Book iv. The Winter Evening. Line 217._


In indolent vacuity of thought.

_The Task. Book iv. The Winter Evening. Line 297._


It seems the part of wisdom.

_The Task. Book iv. The Winter Evening. Line 336._


All learned, and all drunk!

_The Task. Book iv. The Winter Evening. Line 478._


Gloriously drunk, obey the important call.

_The Task. Book iv. The Winter Evening, Line 510._


Those golden times
And those Arcadian scenes that Maro sings,
And Sidney, warbler of poetic prose.

_The Task. Book iv. The Winter Evening. Line 514._


The Frenchman's darling.[421-1]

_The Task. Book iv. The Winter Evening. Line 765._


Some must be great. Great offices will have
Great talents. And God gives to every man
The virtue, temper, understanding, taste,
That lifts him into life, and lets him fall
Just in the niche he was ordain'd to fill.

_The Task. Book iv. The Winter Evening. Line 788._


Silently as a dream the fabric rose,
No sound of hammer or of saw was there.[421-2]

_The Task. Book v. The Winter Morning Walk. Line 144._


But war 's a game which were their subjects wise
Kings would not play at.

_The Task. Book v. The Winter Morning Walk. Line 187._


The beggarly last doit.

_The Task. Book v. The Winter Morning Walk. Line 316._


As dreadful as the Manichean god,
Adored through fear, strong only to destroy.

_The Task. Book v. The Winter Morning Walk. Line 444._


He is the freeman whom the truth makes free.

_The Task. Book v. The Winter Morning Walk. Line 733._


With filial confidence inspired,
Can lift to Heaven an unpresumptuous eye,
And smiling say, My Father made them all!

_The Task. Book v. The Winter Morning Walk. Line 745._


Give what thou canst, without Thee we are poor;
And with Thee rich, take what Thou wilt away.

_The Task. Book v. The Winter Morning Walk. Line 905._


There is in souls a sympathy with sounds;
And as the mind is pitch'd the ear is pleased.
With melting airs or martial, brisk or grave;
Some chord in unison with what we hear
Is touch'd within us, and the heart replies.
How soft the music of those village bells
Falling at intervals upon the ear
In cadence sweet!

_The Task. Book vi. Winter Walk at Noon. Line 1._


Here the heart
May give a useful lesson to the head,
And Learning wiser grow without his books.

_The Task. Book vi. Winter Walk at Noon. Line 85._


Knowledge is proud that he has learn'd so much;
Wisdom is humble that he knows no more.
Books are not seldom talismans and spells.

_The Task. Book vi. Winter Walk at Noon. Line 96._


Some to the fascination of a name
Surrender judgment hoodwink'd.

_The Task. Book vi. Winter Walk at Noon. Line 101._


I would not enter on my list of friends
(Though graced with polish'd manners and fine sense,
Yet wanting sensibility) the man
Who needlessly sets foot upon a worm.

_The Task. Book vi. Winter Walk at Noon. Line 560._


An honest man, close-button'd to the chin,
Broadcloth without, and a warm heart within.

_Epistle to Joseph Hill._


Shine by the side of every path we tread
With such a lustre, he that runs may read.[422-1]

_Tirocinium. Line 79._


What peaceful hours I once enjoy'd!
How sweet their memory still!
But they have left an aching void
The world can never fill.

_Walking with God._


And Satan trembles when he sees
The weakest saint upon his knees.

_Exhortation to Prayer._


God moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform;
He plants his footsteps in the sea
And rides upon the storm.

_Light shining out of Darkness._


Behind a frowning providence
He hides a shining face.

_Light shining out of Darkness._


Beware of desperate steps! The darkest day,
Live till to-morrow, will have pass'd away.

_The Needless Alarm. Moral._


Oh that those lips had language! Life has pass'd
With me but roughly since I heard thee last.

_On the Receipt of my Mother's Picture._


The son of parents pass'd into the skies.

_On the Receipt of my Mother's Picture._


The man that hails you Tom or Jack,
And proves, by thumping on your back,[423-1]
His sense of your great merit,[423-2]
Is such a friend that one had need
Be very much his friend indeed
To pardon or to bear it.

_On Friendship._


A worm is in the bud of youth,
And at the root of age.

_Stanzas subjoined to a Bill of Mortality._


Toll for the brave!--
The brave that are no more!
All sunk beneath the wave,
Fast by their native shore!

_On the Loss of the Royal George._


There is a bird who by his coat,
And by the hoarseness of his note,
Might be supposed a crow.

_The Jackdaw._ (Translation from Vincent Bourne.)


He sees that this great roundabout
The world, with all its motley rout,
Church, army, physic, law,
Its customs and its businesses,
Is no concern at all of his,
And says--what says he?--Caw.

_The Jackdaw._ (Translation from Vincent Bourne.)


For 't is a truth well known to most,
That whatsoever thing is lost,
We seek it, ere it come to light,
In every cranny but the right.

_The Retired Cat._


He that holds fast the golden mean,[424-1]
And lives contentedly between
The little and the great,
Feels not the wants that pinch the poor,
Nor plagues that haunt the rich man's door.

_Translation of Horace. Book ii. Ode x._


But strive still to be a man before your mother.[424-2]

_Connoisseur. Motto of No. iii._


FOOTNOTES:

[414-1] See Pope, page 314.

[414-2] See Prior, page 287.

[415-1] See Pope, page 331.

[415-2] See Pope, page 336.

[415-3] See Butler, page 213.

The story of a lamp which was supposed to have burned about
fifteen hundred years in the sepulchre of Tullia, the daughter of
Cicero, is told by Pancirollus and others.

[416-1] La Bruyère.

[417-1] BUCKINGHAM: _The Rehearsal_ (the two Kings of Brentford).

[417-2] See Bacon, page 167.

[418-1] Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging-place of
wayfaring men!--_Jeremiah ix. 2._

Oh that the desert were my dwelling-place!--BYRON: _Childe Harold,
canto iv. stanza 177._

[418-2] Servi peregrini, ut primum Galliæ fines penetraverint
eodem momento liberi sunt (Foreign slaves, as soon as they come
within the limits of Gaul, that moment they are free).--BODINUS:
_Liber i. c. 5._

Lord Campbell ("Lives of the Chief Justices," vol. ii. p. 418)
says that "Lord Mansfield first established the grand doctrine
that the air of England is too pure to be breathed by a slave."
The words attributed to Lord Mansfield, however, are not found in
his judgment. They are in Hargrave's argument, May 14, 1772, where
he speaks of England as "a soil whose air is deemed too pure for
slaves to breathe in."--LOFFT: _Reports, p. 2._

[418-3] See Churchill, page 413.

[419-1] See Dryden, page 277.

[419-2] No pleasure endures unseasoned by variety--PUB. SYRUS:
_Maxim 406._

[419-3] He has spent all his life in letting down buckets into
empty wells; and he is frittering away his age in trying to draw
them up again.--_Lady Holland's Memoir of Sydney Smith, vol. i. p.
259._

[420-1] See Bishop Berkeley, page 312.

[420-2] See Thomson, page 356.

[421-1] It was Cowper who gave this now common name to the
mignonette.

[421-2]
No hammers fell, no ponderous axes rung;
Like some tall palm the mystic fabric sprung.

HEBER: _Palestine._


So that there was neither hammer nor axe, nor any tool of iron
heard in the house while it was in building.--_1 Kings vi. 7._

[422-1] Write the vision, and make it plain, upon tables, that he
may run that readeth it.--_Habakkuk ii. 2._

He that runs may read.--TENNYSON: _The Flower._

[423-1] See Young, page 312.

[423-2] _Var._ How he esteems your merit.

[424-1] Keep the golden mean.--PUBLIUS SYRUS: _Maxim 1072._

[424-2] See Beaumont and Fletcher, page 199.




ERASMUS DARWIN. 1731-1802.

Soon shall thy arm, unconquer'd steam! afar
Drag the slow barge, or drive the rapid car;
Or on wide-waving wings expanded bear
The flying chariot through the field of air.

_The Botanic Garden. Part i. Canto i. Line 289._


No radiant pearl which crested Fortune wears,
No gem that twinkling hangs from Beauty's ears,
Not the bright stars which Night's blue arch adorn,
Nor rising suns that gild the vernal morn,
Shine with such lustre as the tear that flows
Down Virtue's manly cheek for others' woes.



_The Botanic Garden. Part ii. Canto iii. Line 459._





BEILBY PORTEUS. 1731-1808.

In sober state,
Through the sequestered vale of rural life,
The venerable patriarch guileless held
The tenor of his way.[425-1]

_Death. Line 108._


One murder made a villain,
Millions a hero. Princes were privileged
To kill, and numbers sanctified the crime.[425-2]

_Death. Line 154._


War its thousands slays, Peace its ten thousands.

_Death. Line 178._


Teach him how to live,
And, oh still harder lesson! how to die.[425-3]

_Death. Line 316._


FOOTNOTES:

[425-1] See Gray, page 385.

[425-2] See Young, page 311.

[425-3] See Tickell, page 313.




GEORGE WASHINGTON. 1732-1799.

Labour to keep alive in your breast that little spark of
celestial fire,--conscience.

_Rule from the Copy-book of Washington when a schoolboy._


To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of
preserving peace.[425-4]

_Speech to both Houses of Congress, Jan. 8, 1790._


'T is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with
any portion of the foreign world.

_His Farewell Address._


FOOTNOTES:

[425-4] Qui desiderat pacem præparet bellum (Who would desire
peace should be prepared for war).--VEGETIUS: _Rei Militari 3,
Prolog._

In pace, ut sapiens, aptarit idonea bello (In peace, as a wise
man, he should make suitable preparation for war).--HORACE: _Book
ii. satire ii._




LORD THURLOW. 1732-1806.

The accident of an accident.

_Speech in Reply to the Duke of Grafton. Butler's Reminiscences, vol. i.
p. 142._


When I forget my sovereign, may my God forget me.[426-1]

_27 Parliamentary History, 680; Annual Register, 1789._


FOOTNOTES:

[426-1] Whereupon Wilkes is reported to have said, somewhat
coarsely, but not unhappily it must be allowed, "Forget you! He'll
see you d----d first." Burke also exclaimed, "The best thing that
could happen to you!"--BROUGHAM: _Statesman of the Time of George
III._ (_Thurlow._)




JOHN DICKINSON. 1732-1808.

Then join in hand, brave Americans all!
By uniting we stand, by dividing we fall.

_The Liberty Song_ (1768).


Our cause is just, our union is perfect.

_Declaration on taking up Arms in 1775._[426-2]


FOOTNOTES:

[426-2] From the original manuscript draft in Dickinson's
handwriting, which has given rise to the belief that he, not
Jefferson (as formerly claimed), is the real author of this
sentence.




W. J. MICKLE. 1734-1788.

The dews of summer nights did fall,
The moon, sweet regent of the sky,[426-3]
Silvered the walls of Cumnor Hall
And many an oak that grew thereby.

