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O for the voice and fire of seraphim,

To sing thy glories with devotion due!

Blest be the day I escaped the wrangling crew
From Pyrrho's maze, and Epicurus' sty;
And held high converse with the godlike few,
Who to the enraptured heart, and ear, and eye,
Teach beauty, virtue, truth, and love, and melody.

BEATTIE.

DAYBREAK.

THE Sun had long since in the lap
Of Thetis taken out his map,

And, like a lobster boil'd, the morn

From black to red began to turn.

SUNSET.

Hudibras, Part II., Chap. 2.

Ir was the time when witty poets tell

"That Phoebus into Thetis' bosom fell;

She blush'd at first, and then put out the light,
And drew the modest curtains of the night.'
COWLEY. The Country Mouse.

MORNING IN TOWN.

Now hardly here and there a hackney coach
Appearing, show'd the ruddy morn's approach.
The slipshod 'prentice from his master's door,
Had par'd the dirt, and sprinkled round the floor.
Now Moll had whirl'd her mop with dext'rous airs,
Prepar'd to scrub the entry and the stairs.

The small-coal-man was heard with cadence deep,
Till drown'd in shriller notes of chimney sweep;

Duns at his lordship's gate begin to meet;

And brick-dust Moll had scream'd through half the street. The turnkey now his flock returning sees,

Duly let out a-nights to steal for fees;

The watchful bailiffs take their silent stands,

And school-boys lag with satchels in their hands.

SWIFT.

ENEMY, THE USE OF.

Duke. I KNOW thee well; how dost thou, my good fellow? Clown. Truly, sir, the better for my foes, and the worse for my friends.

Duke. Just the contrary; the better for thy friends.

Clo. No, sir, the worse.

Duke. How can that be?

Clo. Marry, sir, they praise me, and make an ass of me; now my foes tell me plainly I am an ass; so that by my foes, sir, I profit in the knowledge of myself; and by my friends I am abused; so that, conclusions to be as kisses, if your four negatives make your two affirmatives, why then the worse for my friends and the better for my foes.

Twelfth Night, Act V.

ANTISTHENES spake incomparably well, that if a man would live a safe and unblamable life it was necessary that he should have very ingenious and faithful friends, or very bad enemies; because the first, by their kind admonitions, would keep him from sinning, the latter by their invectives.

OUR enemies come nearer the truth in their judgments of us, than we do in our judgments of ourselves.

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ROCHEFOUCAULD.

I NEVER met with a consideration, that is more finely spun and what has better pleased me, than one in Epictetus, which places an enemy in a new light, and gives us a view of him altogether different from that in which we are used to regard him. The sense of it is as follows: Does a man reproach thee for being proud or ill-natured, envious or conceited, ignorant or detracting? Consider with thyself whether his reproaches are true; if they are not, consider that thou art not the person whom he reproaches, but that he reviles an imaginary being, and perhaps loves what thou really art, tho' he hates what thou appearest to be. If his reproaches are true, if thou art the envious, ill-natured man he takes thee for, give thyself another turn, become mild, affable, and obliging, and his reproaches of thee naturally cease. His reproaches may indeed continue, but thou art no longer the person whom he reproaches.

Spectator.

Manly. GENERALLY no man can be a great enemy, but under the name of a friend . If you are cheated in your

* The coin that is most current among mankind is flattery; the only benefit of which is that by hearing what we are not we may be instructed what we ought to be.

Thoughts. POPE and SWIFT.

fortune, 'tis your friend that does it: for your enemy is not made your trustee.

WYCHERLEY. The Plain Dealer.

SOME dire misfortune to portend,
No enemy can match a friend.

SWIFT.

LIBERAL HOSPITALITY.

Polonius. My lord, I will use them according to their desert. Hamlet. Odd's bodekin, man, much better. Use every man after his desert, and who shall 'scape whipping? Use them after your own honour and dignity. The less they deserve, the more merit in your bounty.

COMBATANTS.

