PROVERBIAL PHILOSOPHY. PREFATORY. THOUGHTS, that have tarried in my mind, and peopled its inner chambers, The sober children of reason, or desultory train of fancy; Clear running wine of conviction, with the scum and the lees of specu lation; Corn from the sheaves of science, with stubble from mine own garner; Searchings after Truth, that have tracked her secret lodes, And come up again to the surface-world, with a knowledge grounded deeper; Arguments of high scope, that have soared to the keystone of heaven, And thence have swooped to their certain mark, as the falcon to its quarry; The fruits I have gathered of prudence, the ripened harvest of my musings, These commend I unto thee, O docile scholar of Wisdom, These I give to thy gentle heart, thou lover of the right. WHAT though a guilty man renew that hallowed theme, And utter faintly forth dark sayings as of old? Sweet is the virgin honey, though the wild bee have stored it in a reed; |