_Cumnor Hall._


For there 's nae luck about the house,
There 's nae luck at a';
There 's little pleasure in the house
When our gudeman 's awa'.

_The Mariner's Wife._[427-1]


His very foot has music in 't
As he comes up the stairs.

_The Mariner's Wife._


FOOTNOTES:

[426-3] Jove, thou regent of the skies.--POPE: _The Odyssey, book
ii. line 42._

Now Cynthia, named fair regent of the night.--GAY: _Trivia, book
iii._

And hail their queen, fair regent of the night.--DARWIN: _The
Botanic Garden, part i. canto ii. line 90._

[427-1] "The Mariner's Wife" is now given "by common consent,"
says Sarah Tytler, to Jean Adam (1710-1765).




JOHN LANGHORNE. 1735-1779.

Cold on Canadian hills or Minden's plain,
Perhaps that parent mourned her soldier slain;
Bent o'er her babe, her eye dissolved in dew,
The big drops mingling with the milk he drew
Gave the sad presage of his future years,--
The child of misery, baptized in tears.[427-2]

_The Country Justice. Part i._


FOOTNOTES:

[427-2] This allusion to the dead soldier and his widow on the
field of battle was made the subject of a print by Bunbury, under
which were engraved the pathetic lines of Langhorne. Sir Walter
Scott has mentioned that the only time he saw Burns this picture
was in the room. Burns shed tears over it; and Scott, then a lad
of fifteen, was the only person present who could tell him where
the lines were to be found.--LOCKHART: _Life of Scott, vol. i.
chap. iv._




ISAAC BICKERSTAFF. 1735-1787.

Hope! thou nurse of young desire.

_Love in a Village. Act i. Sc. 1._


There was a jolly miller once,
Lived on the river Dee;
He worked and sung from morn till night:
No lark more blithe than he.

_Love in a Village. Act i. Sc. 2._


And this the burden of his song
Forever used to be,--
I care for nobody, no, not I,
If no one cares for me.[427-3]

_Love in a Village. Act i. Sc. 2._


Young fellows will be young fellows.

_Love in a Village. Act ii. Sc. 2._


Ay, do despise me! I 'm the prouder for it; I like to be
despised.

_The Hypocrite. Act v. Sc. 1._


FOOTNOTES:

[427-3]
If naebody care for me,
I 'll care for naebody.

BURNS: _I hae a Wife o' my Ain._




JAMES BEATTIE. 1735-1803.

Ah, who can tell how hard it is to climb
The steep where Fame's proud temple shines afar?

_The Minstrel. Book i. Stanza 1._


Zealous, yet modest; innocent, though free;
Patient of toil, serene amidst alarms;
Inflexible in faith, invincible in arms.

_The Minstrel. Book i. Stanza 11._


Old age comes on apace to ravage all the clime.

_The Minstrel. Book i. Stanza 25._


Mine be the breezy hill that skirts the down,
Where a green grassy turf is all I crave,
With here and there a violet bestrewn,
Fast by a brook or fountain's murmuring wave;
And many an evening sun shine sweetly on my grave!

_The Minstrel. Book ii. Stanza 17._


At the close of the day when the hamlet is still,
And mortals the sweets of forgetfulness prove,
When naught but the torrent is heard on the hill,
And naught but the nightingale's song in the grove.

_The Hermit._


He thought as a sage, though he felt as a man.

_The Hermit._


But when shall spring visit the mouldering urn?
Oh when shall it dawn on the night of the grave?

_The Hermit._


By the glare of false science betray'd,
That leads to bewilder, and dazzles to blind.

_The Hermit._


And beauty immortal awakes from the tomb.



_The Hermit._





JOHN ADAMS. 1735-1826.

Yesterday the greatest question was decided which ever was
debated in America; and a greater perhaps never was, nor will be,
decided among men. A resolution was passed without one dissenting
colony, that those United Colonies are, and of right ought to be,
free and independent States.

_Letter to Mrs. Adams, July 3, 1776._


The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epocha
in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be
celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary
festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance,
by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be
solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns,
bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this
continent to the other, from this time forward for evermore.

_Letter to Mrs. Adams, July 3, 1776._





PATRICK HENRY. 1736-1799.

Cæsar had his Brutus; Charles the First, his Cromwell; and George
the Third ["Treason!" cried the Speaker]--_may profit by their
example_. If _this_ be treason, make the most of it.

_Speech in the Virginia Convention, 1765._


I am not a Virginian, but an American.[428-1]

_Speech in the Virginia Convention. September, 1774._


I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the
lamp of experience. I know no way of judging of the future but by
the past.[428-2]

_Speech in the Virginia Convention. March, 1775._


Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price
of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what
course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give
me death!

_Speech in the Virginia Convention. March, 1775._


FOOTNOTES:

[428-1] I was born an American; I will live an American; I shall
die an American!--WEBSTER: _Speech, July 17, 1850._

[428-2] See Burke, page 411.




EDWARD GIBBON. 1737-1794.

The reign of Antoninus is marked by the rare advantage of
furnishing very few materials for history, which is indeed little
more than the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of
mankind.[430-1]

_Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire_ (1776). _Chap. iii._


Revenge is profitable, gratitude is expensive.

_Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire_ (1776). _Chap. xi._


Amiable weaknesses of human nature.[430-2]

_Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire_ (1776). _Chap. xiv._


In every deed of mischief he had a heart to resolve, a head to
contrive, and a hand to execute.[430-3]

_Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire_ (1776). _Chap. xlviii._


Our sympathy is cold to the relation of distant misery.

_Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire_ (1776). _Chap. xlix._


The winds and waves are always on the side of the ablest
navigators.[430-4]

_Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire_ (1776). _Chap. lxviii._


Vicissitudes of fortune, which spares neither man nor the
proudest of his works, which buries empires and cities in a
common grave.

_Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire_ (1776). _Chap. lxxi._


All that is human must retrograde if it do not advance.

_Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire_ (1776). _Chap. lxxi._


I saw and loved.[430-5]

_Memoirs. Vol. i. p. 106._


On the approach of spring I withdraw without reluctance from the
noisy and extensive scene of crowds without company, and
dissipation without pleasure.

_Memoirs. Vol. i. p. 116._


I was never less alone than when by myself.[431-1]

_Memoirs. Vol. i. p. 117._


FOOTNOTES:

[430-1] L'histoire n'est que le tableau des crimes et des malheurs
(History is but the record of crimes and misfortunes).--VOLTAIRE:
_L' Ingénu, chap. x._

[430-2] See Fielding, page 364.

[430-3] See Clarendon, page 255.

[430-4] On dit que Dieu est toujours pour les gros bataillons (It
is said that God is always on the side of the heaviest
battalions).--VOLTAIRE: _Letter to M. le Riche. 1770._

J'ai toujours vu Dieu du coté des gros bataillons (I have always
noticed that God is on the side of the heaviest battalions).--_De
la Ferté to Anne of Austria._

[430-5] See Chapman, page 35.

[431-1] Never less alone than when alone.--ROGERS: _Human Life._




THOMAS PAINE. 1737-1809.

And the final event to himself [Mr. Burke] has been, that, as he
rose like a rocket, he fell like the stick.

_Letter to the Addressers._


These are the times that try men's souls.

_The American Crisis. No. 1._


The sublime and the ridiculous are often so nearly related, that
it is difficult to class them separately. One step above the
sublime makes the ridiculous, and one step above the ridiculous
makes the sublime again.[431-2]

_Age of Reason. Part ii. note._


FOOTNOTES:

[431-2] Probably this is the original of Napoleon's celebrated
_mot_, "Du sublime au ridicule il n'y a qu'un pas" (From the
sublime to the ridiculous there is but one step).




JOHN WOLCOT. 1738-1819.

What rage for fame attends both great and small!
Better be damned than mentioned not at all.

_To the Royal Academicians._


No, let the monarch's bags and others hold
The flattering, mighty, nay, al-mighty gold.[431-3]

_To Kien Long. Ode iv._


Care to our coffin adds a nail, no doubt,
And every grin so merry draws one out.

_Expostulatory Odes. Ode xv._


A fellow in a market town,
Most musical, cried razors up and down.

_Farewell Odes. Ode iii._


FOOTNOTES:

[431-3] See Jonson, page 178.




MRS. THRALE. 1739-1821.

The tree of deepest root is found
Least willing still to quit the ground:
'T was therefore said by ancient sages,
That love of life increased with years
So much, that in our latter stages,
When pain grows sharp and sickness rages,
The greatest love of life appears.

_Three Warnings._





CHARLES MORRIS. 1739-1832.

Solid men of Boston, banish long potations!
Solid men of Boston, make no long orations![432-1]

_Pitt and Dundas's Return to London from Wimbledon. American Song. From
Lyra Urbanica._


O give me the sweet shady side of Pall Mall!

_Town and Country._


FOOTNOTES:

[432-1]
Solid men of Boston, make no long orations!
Solid men of Boston, banish strong potations!

_Billy Pitt and the Farmer. From Debrett's Asylum for Fugitive
Pieces, vol. ii. p. 250._




A. M. TOPLADY. 1740-1778.

Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in thee.

_Salvation through Christ._





THOMAS MOSS. 1740-1808.

Pity the sorrows of a poor old man,
Whose trembling limbs have borne him to your door,
Whose days are dwindled to the shortest span;
Oh give relief, and Heaven will bless your store.

_The Beggar._


A pampered menial drove me from the door.[433-1]

_The Beggar._


FOOTNOTES:

[433-1] This line stood originally, "A liveried servant," etc.,
and was altered as above by Goldsmith.--FORSTER: _Life of
Goldsmith, vol. i. p. 215_ (fifth edition, 1871).




MRS. BARBAULD. 1743-1825.

Man is the nobler growth our realms supply,
And souls are ripened in our northern sky.

_The Invitation._


This dead of midnight is the noon of thought,
And Wisdom mounts her zenith with the stars.

_A Summer's Evening Meditation._


It is to hope, though hope were lost.[433-2]

_Come here, Fond Youth._


Life! we 've been long together
Through pleasant and through cloudy weather;
'T is hard to part when friends are dear,--
Perhaps 't will cost a sigh, a tear;
Then steal away, give little warning,
Choose thine own time;
Say not "Good night," but in some brighter clime
Bid me "Good morning."

_Life._


So fades a summer cloud away;
So sinks the gale when storms are o'er;
So gently shuts the eye of day;[434-1]
So dies a wave along the shore.

_The Death of the Virtuous._


Child of mortality, whence comest thou? Why is thy countenance
sad, and why are thine eyes red with weeping?

_Hymns in Prose. xiii._


FOOTNOTES:

[433-2] Who against hope believed in hope.--_Romans iv. 18._

Hope against hope, and ask till ye receive.--MONTGOMERY: _The
World before the Flood._

[434-1] See Chaucer, page 6.




