The sages say, Dame Truth delights to dwell
(Strange mansion!) in the bottom of a well:
Questions are then the windlass and the rope
That pull the grave old Gentlewoman up.

Birthday Ode.

J. WOLCOTT (Peter Pindar).

Get but the truth once uttered, and 't is like
A star new-born that drops into its place
And which, once circling in its placid round,
Not all the tumult of the earth can shake.

Glance Behind the Curtain.

J. R. LOWELL.

TYRANNY.

So spake the Fiend, and with necessity,
The tyrant's plea, excused his devilish deeds.

Paradise Lost, Bk. IV.

MILTON.

Tyranny

Absolves all faith; and who invades our rights,
Howe'er his own commence, can never be
But an usurper.

Gustavus Vasa, Act iv. Sc. 1.

H. BROOKE.

Tyranny

Is far the worst of treasons. Dost thou deem
None rebels except subjects? The prince who
Neglects or violates his trust is more

A brigand than the robber-chief.

The Two Foscari, Act ii. Sc. 1.

LORD BYRON.

Slaves would be tyrants if the chance were theirs.

The Vanished City.

V. HUGO.

'Twixt kings and tyrants there's this difference known: Kings seek their subjects' good, tyrants their owne. Kings and Tyrants.

R. HERRICK.

Oh! it is excellent

To have a giant's strength; but it is tyrannous
To use it like a giant.

Could great men thunder

As Jove himself does, Jove would ne'er be quiet;
For every pelting, petty officer

Would use his heaven for thunder,

Nothing but thunder. Merciful Heaven!
Thou rather, with thy sharp and sulphurous bolt,
Split'st the unwedgeable and gnarlèd oak,
Than the soft myrtle: but man, proud man!
Drest in a little brief authority,-

Most ignorant of what he 's most assured,
His glassy essence, like an angry ape,
Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven,
As make the angels weep; who, with our spleens,
Would all themselves laugh mortal.

Measure for Measure, Act 1i. Sc. 2.

SHAKESPEARE.

VANITY.

As eddies draw things frivolous and light,
How is man's heart by vanity drawn in!

Night Thoughts, Night VIIİ.

DR. E. YOUNG.

One prospect lost, another still we gain;

And not a vanity is giv'n in vain :
Even mean Self-love becomes, by force divine,
The scale to measure others' wants by thine.

Essay on Man, Epistle II.

A. POPE.

Sir Plume (of amber snuff-box justly vain,
And the nice conduct of a clouded cane),
With earnest eyes, and round unthinking face,
He first the snuff-box opened, then the case.

Rape of the Lock.

A. POPE.

Light vanity, insatiate cormorant,
Consuming means, soon preys upon itself.

King Richard II., Act ii. Sc. 1.

VARIETY.

SHAKESPEARE.

The earth was made so various, that the mind
Of desultory man, studious of change,
And pleased with novelty, might be indulged.

The Task, Bk. I.

Variety 's the very spice of life,
That gives it all its flavor.

The Timepiece: The Task, Bk. II.

W. COWPER.

W.COWPER.

Not chaos-like together crushed and bruised,

But, as the world, harmoniously confused,
Where order in variety we see,

And where, though all things differ, all agree.

Windsor Forest.

A. POPE.

How various his employments whom the world
Calls idle, and who justly in return

Esteems that busy world an idler too!

The Task: The Timepiece.

W.COWPER.

VIRTUE.

The world in all doth but two nations bear,
The good, the bad, and these mixed everywhere.

The Loyal Scot.

A. MARVELL.

What nothing earthly gives or can destroy,-
The soul's calm sunshine, and the heartfelt joy,
Is Virtue's prize.

Essay an Man, Epistle IV.

A. POPE.

Virtue, not rolling suns, the mind matures,
That life is long, which answers life's great end.
The time that bears no fruit, deserves no name.

Night Thoughts, Night V.

DR. E. YOUNG.

Good, the more Communicated, more abundant grows. Paradise Lost, Bk. V.

MILTON.

Her virtue and the conscience of her worth, That would be wooed, and not unsought be won. Paradise Lost, Bk. VIII.

MILTON.