FOR men are found the stouter-hearted,
The certainer th' are to be parted.

Hamlet, Act II.

Hudibras, Part III., Canto 3.

PROSPEROUS VICE.

WHEN men of infamy to grandeur soar,
They light a torch to show their shame the more.

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COUNT all the advantage prosperous vice obtains,
'Tis but what virtue flies from and disdains.

YOUNG.

VALOUR AND WIT.

VALOUR's a mouse-trap, wit a gin,

Which women oft are taken in.

SCOFFERS.

POPE.

Hudibras, Part I., Canto 2.

LUCIAN, well skill'd in scoffing, this hath writ:

Friend, that's your folly which you think your wit;

This you vent oft, void both of wit and fear,
Meaning another, when yourself you jeer.
IZAAK WALTON.

Quoted.

you,'

DIOGENES, when one said to him, " they deride answered, “well, but I am not derided." Accounting those only to be ridiculed who feel the ridicule and are discomposed at it.

EXERCISE.

THE first physicians by debauch were made;
Excess began, and sloth sustains the trade.
By chase our long-lived fathers earn'd their food;
Toil strung the nerves, and purify'd the blood;
But we their sons, a pamper'd race of men,
Are dwindled down to threescore years and ten.
Better to hunt in fields for health unbought,
Than fee the doctor for a nauseous draught.
The wise for cure on exercise depend:

God never made his work for man to mend.

DRYDEN.

SONG. SPRING.

THE smiling Spring comes in rejoicing,
And surly Winter grimly flies;
Now crystal clear are the falling waters,
And bonnie blue are the sunny skies.

Fresh o'er the mountains breaks forth the morning,
The evening gilds the ocean's swell;
All creatures joy in the sun's returning,
And I rejoice in my bonnie Bell.

The flowery Spring leads sunny Summer,
And yellow Autumn presses near,
Then in his turn comes gloomy Winter,
Till smiling Spring again appear.

Thus seasons dancing, life advancing,
Old Time and Nature their changes tell;
But never ranging, still unchanging,
I adore my bonnie Bell.

BENEATH these fruit-tree boughs, that shed
Their snow-white blossoms on my head,
With sweetest sunshine round me spread
Of Spring's unclouded weather;

In this sequester'd nook how sweet
To sit upon my orchard-seat!

And flowers and birds once more to greet,
My last year's friends together.

BURNS.

WORDSWORTH. The Green Linnet.

Now the golden Morn aloft

Waves her dew-bespangled wing,
With vermeil cheek and whisper soft
She woos the tardy Spring:
Till April starts, and calls around
The sleeping fragrance from the ground,
And lightly o'er the living scene
Scatters her freshest, tenderest green.

GRAY. Ode on Vicissitude.

Lo! where the rosy-bosom'd Hours,
Fair Venus' train, appear,
Disclose the long-expecting flowers,
And wake the purple year!
The Attic warbler pours her throat
Responsive to the cuckoo's note,

The untaught harmony of Spring;
While, whispering pleasures as they fly,
Cool Zephyrs through the clear blue sky
Their gather'd fragrance fling.

GRAY. Ode on the Spring.

FLED are the frosts, and now the fields appear,
Re-clothed in fresh and verdant diaper;
Thaw'd are the snows, and now the lusty Spring
Gives to each mead a neat enamelling.

HERRICK.

SONG ON MAY MORNING.

Now the bright morning-star, day's harbinger,'
Comes dancing from the east, and leads with her
The flowery May, who from her green lap throws
The yellow cowslip, and the pale primrose.
Hail, bounteous May, that dost inspire
Mirth, and youth, and warm desire;
Woods and groves are of thy dressing,
Hill and dale doth boast thy blessing.
Thus we salute thee with our early song,
And welcome thee, and wish thee long.

MILTON.

PHYSIC.

If we look into the profession of physic, we shall find a most formidable body of men; the sight of them is enough to make a man serious, for we may lay it down as a maxim, that when a

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