THOMAS JEFFERSON. 1743-1826.

The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time.

_Summary View of the Rights of British America._


When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one
people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them
with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth the
separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of
nature's God[434-2] entitle them, a decent respect to the
opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes
which impel them to the separation.

_Declaration of Independence._


We hold these truths to be self-evident,--that all men are
created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with
certain unalienable rights;[434-3] that among these are life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

_Declaration of Independence._


We mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our
sacred honour.

_Declaration of Independence._


Error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to
combat it.

_First Inaugural Address. March 4, 1801._


Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever state or
persuasion, religious or political; peace, commerce, and honest
friendship with all nations,--entangling alliances with none; the
support of the State governments in all their rights, as the most
competent administrations for our domestic concerns, and the
surest bulwarks against anti-republican tendencies; the
preservation of the general government in its whole
constitutional vigour, as the sheet anchor of our peace at home
and safety abroad; . . . freedom of religion; freedom of the
press; freedom of person under the protection of the habeas
corpus; and trial by juries impartially selected,--these
principles form the bright constellation which has gone before
us, and guided our steps through an age of revolution and
reformation.

_First Inaugural Address. March 4, 1801._


In the full tide of successful experiment.

_First Inaugural Address. March 4, 1801._


Of the various executive abilities, no one excited more anxious
concern than that of placing the interests of our fellow-citizens
in the hands of honest men, with understanding sufficient for
their stations.[435-1] No duty is at the same time more difficult
to fulfil. The knowledge of character possessed by a single
individual is of necessity limited. To seek out the best through
the whole Union, we must resort to the information which from the
best of men, acting disinterestedly and with the purest motives,
is sometimes incorrect.

_Letter to Elias Shipman and others of New Haven, July 12, 1801._


If a due participation of office is a matter of right, how are
vacancies to be obtained? Those by death are few; by resignation,
none.[435-2]

_Letter to Elias Shipman and others of New Haven, July 12, 1801._


When a man assumes a public trust, he should consider himself as
public property.[436-1]

_Life of Jefferson_ (Rayner), _p. 356._


Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just.

_Notes on Virginia. Query xviii. Manners._


FOOTNOTES:

[434-2] See Bolingbroke, page 304.

[434-3] All men are born free and equal, and have certain natural,
essential, and unalienable rights.--_Constitution of
Massachusetts._

[435-1] This passage is thus paraphrased by John B. McMaster in
his "History of the People of the United States" (ii. 586): "One
sentence will undoubtedly be remembered till our republic ceases
to exist. 'No duty the Executive had to perform was so trying,' he
observed, 'as to put the right man in the right place.'"

[435-2] Usually quoted, "Few die and none resign."

[436-1] See Appendix, page 859.




JOSIAH QUINCY, JR. 1744-1775.

Blandishments will not fascinate us, nor will threats of a
"halter" intimidate. For, under God, we are determined that
wheresoever, whensoever, or howsoever we shall be called to make
our exit, we will die free men.

_Observations on the Boston Port Bill, 1774._





CHARLES DIBDIN. 1745-1814.

There 's a sweet little cherub that sits up aloft,
To keep watch for the life of poor Jack.

_Poor Jack._


Did you ever hear of Captain Wattle?
He was all for love, and a little for the bottle.

_Captain Wattle and Miss Roe._


His form was of the manliest beauty,
His heart was kind and soft;
Faithful below he did his duty,
But now he 's gone aloft.

_Tom Bowling._


For though his body 's under hatches,
His soul has gone aloft.

_Tom Bowling._


Spanking Jack was so comely, so pleasant, so jolly,
Though winds blew great guns, still he 'd whistle and sing;
Jack loved his friend, and was true to his Molly,
And if honour gives greatness, was great as a king.

_The Sailor's Consolation._[436-2]


FOOTNOTES:

[436-2] A song with this title, beginning, "One night came on a
hurricane," was written by William Pitt, of Malta, who died in
1840.




HANNAH MORE. 1745-1833.

To those who know thee not, no words can paint!
And those who know thee, know all words are faint!

_Sensibility._


Since trifles make the sum of human things,
And half our misery from our foibles springs.

_Sensibility._


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

_Florio. Part i._


Small habits well pursued betimes
May reach the dignity of crimes.

_Florio. Part i._





LORD STOWELL. 1745-1836.

A dinner lubricates business.

_Life of Johnson_ (Boswell). _Vol. viii. p. 67, note._


The elegant simplicity of the three per cents.[437-1]

_Lives of the Lord Chancellors_ (Campbell). _Vol. x. Chap. 212._


FOOTNOTES:

[437-1] The sweet simplicity of the three per cents.--DISRAELI
(Earl Beaconsfield): _Endymion._




SIR WILLIAM JONES. 1746-1794.

Than all Bocara's vaunted gold,
Than all the gems of Samarcand.

_A Persian Song of Hafiz._


Go boldly forth, my simple lay,
Whose accents flow with artless ease,
Like orient pearls at random strung.[437-2]

_A Persian Song of Hafiz._


On parent knees, a naked new-born child,
Weeping thou sat'st while all around thee smiled;
So live, that sinking in thy last long sleep,
Calm thou mayst smile, while all around thee weep.

_From the Persian._


What constitutes a state?
. . . . . . .
Men who their duties know,
But know their rights, and knowing, dare maintain.
. . . . . . .
And sovereign law, that state's collected will,
O'er thrones and globes elate,
Sits empress, crowning good, repressing ill.[438-1]

_Ode in Imitation of Alcæus._


Seven hours to law, to soothing slumber seven,
Ten to the world allot, and all to heaven.[438-2]

FOOTNOTES:

[437-2]
'T was he that ranged the words at random flung,
Pierced the fair pearls and them together strung.

EASTWICK: _Anvari Suhaili._ (Translated from Firdousi.)

[438-1] Neither walls, theatres, porches, nor senseless equipage,
make states, but men who are able to rely upon
themselves.--ARISTIDES: _Orations_ (Jebb's edition), _vol. i._
(trans. by A. W. Austin).

By Themistocles alone, or with very few others, does this saying
appear to be approved, which, though Alcæus formerly had produced,
many afterwards claimed: "Not stones, nor wood, nor the art of
artisans, make a state; but where men are who know how to take
care of themselves, these are cities and walls."--_Ibid. vol. ii._

[438-2] See Coke, page 24.




JOHN LOGAN. 1748-1788.

Thou hast no sorrow in thy song,
No winter in thy year.

_To the Cuckoo._


Oh could I fly, I 'd fly with thee!
We 'd make with joyful wing
Our annual visit o'er the globe,
Companions of the spring.



_To the Cuckoo._





JONATHAN M. SEWALL. 1748-1808.

No pent-up Utica contracts your powers,
But the whole boundless continent is yours.

_Epilogue to Cato._[439-1]


FOOTNOTES:

[439-1] Written for the Bow Street Theatre, Portsmouth, New
Hampshire.




JOHN EDWIN. 1749-1790.

A man's ingress into the world is naked and bare,
His progress through the world is trouble and care;
And lastly, his egress out of the world, is nobody knows where.
If we do well here, we shall do well there:
I can tell you no more if I preach a whole year.[439-2]

_The Eccentricities of John Edwin_ (second edition), _vol. i. p. 74.
London, 1791._


FOOTNOTES:

[439-2] These lines Edwin offers as heads of a "sermon."
Longfellow places them in the mouth of "The Cobbler of Hagenau,"
as a "familiar tune." See "The Wayside Inn, part ii. The Student's
Tale."




JOHN TRUMBULL. 1750-1831.

But optics sharp it needs, I ween,
To see what is not to be seen.

_M^cFingal. Canto i. Line 67._


But as some muskets so contrive it
As oft to miss the mark they drive at,
And though well aimed at duck or plover,
Bear wide, and kick their owners over.

_M^cFingal. Canto i. Line 93._


As though there were a tie
And obligation to posterity.
We get them, bear them, breed, and nurse:
What has posterity done for us
That we, lest they their rights should lose,
Should trust our necks to gripe of noose?

_M^cFingal. Canto ii. Line 121._


No man e'er felt the halter draw,
With good opinion of the law.

_M^cFingal. Canto iii. Line 489._





RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 1751-1816.

Illiterate him, I say, quite from your memory.

_The Rivals. Act i. Sc. 2._


'T is safest in matrimony to begin with a little aversion.

_The Rivals. Act i. Sc. 2._


A progeny of learning.

_The Rivals. Act i. Sc. 2._


A circulating library in a town is as an evergreen tree of
diabolical knowledge.

_The Rivals. Act iii. Sc. 1._


He is the very pine-apple of politeness!

_The Rivals. Act iii. Sc. 3._


If I reprehend anything in this world, it is the use of my
oracular tongue, and a nice derangement of epitaphs!

_The Rivals. Act iii. Sc. 3._


As headstrong as an allegory on the banks of the Nile.

_The Rivals. Act iii. Sc. 3._


Too civil by half.

_The Rivals. Act iii. Sc. 4._


Our ancestors are very good kind of folks; but they are the last
people I should choose to have a visiting acquaintance with.

_The Rivals. Act iv. Sc. 1._


No caparisons, miss, if you please. Caparisons don't become a
young woman.

_The Rivals. Act iv. Sc. 2._


We will not anticipate the past; so mind, young people,--our
retrospection will be all to the future.

_The Rivals. Act iv. Sc. 2._


You are not like Cerberus, three gentlemen at once, are you?



_The Rivals. Act iv. Sc. 2._


The quarrel is a very pretty quarrel as it stands; we should only
spoil it by trying to explain it.

_The Rivals. Act iv. Sc. 3._


You 're our enemy; lead the way, and we 'll precede.

_The Rivals. Act v. Sc. 1._


There 's nothing like being used to a thing.[441-1]

_The Rivals. Act v. Sc. 3._


As there are three of us come on purpose for the game, you won't
be so cantankerous as to spoil the party by sitting out.

_The Rivals. Act v. Sc. 3._


My valour is certainly going! it is sneaking off! I feel it
oozing out, as it were, at the palm of my hands!

_The Rivals. Act v. Sc. 3._


I own the soft impeachment.

_The Rivals. Act v. Sc. 3._


Steal! to be sure they may; and, egad, serve your best thoughts
as gypsies do stolen children,--disfigure them to make 'em pass
for their own.[441-2]

_The Critic. Act i. Sc. 1._


The newspapers! Sir, they are the most villanous, licentious,
abominable, infernal-- Not that I ever read them! No, I make it a
rule never to look into a newspaper.

_The Critic. Act i. Sc. 2._


Egad, I think the interpreter is the hardest to be understood of
the two!

_The Critic. Act i. Sc. 2._


Sheer necessity,--the proper parent of an art so nearly allied to
invention.

_The Critic. Act i. Sc. 2._


No scandal about Queen Elizabeth, I hope?