Know then this truth (enough for man to know), "Virtue alone is happiness below."

Essay on Man, Epistle IV.

A. POPE.

For blessings ever wait on virtuous deeds,
And though a late, a sure reward succeeds.
The Mourning Bride, Act v. Se. 12. W. CONGREVE.

That virtue only makes our bliss below,
And all our knowledge is, ourselves to know.

Essay on Man, Epistle IV.

A. POPE.

Pygmies are pygmies still, though perched on Alps;
And pyramids are pyramids in vales.
Each man makes his own stature, builds himself :

Virtue alone outbuilds the Pyramids;

Her monuments shall last when Egypt's fall.

Night Thoughts, Night VI.

DR. E. YOUNG.

Abashed the devil stood.
And felt how awful goodness is, and saw
Virtue in her shape how lovely.

Paradise Lost, Bk. IV.

So dear to heaven is saintly chastity,

MILTON.

That, when a soul is found sincerely so,
A thousand liveried angels lacky her,
Driving far off each thing of sin and guilt.

Comus.

MILTON.

Adieu, dear, amiable youth!

Your heart can ne'er be wanting!
May prudence, fortitude, and truth

Erect your brow undaunting!

In ploughman phrase, "God send you speed,"

Still daily to grow wiser;

And may you better reck the rede,

Than ever did the adviser!

Epistle to a Young Friend.

R. BURNS.

Though lone the way as that already trod,
Cling to thine own integrity and God!

To One Deceived.

H. T. TUCKERMAN.

Virtue she finds too painful to endeavor,
Content to dwell in decencies forever.

Moral Essays, Epistle II.

A. POPE.

Keep virtue's simple path before your eyes,
Nor think from evil good can ever rise.

Tancred, Act v. Sc. 8.

J. THOMSON.

Count that day lost whose low descending sun
Views from thy hand no worthy action done.

Staniford's Art of Reading.

ΑΝΟΝΥΜOUS.

This above all. -to thine own self be true;
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.

It is a dream, sweet child! a waking dream,

A blissful certainty, a vision bright,

Of that rare happiness, which even on earth

Heaven gives to those it loves.

The Spanish Student, Act iii. Sc. 5.

H. W. LONGFELLOW.

Hence the fool's paradise, the statesman's scheme,
The air-built castle, and the golden dream,
The maid's romantic wish, the chemist's flame,

And poet's vision of eternal fame.

Dunciad, Bk. III.

A. POPE.

And still they dream, that they shall still succeed;
And still are disappointed. Rings the world
With the vain stir. I sum up half mankind,
And add two-thirds of the remaining half,
And find the total of their hopes and fears
Dreams, empty dreams.

The Task, Bk. VI.

W.COWPER.

[Witches vanish.

BANQUO. The earth hath bubbles as the water has, And these are of them. Whither are they vanished? MACBETH.-Into the air; and what seemed corporal melted As breath into the wind.

Macbeth, Act i. Sc. 3.

SHAKESPEARE.

Fierce fiery warriors fought upon the clouds.
In ranks and squadrons, and right form of war,
Which drizzled blood upon the Capitol.
O Cæsar! these things are beyond all use,
And I do fear them.

Julius Cæsar, Act ii. Sc. 2.

SHAKESPEARE.

Lochiel, Lochiel! beware of the day;

For, dark and despairing, my sight I may seal, But man cannot cover what God would reveal; "T is the sunset of life gives me mystical lore, And coming events cast their shadows before. Lochiel's Warning.

WAR.

T. CAMPBELL.

My sentence is for open war; of wiles
More unexpert I boast not: then let those
Contrive who need, or when they need, not now.

Paradise Lost, Bk. II.

MILTON.

And Cæsar's spirit, ranging for revenge,

Cry "Havock!" and let slip the dogs of war.

Julius Cæsar, Act iii. Sc. 1.

SHAKESPEARE.

In every heart
Are sown the sparks that kindle fiery war;
Occasion needs but fan them, and they blaze.

The Task: Winter Morning Walk.

W. COWPER.

Long peace, I find,
But nurses dangerous humors up to strength,
License and wanton rage, which war alone
Can purge away.

Mustapha.

D. MALLET.