It seems a matter pretty generally agreed between all tellers and hearers of stories, that one party shall work by the rule of addition, and the other by that of subtraction. In most narratives where the relator is a party in the scene, I have remarked that the says-I has a decided advantage in dialogue over the says-he. Few people take an underpart in their own fable. CUMBERLAND. THE WORLD. I SAW Eternity the other night Like a great ring of pure and endless light, And round beneath it, Time in hours, days, years, Like a vast shadow moved, in which the world HENRY VAUGHAN. Of this fair volume which we World do name, His providence extending everywhere, His justice which proud rebels doth not spare, But silly we, like foolish children, rest Well pleased with colour'd vellum, leaves of gold, DRUMMOND. Sonnets. AH! world unknown! how charming is thy view, CRABBE. Tales-The Borough School. THE only fence against the world is a thorough knowledge of it. LOCKE. On Education. You wonder at it!- This, sir, is the case: B B ONCE kick the world, and the world and you live together at a reasonable good understanding. SWIFT. THE apparent and the real progress of human affairs are both well illustrated in a waterfall; where the same noisy bubbling eddies continue for months and years, though the water which froths in them changes every moment. But as every drop in its passage tends to loosen and detach some particle of the channel, the stream is working a change all the time in the appearance of the fall, by altering its bed, and so subjecting the river during its descent to a new set of percussions and reverberations. And what, when at last effected, is the consequence of this change? The foam breaks into shapes somewhat different, but the noise, the bubbling, and the eddies are just as violent as before. HARE. Guesses at Truth. THE HEART. SURELY if each one saw another's heart, No sale or bargain pass: all would disperse G. HERBERT. WATERFALL. AND mounts in spray the skies, and thence again Is an eternal April, to the ground, Making it all one emerald: Horribly beautiful! but on the verge, From side to side, beneath the glittering morn, An Iris sits, amidst the infernal surge, Like Hope upon a death-bed, and, unworn By the distracted waters, bears serene Its brilliant hues with all their beams unshorn: Love watching Madness with unalterable mien. BYRON. Childe Harold, Canto IV. * LAW. LAW's the wisdom of all ages, And manag'd by the ablest sages; Who, though their bus'ness at the bar In which th' engage with fiercer dudgenos Our commonwealth, the cause, and side: For which th' engage, and wage the laws; While all professions else are found Condemn the way each other deals in: The law can take a purse in open court, BUTLER. Miscellaneous Thoughts. Anatomists dissect and mangle, To cut themselves out work to wrangle: But lawyers are too wise a nation For those that meddle with their tools Hudibras, Part III., Canto 3. BEN JONSON. Volpone. OTHERS believe no voice t' an organ Th' are catch'd in knotted law, like nets; There's no end of th' immortal suit. Petty fogger. Hudibras, Part II., Canto 3. WHERE in all governments and times * But was a kind and constant friend As residentiary bawds, And brokers that receive stol'n goods; And Ibid., Part III., Canto 3. YOUR pettyfoggers damn their souls, Ibid., Part II., Canto 2. CITY. THE city lies, And like a mist beneath a hill doth rise, Whose state and wealth, the business, and the crowd, Seems at this distance but a darker cloud; And is, to him who rightly things esteems, No other in effect than what it seems; Where, with like haste, through several ways they run, Some to undo, and some to be undone; While luxury, and wealth, like war and peace, Are each the other's ruin, and increase; DENHAM. Cooper's Hill. |