_The Critic. Act ii. Sc. 1._


Certainly nothing is unnatural that is not physically impossible.

_The Critic. Act ii. Sc. 1._


Where they _do_ agree on the stage, their unanimity is wonderful.

_The Critic. Act ii. Sc. 2._


Inconsolable to the minuet in Ariadne.

_The Critic. Act ii. Sc. 2._


The Spanish fleet thou canst not see, because--it is not yet in
sight!

_The Critic. Act ii. Sc. 2._


An oyster may be crossed in love.

_The Critic. Act iii. Sc. 1._


You shall see them on a beautiful quarto page, where a neat
rivulet of text shall meander through a meadow of margin.

_School for Scandal. Act i. Sc. 1._


Here is the whole set! a character dead at every word.

_School for Scandal. Act ii. Sc. 2._


I leave my character behind me.

_School for Scandal. Act ii. Sc. 2._


Here 's to the maiden of bashful fifteen;
Here 's to the widow of fifty;
Here 's to the flaunting, extravagant quean,
And here 's to the housewife that 's thrifty!
Let the toast pass;
Drink to the lass;
I 'll warrant she 'll prove an excuse for the glass.

_School for Scandal. Act iii. Sc. 3._


An unforgiving eye, and a damned disinheriting countenance.

_School for Scandal. Act v. Sc. 1._


It was an amiable weakness.[442-1]

_School for Scandal. Act v. Sc. 1._


I ne'er could any lustre see
In eyes that would not look on me;
I ne'er saw nectar on a lip
But where my own did hope to sip.

_The Duenna. Act i. Sc. 2._


Had I a heart for falsehood framed,
I ne'er could injure you.

_The Duenna. Act i. Sc. 5._


Conscience has no more to do with gallantry than it has with
politics.

_The Duenna. Act ii. Sc. 4._


While his off-heel, insidiously aside.
Provokes the caper which he seems to chide.

_Pizarro. The Prologue._


Such protection as vultures give to lambs.

_Pizarro. Act ii. Sc. 2._


A life spent worthily should be measured by a nobler line,--by
deeds, not years.[443-1]

_Pizarro. Act iv. Sc. 1._


The Right Honorable gentleman is indebted to his memory for his
jests, and to his imagination for his facts.[443-2]

_Speech in Reply to Mr. Dundas. Sheridaniana._


You write with ease to show your breeding,
But easy writing 's curst hard reading.

_Clio's Protest. Life of Sheridan_ (Moore). _Vol. i. p. 155._


FOOTNOTES:

[441-1] 'T is nothing when you are used to it.--SWIFT: _Polite
Conversation, iii._

[441-2] See Churchill, page 413.

[442-1] See Fielding, page 364.

[443-1]
He who grown aged in this world of woe,
In deeds, not years, piercing the depths of life,
So that no wonder waits him.

BYRON: _Childe Harold, canto iii. stanza 5._


We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths.--BAILEY:
_Festus. A Country Town._

Who well lives, long lives; for this age of ours
Should not be numbered by years, daies, and hours.

DU BARTAS: _Days and Weekes. Fourth Day. Book ii._

[443-2] On peut dire que son esprit brille aux dépens de sa
mémoire (One may say that his wit shines by the help of his
memory).--LE SAGE: _Gil Blas, livre iii. chap. xi._




PHILIP FRENEAU. 1752-1832.

The hunter and the deer a shade.[443-3]

_The Indian Burying-Ground._


Then rushed to meet the insulting foe;
They took the spear, but left the shield.[443-4]

_To the Memory of the Americans who fell at Eutaw._


FOOTNOTES:

[443-3] This line was appropriated by Campbell in "O'Connor's
Child."

[443-4]
When Prussia hurried to the field,
And snatched the spear, but left the shield.

SCOTT: _Marmion, Introduction to canto iii._




GEORGE CRABBE. 1754-1832.

Oh, rather give me commentators plain,
Who with no deep researches vex the brain;
Who from the dark and doubtful love to run,
And hold their glimmering tapers to the sun.[443-5]

_The Parish Register. Part i. Introduction._


Her air, her manners, all who saw admir'd;
Courteous though coy, and gentle though retir'd;
The joy of youth and health her eyes display'd,
And ease of heart her every look convey'd.

_The Parish Register. Part ii. Marriages._


In this fool's paradise he drank delight.[444-1]

_The Borough. Letter xii. Players._


Books cannot always please, however good;
Minds are not ever craving for their food.

_The Borough. Letter xxiv. Schools._


In idle wishes fools supinely stay;
Be there a will, and wisdom finds a way.

_The Birth of Flattery._


Cut and come again.

_Tales. Tale vii. The Widow's Tale._


Better to love amiss than nothing to have loved.[444-2]

_Tales. Tale xiv. The Struggles of Conscience._


But 't was a maxim he had often tried,
That right was right, and there he would abide.[444-3]

_Tales. Tale xv. The Squire and the Priest._


'T was good advice, and meant, my son, Be good.

_Tales. Tale xxi. The Learned Boy._


He tried the luxury of doing good.[444-4]

_Tales of the Hall. Book iii. Boys at School._


To sigh, yet not recede; to grieve, yet not repent.[444-5]

_Tales of the Hall. Book iii. Boys at School._


And took for truth the test of ridicule.[444-6]

_Tales of the Hall. Book viii. The Sisters._


Time has touched me gently in his race,
And left no odious furrows in my face.[445-1]

_Tales of the Hall. Book xvii. The Widow._


FOOTNOTES:

[443-5] See Young, page 311.

[444-1] See Appendix, page 858.

[444-2]
'T is better to have loved and lost,
Than never to have loved at all.

TENNYSON: _In Memoriam, xxvii._

[444-3] For right is right, since God is God.--FABER: _The Right
must win._

[444-4] See Goldsmith, page 394.

[444-5] To sigh, yet feel no pain.--MOORE: _The Blue Stocking._

[444-6] See Appendix, page 394.

[445-1] Touch us gently, Time.--B. W. PROCTER: _Touch us gently,
Time._

Time has laid his hand
Upon my heart, gently.

LONGFELLOW: _The Golden Legend, iv._




GEORGE BARRINGTON. 1755- ----.

True patriots all; for be it understood
We left our country for our country's good.[445-2]

_Prologue written for the Opening of the Play-house at New South Wales,
Jan. 16, 1796._


FOOTNOTES:

[445-2] See Farquhar, page 305.




HENRY LEE. 1756-1816.

To the memory of the Man, first in war, first in peace, and first
in the hearts of his countrymen.

_Memoirs of Lee. Eulogy on Washington, Dec. 26, 1799._[445-3]


FOOTNOTES:

[445-3] To the memory of the Man, first in war, first in peace,
and first in the hearts of his fellow-citizens.--_Resolutions
presented to the United States' House of Representatives, on the
Death of Washington, December, 1799._

The eulogy was delivered a week later. Marshall, in his "Life of
Washington," vol. v. p. 767, says in a note that these resolutions
were prepared by Colonel Henry Lee, who was then not in his place
to read them. General Robert E. Lee, in the Life of his father
(1869), prefixed to the Report of his father's "Memoirs of the War
of the Revolution," gives (p. 5) the expression "fellow-citizens;"
but on p. 52 he says: "But there is a line, a single line, in the
Works of Lee which would hand him over to immortality, though he
had never written another: 'First in war, first in peace, and
first in the hearts of his countrymen' will last while language
lasts."




J. P. KEMBLE. 1757-1823.

Perhaps it was right to dissemble your love,
But--why did you kick me down stairs?[445-4]

_The Panel. Act i. Sc. 1._


FOOTNOTES:

[445-4] Altered from Bickerstaff's "'T is Well 't is no Worse."
The lines are also found in Debrett's "Asylum for Fugitive
Pieces," vol. i. p. 15.




HORATIO NELSON. 1758-1805.

In the battle off Cape St. Vincent, Nelson gave orders for
boarding the "San Josef," exclaiming "Westminster Abbey, or
victory!"

_Life of Nelson_ (Southey). _Vol. i. p. 93._


England expects every man to do his duty.[446-1]

_Life of Nelson_ (Southey). _Vol. ii. p. 131._


FOOTNOTES:

[446-1] This famous sentence is thus first reported: "Say to the
fleet, England confides that every man will do his duty." Captain
Pasco, Nelson's flag-lieutenant, suggested to substitute "expects"
for "confides," which was adopted. Captain Blackwood, who
commanded the "Euryalis," says that the correction suggested was
from "Nelson expects" to "England expects."




ROBERT BURNS. 1759-1796.

Auld Nature swears the lovely dears
Her noblest work she classes, O;
Her 'prentice han' she tried on man,
And then she made the lasses, O![446-2]

_Green grow the Rashes._


Some books are lies frae end to end.

_Death and Dr. Hornbook._


Some wee short hours ayont the twal.

_Death and Dr. Hornbook._


The best laid schemes o' mice and men
Gang aft a-gley;
And leave us naught but grief and pain
For promised joy.

_To a Mouse._


When chill November's surly blast
Made fields and forests bare.

_Man was made to Mourn._


Man's inhumanity to man
Makes countless thousands mourn.

_Man was made to Mourn._


Gars auld claes look amaist as weel 's the new.

_The Cotter's Saturday Night._


Beneath the milk-white thorn that scents the evening gale.

_The Cotter's Saturday Night._


He wales a portion with judicious care;
And "Let us worship God," he says with solemn air.

_The Cotter's Saturday Night._


Perhaps Dundee's wild-warbling measures rise,
Or plaintive Martyrs, worthy of the name.

_The Cotter's Saturday Night._


From scenes like these old Scotia's grandeur springs,
That makes her loved at home, revered abroad:
Princes and lords are but the breath of kings,
"An honest man 's the noblest work of God."[447-1]

_The Cotter's Saturday Night._


For a' that, and a' that,
And twice as muckle 's a' that.

_The Jolly Beggars._


O Life! how pleasant is thy morning,
Young Fancy's rays the hills adorning!
Cold-pausing Caution's lesson scorning,
We frisk away,
Like schoolboys at th' expected warning,
To joy and play.

_Epistle to James Smith._


Misled by fancy's meteor ray,
By passion driven;
But yet the light that led astray
Was light from heaven.

_The Vision._


And like a passing thought, she fled
In light away.

_The Vision._


Affliction's sons are brothers in distress;
A brother to relieve,--how exquisite the bliss!

_A Winter Night._


His locked, lettered, braw brass collar
Showed him the gentleman and scholar.

_The Twa Dogs._


And there began a lang digression
About the lords o' the creation.

_The Twa Dogs._


Oh wad some power the giftie gie us
To see oursel's as others see us!
It wad frae monie a blunder free us,
And foolish notion.

