What peremptory, eagle-sighted eye
Dares look upon the heaven of her brow,
That is not blinded by her majesty?

To splendour only do we live?

Must pomp alone our thoughts employ?
All, all that pomp and splendour give,

SHAKSPEARS.

Is dearly bought with love and joy.

CARTWRIGHT.

Can wealth give happiness? look round and see,

STATESMAN - SUCCESS, &c.

485

STATESMAN.

A statesman, that can side with every faction,
And yet most subtly can entwist himself,

When he hath wrought the business up to danger.

Forbear, you things

That stand upon the pinnacles of state,

To boast your slippery height; when you do fall,
You dash yourselves in pieces, ne'er to rise.

SHIRLEY.

BEN JONSON. Thus the court wheel goes round, like fortune's ball; One statesman rising on another's fall.

rose, and in his rising seem'd

A pillar of state: deep on his front engraven

Deliberation sat, and public care.

R. BROME.

Had I miscarried, I had been a villain;
For men judge actions always by events:
But when we manage by a just foresight,
Success is prudence, and possession right.

HIGGONS.

486

SUICIDE.

"Tis not in mortals to command success;

But we'll do more, Sempronius — we 'll deserve it.
ADDISON'S Cato

It is success that colours all in life;

Success makes fools admir'd, makes villains honest.
All the proud virtue of this vaunting world
Fawns on success and power, howe'er acquir'd.

Applause

Waits on success; the fickle multitude,

THOMSON.

Like the light straw that floats along the stream,
Glide with the current still, and follow fortune.

FRANKLIN.

But who shall tax successful villany,

Or call the rising traitor to account?

SUICIDE.

The dread of something after death,
That undiscover'd country, from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will,
And makes us rather bear the ills we have,

Than fly to others, that we know not of.

HAVARD.

SHAKSPEARE

Oh! that this too, too solid flesh would melt,

Thaw, and dissolve itself into a dew!

Or that the Everlasting had not set
His canon 'gainst self-slaughter!

To run away

SHAKSPEARE.

From this world's ills, that, at the very worst.
Will soon blow o'er, thinking to mend ourselves
By boldly venturing on a world unknown,
And plunging headlong in the dark! — 't is mad!
No frenzy half so desperate as this.

BLAIR'S Grave.

SUMMER-SUN, &c.

Fear, guilt, despair, and moon-struck frenzy, rush
On voluntary death; the wise, the brave,
When the fierce storms of fortune round 'em roar,
Combat the billows with redoubled force.

To cut his throat a brave man scorns;
So, instead of his throat, he cuts - his corns.

FENTON

487

BUTLER'S Hudibras.

He with delirious laugh the dagger hurl'd,
And burst the ties that bound him to this world.

CAMPBELL'S Pleasures of Hope

I mean not

That poor-soul'd piece of heroism, self-slaughter;
Oh no; the miserablest day we live,

There's many a better thing to do than die!

G. DARLEY

SUPERIORITY. (See EQUALITY.)

488

SYMPATHY - TASTE, &o.

SYMPATHY.

Kindness by secret sympathy is tied,
For noble souls in nature are allied.

DRYDEN.

Shame on those breasts of stone, that cannot melt

In soft adoption of another's sorrow!

AARON HILL

Oh! ask not, hope thou not too much

Of sympathy below:

Few are the hearts whence one same touch

Bids the sweet fountain flow.

MRS. HEMANS.

There's nought in this bad world like sympathy;

'Tis so becoming to the soul and faceSets to soft music the harmonious sigh,

And robes sweet friendship in a Brussels lace.

BYRON'S Don Juan.

I know thee not and yet our spirits seem
Together link'd by sympathy and love,
And, like the mingled waters of a stream,
Our thoughts and fancies all united rove.

I know thee not

MRS. AMELIA B. WELBY

-I never heard thy voice,

Yet, could I choose a friend from all mankind,

Thy spirit high should be my spirit's choice,

Thy heart should guide my heart, thy mind, my mind.