334

IDLENESS - INDUSTRY, &c

Perseverance is a Roman virtue,

That wins each godlike act, and plucks success

Even from the spear-proof crest of rugged danger.

No more the irksome restlessness of rest
Disturb'd him like an eagle in her nest,
Whose whetted beak, and far pervading eye,
Darts for a victim over all the sky.

Go to the ant, thou sluggard, learn to live,
And by her wary ways reform thine own.

HAVARD

BYRON'S Island.

I would not waste my spring of youth
In idle dalliance: I would plant rich seeds,
To blossom in my manhood, and bear fruit
When I am old.

Let us then be up and doing,
With a heart for every fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,

Learn to labour and to wait.

The proudest motto for the young!
Write it in lines of gold

Upon thy heart, and in thy mind

The stirring words enfold:
And in misfortune's dreary hour,
Or fortune's prosperous gale,

SMART

HILLHOUSE.

H. W. LONGFELLOW

"Twill have a holy, cheering power-
There's no such word as fail!"

ALICE G. LEE

IGNORANCE.

835

IGNORANCE

The truest characters of ignorance

Are vanity and pride and arrogance,

As blind men use to bear their noses higher

Than those who have their eyes and sight entire.

As lookers-on feel most delight,

That least perceive the juggler's sleight,

And still the less they understand,

The more they admire the sleight of hand.

BUTLER

BUTLER'S Hudibras.

But 't is some justice to ascribe to chance
The wrongs you must expect from ignorance:
None can the moulds of their creation choose,
We therefore should man's ignorance excuse;
When born too low to reach at things sublime,
"Tis rather their misfortune than their crime.

By ignorance is pride increas'd;

Those most assume who know the least:
Their own self-balance gives them weight,
But every other finds them light.

DAVENANT

GAY's Fables.

The lamb thy riot dooms to death to-day,
Had he thy reason, would he skip and play?
Pleas'd to the last, he crops the flowery food,
And licks the hand just rais'd to spill his blood.

POPE'S Essay on Man.

Where ignorance is bliss, 't is folly to be wise.

With just enough of learning to misquote.

GRAY

BYRON'S English Bards, &c.

IMAGINATION IMMORTALITY, &c.

They cannot read, and so don't lisp in criticism;
Nor write, and so they don't affect the muse;
Were never caught in epigram or witticism;
Have no romances, serinons, plays, reviews.

BYRON'S Beppe

Who laughs to scorn the wisdom of the schools,
And thinks the first of poets first of fools.

SPRAGUE'S Curiosity

IMAGINATION.-(See FANCY.)

IMMORTALITY - SOUL.

One thinks the soul is air; another, fire;
Another, blood diffus'd about the heart;
Another saith the elements conspire,
And to her essence each doth give a part.

DAVIES' Immortality of the Soul.

But, as the sharpest eye discerneth nought,
Except the sunbeam in the air do shine,
So the best soul, with her reflecting thought,
Sees not herself without some light divine.

DAVIES' Immortality of the Soul.

Whate'er of earth is form'd, to earth returns;
The soul alone, that particle divine,

Escapes the wreck of worlds, when all things fail.

SOMERVILE'S Chase.

The soul of man, a native of the skies,
High-born and free, her freedom should maintain
Unsold, unmortgag'd for earth's little bribes.

YOUNG'S Night Thoughts.

"I'is immortality—'t is that alone
Ainid life's pains, abasements, emptiness,
The soul can comfort, elevate, and fill;
That only, and that amply this performs.

YOUNG'S Night Thoughts.

IMMORTALITY - SOUL.

Let earth dissolve-yon ponderous orb descend,
And grind us into dust-the soul is safe!
The man emerges-mounts above the wreck
As towering flame from nature's funeral pyre!

YOUNG'S Night Thoughts

When nature ceases, thou shalt still remain,
Nor second chaos bound thy endless reign;
Fate's tyrant laws thy happier lot shall brave,
Baffle destruction, and elude the grave.

The soul, secure in her existence, smiles
At the drawn dagger, and defies its point:
The stars shall fade away, the sun himself
Grow dim with age, and nature sink in years:
But thou shalt flourish in immortal youth,
Unhurt amidst the war of elements,

The wreck of matter, and the crush of worlds!

337

TICKELL.

ADDISON'S Cato.

It must be so: Plato, thou reasonest well:
Else whence this pleasing hope, this fond desire.
This longing after immortality?

Or whence this secret dread, and inward horror

Of falling into nought? Why shrinks the soul
Back on itself, and startles at destruction?
"Tis the divinity that stirs within us;

"T is heaven itself that points out a hereafter,
And intimates eternity to man.

The soul on earth is an immortal guest,
Compell'd to starve at an unreal feast;

ADDISON'S Cato.

A spark which upward tends by nature's force;
A stream, divided from its parent source;
A drop, dissever'd from the boundless sea;
A moment, parted from eternity;

A pilgrim, panting for the rest to come;
An exile, anxious for his native home.

HANNAH MURE.

338

IMMORTALITY - IMPATIENCE, &c.

Cold in the dust this perish'd heart may lie,
But that which warm'd it once shall never die.

CAMPBELL

But I have liv'd, and have not liv'd in vain :
My mind may lose its force, my blood its fire,
And my frame perish even in conquering pain-
But there is that within me which shall tire
Torture and time, and breathe when I expire.
BYRON'S Childe Harold.

Immortality o'ersweeps

All pains, all tears, all time, all fears—and peals
Like the eternal thunders of the deep
Into

my ears this truth-Thou liv'st for ever!

A voice within us speaks that startling word-
"Man, thou shalt never die!" Celestial voices
Hymn it into our souls; according harps,
By angel fingers touch'd, when the mild stars.
Of morning sang together, sound forth still
The song of our great Immortality.

BYRON.

R. H. DANA,

IMPATIENCE-PATIENCE.

A wretched soul, bruis'd with adversity,
We bid be quiet, when we hear it cry ;

But were we burden'd with like weight of pain,
As much, or more, we should ourselves complain.

SHAKSPEARE

For there was never yet philosopher,

That could endure the tooth-ache patiently.

SHAKSPEARE

How poor are they who have not patience!
What wound did ever heal but by degrees?

SHAKSPEARE