_To a Louse._


Then gently scan your brother man,
Still gentler sister woman;
Though they may gang a kennin' wrang,
To step aside is human.[448-1]

_Address to the Unco Guid._


What 's done we partly may compute,
But know not what 's resisted.

_Address to the Unco Guid._


Stern Ruin's ploughshare drives elate
Full on thy bloom.[448-2]

_To a Mountain Daisy._


O life! thou art a galling load,
Along a rough, a weary road,
To wretches such as I!

_Despondency._


Perhaps it may turn out a sang,
Perhaps turn out a sermon.

_Epistle to a Young Friend._


I waive the quantum o' the sin,
The hazard of concealing;
But, och! it hardens a' within,
And petrifies the feeling!

_Epistle to a Young Friend._


The fear o' hell 's a hangman's whip
To haud the wretch in order;[448-3]
But where ye feel your honour grip,
Let that aye be your border.

_Epistle to a Young Friend._


An atheist's laugh 's a poor exchange
For Deity offended!

_Epistle to a Young Friend._


And may you better reck the rede,[448-4]
Than ever did the adviser!

_Epistle to a Young Friend._


Flow gently, sweet Afton, among thy green braes;
Flow gently, I 'll sing thee a song in thy praise.

_Flow gently, sweet Afton._


Oh whistle, and I 'll come to ye, my lad.[449-1]

_Whistle, and I 'll come to ye._


If naebody care for me,
I 'll care for naebody.[449-2]

_I hae a Wife o' my Ain._


Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And days o' lang syne?

_Auld Lang Syne._


We twa hae run about the braes,
And pu'd the gowans fine.

_Auld Lang Syne._


Dweller in yon dungeon dark,
Hangman of creation, mark!
Who in widow weeds appears,
Laden with unhonoured years,
Noosing with care a bursting purse,
Baited with many a deadly curse?

_Ode on Mrs. Oswald._


To make a happy fireside clime
To weans and wife,--
That 's the true pathos and sublime
Of human life.

_Epistle to Dr. Blacklock._


If there 's a hole in a' your coats,
I rede ye tent it;
A chiel 's amang ye takin' notes,
And, faith, he 'll prent it.

_On Captain Grose's Peregrinations through Scotland._


John Anderson my jo, John,
When we were first acquent,
Your locks were like the raven,
Your bonny brow was brent.

_John Anderson._


My heart 's in the Highlands, my heart is not here;
My heart 's in the Highlands a-chasing the deer.[450-1]

_My Heart 's in the Highlands._


She is a winsome wee thing,
She is a handsome wee thing,
She is a bonny wee thing,
This sweet wee wife o' mine.

_My Wife 's a Winsome Wee Thing._


The golden hours on angel wings
Flew o'er me and my dearie;
For dear to me as light and life
Was my sweet Highland Mary.

_Highland Mary._


But, oh! fell death's untimely frost
That nipt my flower sae early.

_Highland Mary._


It 's guid to be merry and wise,[450-2]
It 's guid to be honest and true,
It 's guid to support Caledonia's cause,
And bide by the buff and the blue.

_Here 's a Health to Them that 's Awa'._


Scots, wha hae wi' Wallace bled,
Scots, wham Bruce has aften led,
Welcome to your gory bed,
Or to victory!
Now 's the day and now 's the hour;
See the front o' battle lour.

_Bannockburn._


Liberty 's in every blow!
Let us do or die.[450-3]

_Bannockburn._


In durance vile[450-4] here must I wake and weep,
And all my frowsy couch in sorrow steep.

_Epistle from Esopus to Maria._


Oh, my luve 's like a red, red rose,
That 's newly sprung in June;
Oh, my luve 's like the melodie
That 's sweetly played in tune.

_A Red, Red Rose._


Contented wi' little, and cantie wi' mair.

_Contented wi' Little._


Where sits our sulky, sullen dame,
Gathering her brows like gathering storm,
Nursing her wrath to keep it warm.

_Tam o' Shanter._


Ah, gentle dames! it gars me greet
To think how monie counsels sweet,
How monie lengthened sage advices,
The husband frae the wife despises.

_Tam o' Shanter._


His ancient, trusty, drouthy crony;
Tam lo'ed him like a vera brither,--
They had been fou for weeks thegither.

_Tam o' Shanter._


The landlady and Tam grew gracious
Wi' favours secret, sweet, and precious.

_Tam o' Shanter._


The landlord's laugh was ready chorus.

_Tam o' Shanter._


Kings may be blest, but Tam was glorious,
O'er a' the ills o' life victorious.

_Tam o' Shanter._


But pleasures are like poppies spread,
You seize the flower, its bloom is shed;
Or, like the snow-fall in the river,
A moment white, then melts forever.

_Tam o' Shanter._


Nae man can tether time or tide.[451-1]

_Tam o' Shanter._


That hour, o' night's black arch the keystane.

_Tam o' Shanter._


Inspiring, bold John Barleycorn,
What dangers thou canst make us scorn!

_Tam o' Shanter._


As Tammie glow'red, amazed and curious,
The mirth and fun grew fast and furious.

_Tam o' Shanter._


But to see her was to love her,[452-1]
Love but her, and love forever.

_Ae Fond Kiss._


Had we never loved sae kindly,
Had we never loved sae blindly,
Never met or never parted,
We had ne'er been broken-hearted!

_Ae Fond Kiss._


To see her is to love her,
And love but her forever;
For Nature made her what she is,
And never made anither!

_Bonny Lesley._


Ye banks and braes o' bonny Doon,
How can ye bloom sae fresh and fair?
How can ye chant, ye little birds,
And I sae weary fu' o' care?

_The Banks of Doon._


Chords that vibrate sweetest pleasure
Thrill the deepest notes of woe.

_Sweet Sensibility._


The rank is but the guinea's stamp,
The man 's the gowd for a' that.[452-2]

_For a' that and a' that._


A prince can make a belted knight,
A marquis, duke, and a' that;
But an honest man 's aboon his might,
Guid faith, he maunna fa' that.[452-3]

_For a' that and a' that._


'T is sweeter for thee despairing
Than aught in the world beside,--Jessy!

_Jessy._


Some hae meat and canna eat,
And some would eat that want it;
But we hae meat, and we can eat,
Sae let the Lord be thankit.

_Grace before Meat._


It was a' for our rightfu' King
We left fair Scotland's strand.

_A' for our Rightfu' King._[452-4]


Now a' is done that men can do,
And a' is done in vain.

_A' for our Rightfu' King._


He turn'd him right and round about
Upon the Irish shore,
And gae his bridle reins a shake,
With, "Adieu for evermore, my dear,
And adieu for evermore."[453-1]

_A' for our Rightfu' King._


FOOTNOTES:

[446-2]
Man was made when Nature was
But an apprentice, but woman when she
Was a skilful mistress of her art.

_Cupid's Whirligig_ (1607).

[447-1] See Fletcher, page 183.

[448-1] See Pope, page 325.

[448-2] See Young, page 309.

[448-3] See Burton, page 193.

[448-4] See Shakespeare, page 129.

[449-1] See Beaumont and Fletcher, page 198.

[449-2] See Bickerstaff, page 427.

[450-1] These lines from an old song, entitled "The Strong Walls
of Derry," Burns made a basis for his own beautiful ditty.

[450-2] See Heywood, page 9.

[450-3] See Fletcher, page 183.

[450-4] Durance vile.--W. KENRICK (1766): _Falstaff's Wedding, act
i. sc. 2._ BURKE: _The Present Discontents._

[451-1] See Heywood, page 10.

[452-1] To know her was to love her.--ROGERS: _Jacqueline, stanza
1._

[452-2] I weigh the man, not his title; 't is not the king's stamp
can make the metal better.--WYCHERLEY: _The Plaindealer, act. i.
sc. 1._

[452-3] See Southerne, page 282.

[452-4] This ballad first appeared in Johnson's "Museum," 1796.
Sir Walter Scott was never tired of hearing it sung.

[453-1] Under the impression that this stanza is ancient, Scott
has made very free use of it, first in "Rokeby" (1813), and then
in the "Monastery" (1816). In "Rokeby" he thus introduces the
verse:--

He turn'd his charger as he spake,
Upon the river shore,
He gave his bridle reins a shake,
Said, "Adieu for evermore, my love,
And adieu for evermore."






WILLIAM PITT. 1759-1806.

Necessity is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of
slaves.[453-2]

_Speech on the India Bill, November, 1783._


Prostrate the beauteous ruin lies; and all
That shared its shelter perish in its fall.

_The Poetry of the Anti-Jacobin. No. xxxvi._


FOOTNOTES:

[453-2] See Milton, page 232.




ANDREW CHERRY. 1762-1812.

Loud roared the dreadful thunder,
The rain a deluge showers.

_The Bay of Biscay._


As she lay, on that day,
In the bay of Biscay, O!



_The Bay of Biscay._





GEORGE COLMAN, THE YOUNGER. 1762-1836.

On their own merits modest men are dumb.

_Epilogue to the Heir at Law._


And what 's impossible can't be,
And never, never comes to pass.

_The Maid of the Moor._


Three stories high, long, dull, and old,
As great lords' stories often are.

_The Maid of the Moor._


Like two single gentlemen rolled into one.

_Lodgings for Single Gentlemen._


But when ill indeed,
E'en dismissing the doctor don't always succeed.

_Lodgings for Single Gentlemen._


When taken,
To be well shaken.

_The Newcastle Apothecary._


Thank you, good sir, I owe you one.

_The Poor Gentleman. Act i. Sc. 2._


O Miss Bailey!
Unfortunate Miss Bailey!

_Love laughs at Locksmiths. Act ii. Song._


'T is a very fine thing to be father-in-law
To a very magnificent three-tailed Bashaw!

_Blue Beard. Act ii. Sc. 5._


I had a soul above buttons.

_Sylvester Daggerwood, or New Hay at the Old Market. Sc. 1._


Mynheer Vandunck, though he never was drunk,
Sipped brandy and water gayly.

_Mynheer Vandunck._





JAMES HURDIS. 1763-1801.

Rise with the lark, and with the lark to bed.[454-1]

_The Village Curate._


FOOTNOTES:

[454-1] To rise with the lark, and go to bed with the
lamb.--BRETON: _Court and Country_ (1618; reprint, p. 183).




SAMUEL ROGERS. 1763-1855.

Sweet Memory! wafted by thy gentle gale,
Oft up the stream of Time I turn my sail.

_The Pleasures of Memory. Part ii. i._


She was good as she was fair,
None--none on earth above her!
As pure in thought as angels are:
To know her was to love her.[455-1]

_Jacqueline. Stanza 1._


The good are better made by ill,
As odours crushed are sweeter still.[455-2]

_Jacqueline. Stanza 3._


A guardian angel o'er his life presiding,
Doubling his pleasures, and his cares dividing.

_Human Life._


Fireside happiness, to hours of ease
Blest with that charm, the certainty to please.

