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344

INDIGENCE-POVERTY.

I once was quick of feeling-that is o'er.

I trust the frown thy features wear

Ere long into a smile will turn;

I would not, that a face so fair

As thine, belov'd, should look so stern.

BYRON

W. LEGGETT.

Your coldness I heed not, your frown I defy;
Your affection I need not the time has gone by,

When a blush or a smile on that cheek could beguile
My soul from its safety, with witchery's smile.

MRS. OSGOOD

INDIGENCE-POVERTY.

Poor naked wretches, wheresoe'er you are,
That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm!
How shall your houseless heads, and unfed sides,
Your loop'd and window'd raggedness, defend you
From seasons such as these?

Famine is in thy cheeks;

Need and oppression stareth in thine eyes;

Upon thy back hangs ragged misery ;—

SHAKSPEARE.

The world is not thy friend, nor the world's law.

A begging prince what beggar pities not?

Think, too, in what a woful plight

The wretch must be, whose pocket's light;
Are not his hours by want deprest ?
Penurious cares corrode his breast;
Without respect, or love, or friends,
His solitary day descends

SHAKSPEARE.

SHAKSPEARE.

GAY'S Fables

INDIGENCE - POVERTY.

345

O grant me, Heaven! a middle state,
Neither too humble, nor too great;
More than enough for nature's ends,
With something left to treat my friends.

MALLET

Be honest poverty thy boasted wealth;

So shall thy friendships be sincere tho' few;

So shall thy sleep be sound, thy waking cheerful.

HAVARD

Want is a bitter and a hateful good,

Because its virtues are not understood;

Yet many things, impossible to thought,

Have been by need to full perfection brought.
The daring of the soul proceeds from thence,
Sharpness of wit, and active diligence;
Prudence at once, and fortitude it gives,
And, if in patience taken, mends our lives.

But Knowledge to their eyes her ample page,
Rich with the spoils of time, did ne'er unfold;

Chill penury repress'd their noble rage,

And froze the genial current of the soul.

DRYDEN

GRAY'S Elegy

What numbers, once in fortune's lap high-fed,
Solicit the cold hand of charity!

To shock us more, solicit it in vain!

YOUNG'S Night Thoughts

Aye idleness—the rich folks never fail
To find some reason why the poor deserve
Their miseries.

But poverty, with most who whimper forth
Their long complaints, is self-inflicted woe,
Th effect of laziness, or sottish waste.

SOUTHEY

COWPER'S Task

346

INDUSTRY - INGENUOUSNESS, &c.

O, blissful poverty!

Nature, too partial to thy lot, assigns

Health, freedom, innocence, and downy peace

Her real goods; and only mocks the great

With empty pageantries.

He views, with keen desire,

The rusty grate, unconscious of a fire.

But for pride,

FENTON.

GOLDSMITH.

We had not felt our poverty, but as

BYRON'S Werner.

Millions of myriads feel it, cheerfully.

Behold yon grey-hair'd prisoner, who reclines,
Silent and sad, upon his bed of straw :-

Look on his venerable form; behold

The snow-white beard that hangs adown his breast.
'Tis Winter cold and dreary Winter-and

The storm-king rages fearfully without;

Yet no bright blaze adds comfort to his hearth;
No cheering friends sit smiling at his side;
But a cold, biting freezing numbs his limbs,
And he is lone and comfortless indeed.

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It often falls, in course of common life,

That Right longtime is overborne of Wrong, Through avarice, or power, or guile, or strife, Which weakens that, and makes this power strong. SPENSER'S Fairy Queen.

Things ill begun strengthen themselves in ill.

SHAKSPEARE.

Mar not the things that cannot be amended.

SHAKSPEARE.

The smallest worm will turn, being trodden on,
And doves will fight in safeguard of their brood.

SHAKSPEARE.

I see the right, and I approve it too,
Condemn the wrong, but yet the wrong pursue.

Then furl your banners better far

The sun ne'er shone 66
on Stripe and Star,"
Than it should ever cheer the sight,

Or lead the van to unjust fight.

MRS. M. ST. LEON LOUD.

"Tis wrong to sleep in church- 't is wrong to borrow
What you can never pay—'t is wrong to touch
With unkind words the heart that pines in sorrow
'Tis wrong to scold too loud to eat too much;
'Tis wrong to put off acting till to-morrow

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To tell a secret, or get drunk. But such
Are nought to this of your invention; it
Can scarce be borne- but I'll not mention it.

J. T. WATSON.

848

INJUSTICE - JUSTICE - RIGHT.

INJUSTICE-JUSTICE - RIGHT.

Nought is on earth more sacred or divine,
That gods and men do equally adore,

Than this same virtue, that doth right define;

For th' heavens themselves, whence mortal men implore
Right in their wrongs, are rul'd by righteous lore.

SPENSER'S Fairy Queen.

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

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Justice, when equal scales she holds, is blind;

Nor cruelty nor mercy change her mind :
When some escape for that which others die,
Mercy to those, to these is cruelty.

SHAKSPEARE,

DENHAM.

Just men are only free, the rest are slaves.

CHAPMAN.

And Justice, while she winks at crimes,

Stumbles on innocence sometimes.

O! how glorious 't is

To right th' oppress'd, and bring the felon vile

BUTLER'S Hudibras.

To just disgrace!

SOMERVILE'S Chase.

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