_Human Life._


The soul of music slumbers in the shell
Till waked and kindled by the master's spell;
And feeling hearts, touch them but rightly, pour
A thousand melodies unheard before!

_Human Life._


Then never less alone than when alone.[455-3]

_Human Life._


Those that he loved so long and sees no more,
Loved and still loves,--not dead, but gone before,[455-4]--
He gathers round him.

_Human Life._


Mine be a cot beside the hill;
A beehive's hum shall soothe my ear;
A willowy brook that turns a mill,
With many a fall, shall linger near.

_A Wish._


That very law which moulds a tear
And bids it trickle from its source,--
That law preserves the earth a sphere,
And guides the planets in their course.

_On a Tear._


Go! you may call it madness, folly;
You shall not chase my gloom away!
There 's such a charm in melancholy
I would not if I could be gay.

_To ----._


To vanish in the chinks that Time has made.[456-1]

_Pæstum._


Ward has no heart, they say, but I deny it:
He has a heart, and gets his speeches by it.

_Epigram._


FOOTNOTES:

[455-1] See Burns, page 452.

None knew thee but to love thee.--HALLECK: _On the Death of
Drake._

[455-2] See Bacon, page 165.

[455-3] See Gibbon, page 430.

Numquam se minus otiosum esse, quam quum otiosus, nec minus solum,
quam quum solus esset (He is never less at leisure than when at
leisure, nor less alone than when he is alone).--CICERO: _De
Officiis, liber iii. c. 1._

[455-4] This is literally from Seneca, _Epistola lxiii. 16._ See
Matthew Henry, page 283.

[456-1] See Waller, page 221.




JOHN FERRIAR. 1764-1815.

The princeps copy, clad in blue and gold.

_Illustrations of Sterne. Bibliomania. Line 6._


Now cheaply bought for thrice their weight in gold.

_Illustrations of Sterne. Bibliomania. Line 65._


Torn from their destined page (unworthy meed
Of knightly counsel and heroic deed).

_Illustrations of Sterne. Bibliomania. Line 121._


How pure the joy, when first my hands unfold
The small, rare volume, black with tarnished gold!

_Illustrations of Sterne. Bibliomania. Line 137._





ANN RADCLIFFE. 1764-1823.

Fate sits on these dark battlements and frowns,
And as the portal opens to receive me,
A voice in hollow murmurs through the courts
Tells of a nameless deed.[456-2]



FOOTNOTES:

[456-2] These lines form the motto to Mrs. Radcliffe's novel, "The
Mysteries of Udolpho," and are presumably of her own composition.




ROBERT HALL. 1764-1831.

His [Burke's] imperial fancy has laid all Nature under tribute,
and has collected riches from every scene of the creation and
every walk of art.

_Apology for the Freedom of the Press._


He [Kippis] might be a very clever man by nature for aught I
know, but he laid so many books upon his head that his brains
could not move.

_Gregory's Life of Hall._


Call things by their right names. . . . Glass of brandy and
water! That is the current but not the appropriate name: ask for
a glass of liquid fire and distilled damnation.[457-1]

_Gregory's Life of Hall._


FOOTNOTES:

[457-1] See Tourneur, page 34.

He calls drunkenness an expression identical with ruin.--DIOGENES
LAERTIUS: _Pythagoras, vi._




THOMAS MORTON. 1764-1838.

What will Mrs. Grundy say?

_Speed the Plough. Act i. Sc. 1._


Push on,--keep moving.

_A Cure for the Heartache. Act ii. Sc. 1._


Approbation from Sir Hubert Stanley is praise indeed.

_A Cure for the Heartache. Act v. Sc. 2._





SIR JAMES MACKINTOSH. 1765-1832.

Diffused knowledge immortalizes itself.

_Vindiciæ Gallicæ._


The Commons, faithful to their system, remained in a wise and
masterly inactivity.

_Vindiciæ Gallicæ._


Disciplined inaction.

_Causes of the Revolution of 1688. Chap. vii._


The frivolous work of polished idleness.

_Dissertation on Ethical Philosophy. Remarks on Thomas Brown._





LADY NAIRNE. 1766-1845.

There 's nae sorrow there, John,
There 's neither cauld nor care, John,
The day is aye fair,
In the land o' the leal.

_The Land o' the Leal._


Gude nicht, and joy be wi' you a'.

_Gude Nicht, etc._[458-1]


Oh, we 're a' noddin', nid, nid, noddin';
Oh, we 're a' noddin' at our house at hame.

_We 're a' Noddin'._


A penniless lass wi' a lang pedigree.

_The Laird o' Cockpen._


FOOTNOTES:

[458-1] Sir Alexander Boswell composed a version of this song.




ANDREW JACKSON. 1767-1845.

Our Federal Union: it must be preserved.

_Toast given on the Jefferson Birthday Celebration in 1830._


You are uneasy; you never sailed with _me_ before, I see.[458-2]

_Life of Jackson_ (Parton). _Vol. iii. p. 493._


FOOTNOTES:

[458-2] A remark made to an elderly gentleman who was sailing with
Jackson down Chesapeake Bay in an old steamboat, and who exhibited
a little fear.




JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 1767-1848.

Think of your forefathers! Think of your posterity![458-3]

_Speech at Plymouth, Dec. 22, 1802._


In charity to all mankind, bearing no malice or ill-will to any
human being, and even compassionating those who hold in bondage
their fellow-men, not knowing what they do.[458-4]

_Letter to A. Bronson. July 30, 1838._


This hand, to tyrants ever sworn the foe,
For Freedom only deals the deadly blow;
Then sheathes in calm repose the vengeful blade,
For gentle peace in Freedom's hallowed shade.[459-1]

_Written in an Album, 1842._


This is the last of earth! I am content.

_His Last Words, Feb. 21, 1848._


FOOTNOTES:

[458-3] Et majores vestros et posteros cogitate.--TACITUS:
_Agricola, c. 32. 31._

[458-4] With malice towards none, with charity for all, with
firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right.--ABRAHAM
LINCOLN: _Second Inaugural Address._

[459-1] See Sidney, page 264.




DAVID EVERETT. 1769-1813.

You 'd scarce expect one of my age
To speak in public on the stage;
And if I chance to fall below
Demosthenes or Cicero,
Don't view me with a critic's eye,
But pass my imperfections by.
Large streams from little fountains flow,
Tall oaks from little acorns grow.[459-2]

_Lines written for a School Declamation._


FOOTNOTES:

[459-2] The lofty oak from a small acorn grows.--LEWIS DUNCOMBE
(1711-1730): _De Minimis Maxima_ (translation).




SYDNEY SMITH. 1769-1845.

It requires a surgical operation to get a joke well into a Scotch
understanding.[459-3]

_Lady Holland's Memoir. Vol. i. p. 15._


That knuckle-end of England,--that land of Calvin, oat-cakes, and
sulphur.

_Lady Holland's Memoir. Vol. i. p. 17._


No one minds what Jeffrey says: . . . it is not more than a week
ago that I heard him speak disrespectfully of the equator.

_Lady Holland's Memoir. Vol. i. p. 17._


We cultivate literature on a little oatmeal.[460-1]

_Lady Holland's Memoir. Vol. i. p. 23._


Truth is its [justice's] handmaid, freedom is its child, peace is
its companion, safety walks in its steps, victory follows in its
train; it is the brightest emanation from the Gospel; it is the
attribute of God.

_Lady Holland's Memoir. Vol. i. p. 29._


It is always right that a man should be able to render a reason
for the faith that is within him.

_Lady Holland's Memoir. Vol. i. p. 53._


Avoid shame, but do not seek glory,--nothing so expensive as
glory.[460-2]

_Lady Holland's Memoir. Vol. i. p. 88._


Let every man be occupied, and occupied in the highest employment
of which his nature is capable, and die with the consciousness
that he has done his best.

_Lady Holland's Memoir. Vol. i. p. 130._


Looked as if she had walked straight out of the ark.

_Lady Holland's Memoir. Vol. i. p. 157._


The Smiths never had any arms, and have invariably sealed their
letters with their thumbs.

_Lady Holland's Memoir. Vol. i. p. 244._


Not body enough to cover his mind decently with; his intellect is
improperly exposed.

_Lady Holland's Memoir. Vol. i. p. 258._


He has spent all his life in letting down empty buckets into
empty wells; and he is frittering away his age in trying to draw
them up again.[460-3]

_Lady Holland's Memoir. Vol. i. p. 259._


You find people ready enough to do the Samaritan, without the oil
and twopence.

_Lady Holland's Memoir. Vol. i. p. 261._


Ah, you flavour everything; you are the vanilla of society.

_Lady Holland's Memoir. Vol. i. p. 262._


My living in Yorkshire was so far out of the way, that it was
actually twelve miles from a lemon.

_Lady Holland's Memoir. Vol. i. p. 262._


As the French say, there are three sexes,--men, women, and
clergymen.[461-1]

_Lady Holland's Memoir. Vol. i. p. 262._


To take Macaulay out of literature and society and put him in the
House of Commons, is like taking the chief physician out of
London during a pestilence.

_Lady Holland's Memoir. Vol. i. p. 265._


Daniel Webster struck me much like a steam-engine in trousers.

_Lady Holland's Memoir. Vol. i. p. 267._


"Heat, ma'am!" I said; "it was so dreadful here, that I found
there was nothing left for it but to take off my flesh and sit in
my bones."

_Lady Holland's Memoir. Vol. i. p. 267._


Macaulay is like a book in breeches. . . . He has occasional
flashes of silence, that make his conversation perfectly
delightful.

_Lady Holland's Memoir. Vol. i. p. 363._


Serenely full, the epicure would say,
Fate cannot harm me,--I have dined to-day.[461-2]

_Recipe for Salad. P. 374._


Thank God for tea! What would the world do without tea?--how did
it exist? I am glad I was not born before tea.

_Recipe for Salad. P. 383._


If you choose to represent the various parts in life by holes
upon a table, of different shapes,--some circular, some
triangular, some square, some oblong,--and the persons acting
these parts by bits of wood of similar shapes, we shall generally
find that the triangular person has got into the square hole, the
oblong into the triangular, and a square person has squeezed
himself into the round hole. The officer and the office, the doer
and the thing done, seldom fit so exactly that we can say they
were almost made for each other.[461-3]

_Sketches of Moral Philosophy._


The schoolboy whips his taxed top; the beardless youth manages
his taxed horse with a taxed bridle on a taxed road; and the
dying Englishman, pouring his medicine, which has paid seven per
cent, into a spoon that has paid fifteen per cent, flings himself
back upon his chintz bed which has paid twenty-two per cent, and
expires in the arms of an apothecary who has paid a license of a
hundred pounds for the privilege of putting him to death.

_Review of Seybert's Annals of the United States, 1820._


In the four quarters of the globe, who reads an American book, or
goes to an American play, or looks at an American picture or
statue?

_Review of Seybert's Annals of the United States, 1820._


Magnificent spectacle of human happiness.

_America. Edinburgh Review, July, 1824._


In the midst of this sublime and terrible storm [at Sidmouth],
Dame Partington, who lived upon the beach, was seen at the door
of her house with mop and pattens, trundling her mop, squeezing
out the sea-water, and vigorously pushing away the Atlantic
Ocean. The Atlantic was roused; Mrs. Partington's spirit was up.
But I need not tell you that the contest was unequal; the
Atlantic Ocean beat Mrs. Partington.

_Speech at Taunton, 1813._


Men who prefer any load of infamy, however great, to any pressure
of taxation, however light.

_On American Debts._


FOOTNOTES:

[459-3] See Walpole, page 389.

[460-1] Mr. Smith, with reference to the "Edinburgh Review," says:
"The motto I proposed for the 'Review' was 'Tenui musam meditamur
avena;' but this was too near the truth to be admitted; so we took
our present grave motto from Publius Syrus, of whom none of us
had, I am sure, read a single line."

[460-2] A favorite motto, which through life Mr. Smith inculcated
on his family.

[460-3] See Cowper, page 419.

[461-1] Lord Wharncliffe says, "The well-known sentence, almost a
proverb, that 'this world consists of men, women, and Herveys,'
was originally Lady Montagu's."--_Montagu Letters, vol. i. p. 64._

[461-2] See Dryden, p. 273.

[461-3] The right man to fill the right place.--LAYARD: _Speech,
Jan. 15, 1855._




J. HOOKHAM FRERE. 1769-1846.

And don't confound the language of the nation
With long-tailed words in _osity_ and _ation_.

_The Monks and the Giants. Canto i. Line 6._


A sudden thought strikes me,--let us swear an eternal
friendship.[462-1]

_The Rovers. Act i. Sc. 1._


FOOTNOTES:

[462-1] See Otway, page 280.

My fair one, let us swear an eternal friendship.--MOLIÈRE: _Le
Bourgeois Gentilhomme, act iv. sc. 1._




DUKE OF WELLINGTON. 1769-1852.

Nothing except a battle lost can be half so melancholy as a
battle won.

_Despatch, 1815._


It is very true that I have said that I considered Napoleon's
presence in the field equal to forty thousand men in the balance.
This is a very loose way of talking; but the idea is a very
different one from that of his presence at a battle being equal
to a reinforcement of forty thousand men.

_Mem. by the Duke,_[463-1] _Sept. 18, 1836._


Circumstances over which I have no control.[463-2]

I never saw so many shocking bad hats in my life.[463-3]

_Upon seeing the first Reformed Parliament._


There is no mistake; there has been no mistake; and there shall
be no mistake.[463-4]

_Letter to Mr. Huskisson._


FOOTNOTES:

[463-1] STANHOPE: _Conversations with the Duke of Wellington, p.
81._

[463-2] This phrase was first used by the Duke of Wellington in a
letter, about 1839 or 1840.--SALA: _Echoes of the Week, in London
Illustrated News, Aug. 23, 1884._ Greville, _Mem., ch. ii._
(1823), gives an earlier instance.

[463-3] Sir William Fraser, in "Words on Wellington" (1889), p.
12, says this phrase originated with the Duke. Captain Gronow, in
his "Recollections," says it originated with the Duke of York,
second son of George III., about 1817.

[463-4] This gave rise to the slang expression, "And no
mistake."--_Words on Wellington, p. 122._




JOHN TOBIN. 1770-1804.

The man that lays his hand upon a woman,
Save in the way of kindness, is a wretch
Whom 't were gross flattery to name a coward.

_The Honeymoon. Act ii. Sc. 1._


She 's adorned
Amply that in her husband's eye looks lovely,--
The truest mirror that an honest wife
Can see her beauty in.



_The Honeymoon. Act iii. Sc. 4._





GEORGE CANNING. 1770-1827.

Story! God bless you! I have none to tell, sir.

_The Friend of Humanity and the Knife-Grinder._


I give thee sixpence! I will see thee damned first.

_The Friend of Humanity and the Knife-Grinder._


So down thy hill, romantic Ashbourn, glides
The Derby dilly, carrying _three_ INSIDES.

_The Loves of the Triangles. Line 178._


And finds, with keen, discriminating sight,
Black 's not so black,--nor white so _very_ white.

_New Morality._


Give me the avowed, the erect, the manly foe,
Bold I can meet,--perhaps may turn his blow!
But of all plagues, good Heaven, thy wrath can send,
Save, save, oh save me from the _candid friend_![464-1]

_New Morality._


I called the New World into existence to redress the balance of
the Old.

_The King's Message, Dec. 12, 1826._


No, here 's to the pilot that weathered the storm!

_The Pilot that weathered the Storm._


FOOTNOTES:

[464-1] "Defend me from my friends; I can defend myself from my
enemies." The French _Ana_ assign to Maréchal Villars this
aphorism when taking leave of Louis XIV.




WILLIAM ROBERT SPENCER. 1770-1834.

Too late I stayed,--forgive the crime!
Unheeded flew the hours;
How noiseless falls the foot of time[464-2]
That only treads on flowers.

_Lines to Lady A. Hamilton._


FOOTNOTES:

[464-2] See Shakespeare, page 74.




JOSEPH HOPKINSON. 1770-1842.

Hail, Columbia! happy land!
Hail, ye heroes! heaven-born band!
Who fought and bled in Freedom's cause,
Who fought and bled in Freedom's cause,
And when the storm of war was gone,
Enjoyed the peace your valor won.
Let independence be our boast,
Ever mindful what it cost;
Ever grateful for the prize,
Let its altar reach the skies!

_Hail, Columbia!_





WILLIAM WORDSWORTH.[465-1] 1770-1850.

Oh, be wiser thou!
Instructed that true knowledge leads to love.

_Lines left upon a Seat in a Yew-tree._


And homeless near a thousand homes I stood,
And near a thousand tables pined and wanted food.

_Guilt and Sorrow. Stanza 41._


Action is transitory,--a step, a blow;
The motion of a muscle, this way or that.

_The Borderers. Act iii._


Three sleepless nights I passed in sounding on,
Through words and things, a dim and perilous way.[465-2]

_The Borderers. Act iv. Sc. 2._


A simple child
That lightly draws its breath,
And feels its life in every limb,
What should it know of death?

_We are Seven._


O Reader! Had you in your mind
Such stores as silent thought can bring,
O gentle Reader! you would find
A tale in everything.

_Simon Lee._


I 've heard of hearts unkind, kind deeds
With coldness still returning;
Alas! the gratitude of men
Hath oftener left me mourning.

_Simon Lee._


In that sweet mood when pleasant thoughts
Bring sad thoughts to the mind.

_Lines written in Early Spring._


And 't is my faith, that every flower
Enjoys the air it breathes.

_Lines written in Early Spring._


Nor less I deem that there are Powers
Which of themselves our minds impress;
That we can feed this mind of ours
In a wise passiveness.

_Expostulation and Reply._


Up! up! my friend, and quit your books,
Or surely you 'll grow double!
Up! up! my friend, and clear your looks!
Why all this toil and trouble?

_The Tables Turned._


Come forth into the light of things,
Let Nature be your teacher.

_The Tables Turned._


One impulse from a vernal wood
May teach you more of man,
Of moral evil and of good,
Than all the sages can.

_The Tables Turned._


The bane of all that dread the Devil.



_The Idiot Boy._


Sensations sweet,
Felt in the blood, and felt along the heart.

_Lines composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey._


That best portion of a good man's life,--
His little, nameless, unremembered acts
Of kindness and of love.

_Lines composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey._


That blessed mood,
In which the burden of the mystery,
In which the heavy and the weary weight
Of all this unintelligible world,
Is lightened.

_Lines composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey._


The fretful stir
Unprofitable, and the fever of the world
Have hung upon the beatings of my heart.

_Lines composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey._


The sounding cataract
Haunted me like a passion; the tall rock,
The mountain, and the deep and gloomy wood,
Their colours and their forms, were then to me
An appetite,--a feeling and a love,
That had no need of a remoter charm
By thoughts supplied, nor any interest
Unborrowed from the eye.

_Lines composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey._


But hearing oftentimes
The still, sad music of humanity.

_Lines composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey._


A sense sublime
Of something far more deeply interfused,
Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,
And the round ocean and the living air
And the blue sky, and in the mind of man,--
A motion and a spirit, that impels
All thinking things, all objects of all thought,
And rolls through all things.

_Lines composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey._


Knowing that Nature never did betray
The heart that loved her.



_Lines composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey._


Nor greetings where no kindness is, nor all
The dreary intercourse of daily life.

_Lines composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey._


Men who can hear the Decalogue, and feel
No self-reproach.

_The Old Cumberland Beggar._


As in the eye of Nature he has lived,
So in the eye of Nature let him die!

_The Old Cumberland Beggar._


There 's something in a flying horse,
There 's something in a huge balloon.

_Peter Bell. Prologue. Stanza 1._


The common growth of Mother Earth
Suffices me,--her tears, her mirth,
Her humblest mirth and tears.

_Peter Bell. Prologue. Stanza 27._


Full twenty times was Peter feared,
For once that Peter was respected.

_Peter Bell. Part i. Stanza 3._


A primrose by a river's brim
A yellow primrose was to him,
And it was nothing more.

_Peter Bell. Part i. Stanza 12._


The soft blue sky did never melt
Into his heart; he never felt
The witchery of the soft blue sky!

_Peter Bell. Part i. Stanza 15._


On a fair prospect some have looked,
And felt, as I have heard them say,
As if the moving time had been
A thing as steadfast as the scene
On which they gazed themselves away.

_Peter Bell. Part i. Stanza 16._


As if the man had fixed his face,
In many a solitary place,
Against the wind and open sky!

_Peter Bell. Part i. Stanza 26._[468-1]


One of those heavenly days that cannot die.

_Nutting._


She dwelt among the untrodden ways
Beside the springs of Dove,--
A maid whom there were none to praise
And very few to love.

_She dwelt among the untrodden ways._


A violet by a mossy stone
Half hidden from the eye;
Fair as a star, when only one
Is shining in the sky.

_She dwelt among the untrodden ways._


She lived unknown, and few could know
When Lucy ceased to be;
But she is in her grave, and oh
The difference to me!

_She dwelt among the untrodden ways._


The stars of midnight shall be dear
To her; and she shall lean her ear
In many a secret place
Where rivulets dance their wayward round,
And beauty born of murmuring sound
Shall pass into her face.

_Three years she grew in Sun and Shower._


May no rude hand deface it,
And its forlorn _hic jacet!_

_Ellen Irwin._


She gave me eyes, she gave me ears;
And humble cares, and delicate fears;
A heart, the fountain of sweet tears;
And love and thought and joy.

_The Sparrow's Nest._


The child is father of the man.[469-1]

_My heart leaps up when I behold._


The cattle are grazing,
Their heads never raising;
There are forty feeding like one!

_The Cock is crowing._


Sweet childish days, that were as long
As twenty days are now.

_To a Butterfly. I 've watched you now a full half-hour._


Often have I sighed to measure
By myself a lonely pleasure,--
Sighed to think I read a book,
Only read, perhaps, by me.

_To the Small Celandine._


As high as we have mounted in delight,
In our dejection do we sink as low.

_Resolution and Independence. Stanza 4._


But how can he expect that others should
Build for him, sow for him, and at his call
Love him, who for himself will take no heed at all?

_Resolution and Independence. Stanza 6._


I thought of Chatterton, the marvellous boy,
The sleepless soul that perished in his pride;
Of him who walked in glory and in joy,
Following his plough, along the mountain-side.
By our own spirits we are deified;
We Poets in our youth begin in gladness,
But thereof come in the end despondency and madness.

_Resolution and Independence. Stanza 7._


That heareth not the loud winds when they call,
And moveth all together, if it moves at all.

_Resolution and Independence. Stanza 11._


Choice word and measured phrase above the reach
Of ordinary men.

_Resolution and Independence. Stanza 14._


And mighty poets in their misery dead.

_Resolution and Independence. Stanza 17._


Ne'er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!
The river glideth at his own sweet will;
Dear God! the very houses seem asleep;
And all that mighty heart is lying still!

_Earth has not anything to show more fair._


The holy time is quiet as a nun
Breathless with adoration.



_It is a beauteous Evening._


Men are we, and must grieve when even the shade
Of that which once was great is passed away.

_On the Extinction of the Venetian Republic._


Thou has left behind
Powers that will work for thee,--air, earth, and skies!
There 's not a breathing of the common wind
That will forget thee; thou hast great allies;
Thy friends are exultations, agonies,
And love, and man's unconquerable mind.[471-1]

_To Toussaint L' Ouverture._


One that would peep and botanize
Upon his mother's grave.

_A Poet's Epitaph. Stanza 5._


He murmurs near the running brooks
A music sweeter than their own.

_A Poet's Epitaph. Stanza 10._


And you must love him, ere to you
He will seem worthy of your love.

_A Poet's Epitaph. Stanza 11._


The harvest of a quiet eye,
That broods and sleeps on his own heart.

_A Poet's Epitaph. Stanza 13._


Yet sometimes, when the secret cup
Of still and serious thought went round,
It seemed as if he drank it up,
He felt with spirit so profound.

_Matthew._


My eyes are dim with childish tears,
My heart is idly stirred,
For the same sound is in my ears
Which in those days I heard.

_The Fountain._


A happy youth, and their old age
Is beautiful and free.

_The Fountain._


And often, glad no more,
We wear a face of joy because
We have been glad of yore.

_The Fountain._


The sweetest thing that ever grew
Beside a human door.

_Lucy Gray. Stanza 2._


A youth to whom was given
So much of earth, so much of heaven.

_Ruth._


Until a man might travel twelve stout miles,
Or reap an acre of his neighbor's corn.

_The Brothers._


Something between a hindrance and a help.

_Michael._


Drink, pretty creature, drink!

_The Pet Lamb._


Lady of the Mere,
Sole-sitting by the shores of old romance.

_A narrow Girdle of rough Stones and Crags._


And he is oft the wisest man
Who is not wise at all.

_The Oak and the Broom._


"A jolly place," said he, "in times of old!
But something ails it now: the spot is cursed."

_Hart-leap Well. Part ii._


Hunt half a day for a forgotten dream.

_Hart-leap Well. Part ii._


Never to blend our pleasure or our pride
With sorrow of the meanest thing that feels.

_Hart-leap Well. Part ii._


Plain living and high thinking are no more.
The homely beauty of the good old cause
Is gone; our peace, our fearful innocence,
And pure religion breathing household laws.

_O Friend! I know not which way I must look._


Milton! thou should'st be living at this hour:
England hath need of thee!
. . . . . .
Thy soul was like a star, and dwelt apart:
So didst thou travel on life's common way
In cheerful godliness.

_London, 1802._


We must be free or die who speak the tongue
That Shakespeare spake, the faith and morals hold
Which Milton held.

_It is not to be thought of._


A noticeable man, with large gray eyes.



_Stanzas written in Thomson's Castle of Indolence._


We meet thee, like a pleasant thought,
When such are wanted.

_To the Daisy._


The poet's darling.

_To the Daisy._


Thou unassuming commonplace
Of Nature.

_To the same Flower._


Oft on the dappled turf at ease
I sit, and play with similes,
Loose type of things through all degrees.

_To the same Flower._


Sweet Mercy! to the gates of heaven
This minstrel lead, his sins forgiven;
The rueful conflict, the heart riven
With vain endeavour,
And memory of Earth's bitter leaven
Effaced forever.

_Thoughts suggested on the Banks of the Nith._


The best of what we do and are,
Just God, forgive!

_Thoughts suggested on the Banks of the Nith._


For old, unhappy, far-off things,
And battles long ago.

_The Solitary Reaper._


Some natural sorrow, loss, or pain
That has been, and may be again.

_The Solitary Reaper._


The music in my heart I bore
Long after it was heard no more.

_The Solitary Reaper._


Yon foaming flood seems motionless as ice;
Its dizzy turbulence eludes the eye,
Frozen by distance.

_Address to Kilchurn Castle._


A famous man is Robin Hood,
The English ballad-singer's joy.

_Rob Roy's Grave._


Because the good old rule
Sufficeth them,--the simple plan,
That they should take who have the power,
And they should keep who can.



_Rob Roy's Grave._


The Eagle, he was lord above,
And Rob was lord below.

_Rob Roy's Grave._


A brotherhood of venerable trees.

_Sonnet composed at ---- Castle._


Let beeves and home-bred kine partake
The sweets of Burn-mill meadow;
The swan on still St. Mary's Lake
Float double, swan and shadow!

_Yarrow Unvisited._


Every gift of noble origin
Is breathed upon by Hope's perpetual breath.

_These Times strike Monied Worldlings._


A remnant of uneasy light.

_The Matron of Jedborough._


Oh for a single hour of that Dundee
Who on that day the word of onset gave![474-1]

_Sonnet, in the Pass of Killicranky._


O Cuckoo! shall I call thee bird,
Or but a wandering voice?

_To the Cuckoo._


She was a phantom of delight
When first she gleamed upon my sight,
A lovely apparition, sent
To be a moment's ornament;
Her eyes as stars of twilight fair,
Like twilights too her dusky hair,
But all things else about her drawn
From May-time and the cheerful dawn.

_She was a Phantom of Delight._


A creature not too bright or good
For human nature's daily food;
For transient sorrows, simple wiles,
Praise, blame, love, kisses, tears, and smiles.

_She was a Phantom of Delight._


The reason firm, the temperate will,
Endurance, foresight, strength, and skill;
A perfect woman, nobly planned,
To warn, to comfort, and command.

_She was a Phantom of Delight._


That inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude.

_I wandered lonely._


To be a Prodigal's favourite,--then, worse truth,
A Miser's pensioner,--behold our lot!

_The Small Celandine._


Stern Daughter of the Voice of God![475-1]

_Ode to Duty._


A light to guide, a rod
To check the erring, and reprove.

_Ode to Duty._


Give unto me, made lowly wise,
The spirit of self-sacrifice;
The confidence of reason give,
And in the light of truth thy bondman let me live!

_Ode to Duty._


The light that never was, on sea or land;
The consecration, and the Poet's dream.

_Suggested by a Picture of Peele Castle in a Storm. Stanza 4._


Shalt show us how divine a thing
A woman may be made.

_To a Young Lady. Dear Child of Nature._


But an old age serene and bright,
And lovely as a Lapland night,
Shall lead thee to thy grave.

_To a Young Lady. Dear Child of Nature._


Where the statue stood
Of Newton, with his prism and silent face,
The marble index of a mind forever
Voyaging through strange seas of thought alone.

_The Prelude. Book iii._


Another morn
Risen on mid-noon.[476-1]

_The Prelude. Book vi._


Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive,
But to be young was very heaven!

_The Prelude. Book xi._


The budding rose above the rose full blown.

_The Prelude. Book xi._


There is
One great society alone on earth:
The noble living and the noble dead.

_The Prelude. Book xi._


Who, doomed to go in company with Pain
And Fear and Bloodshed,--miserable train!--
Turns his necessity to glorious gain.

_Character of the Happy Warrior._


Controls them and subdues, transmutes, bereaves
Of their bad influence, and their good receives.

_Character of the Happy Warrior._


But who, if he be called upon to face
Some awful moment to which Heaven has joined
Great issues, good or bad for humankind,
Is happy as a lover.

_Character of the Happy Warrior._


And through the heat of conflict keeps the law
In calmness made, and sees what he foresaw.

_Character of the Happy Warrior._


Whom neither shape of danger can dismay,
Nor thought of tender happiness betray.

_Character of the Happy Warrior._


Like,--but oh how different!

_Yes, it was the Mountain Echo._


The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:
Little we see in Nature that is ours.

_Miscellaneous Sonnets. Part i. xxxiii._


Great God! I 'd rather be
A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn,
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea,
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.

_Miscellaneous Sonnets. Part i. xxxiii._


Maidens withering on the stalk.[477-1]

_Personal Talk. Stanza 1._


Sweetest melodies
Are those that are by distance made more sweet.[477-2]

_Personal Talk. Stanza 2._


Dreams, books, are each a world; and books, we know,
Are a substantial world, both pure and good.
Round these, with tendrils strong as flesh and blood,
Our pastime and our happiness will grow.

_Personal Talk. Stanza 3._


The gentle Lady married to the Moor,
And heavenly Una with her milk-white lamb.

_Personal Talk. Stanza 3._


Blessings be with them, and eternal praise,
Who gave us nobler loves, and nobler cares!--
The Poets, who on earth have made us heirs
Of truth and pure delight by heavenly lays.

_Personal Talk. Stanza 4._


A power is passing from the earth.

_Lines on the expected Dissolution of Mr. Fox._


The rainbow comes and goes,
And lovely is the rose.

_Ode. Intimations of Immortality. Stanza 2._


The sunshine is a glorious birth;
But yet I know, where'er I go,
That there hath passed away a glory from the earth.

_Ode. Intimations of Immortality. Stanza 2._


Where is it now, the glory and the dream?

_Ode. Intimations of Immortality. Stanza 5._


Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:
The soul that rises with us, our life's star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from afar.
Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory, do we come
From God, who is our home:
Heaven lies about us in our infancy.

_Ode. Intimations of Immortality. Stanza 5._


At length the man perceives it die away,
And fade into the light of common day.

_Ode. Intimations of Immortality. Stanza 5._


The thought of our past years in me doth breed
Perpetual benediction.