234

ENJOYMENT - HAPPINESS, &c.

Too late I find how madly vain our toil
In search of happiness on mortal soil;
The gilded phantom we so dearly prize,
A moment glitters, then for ever flies.

The highest hills are miles below the sky,
And so far is the lightest heart below
True happiness.

My life has been like summer skies

When they are fair to view;

BAILEY'S Festus.

But there never yet were hearts or skies,
Clouds might not wander through.

Pleasure's the only noble end,

MRS. L. P. SMITH.

To which all human powers should tend;
And virtue gives her heavenly lore,
But to make pleasure please us more.

Gone-like a meteor, that o'er head

MOORE

Suddenly shines, and ere we 've said
"Look! look, how beautiful!"—'t is fled!

MOORE's Loves of the Angels

How deep, how thorough-felt the glow
Of rapture, kindling out of wo!
How exquisite one single drop
Of bliss, that, sparkling to the top

Of misery's cup!-how keenly quaff'd,
Though death must follow in the draught.

MOORE'S Lalla Rookh

For she hath liv'd with heart and soul alive
To all that makes life beautiful and fair;
Sweet thoughts, like honey bees, have made their hive

Of her soft bosom cell, and cluster there.

MRS. A. B. WELBY.

235

ENTERPRISE - ENTHUSIASM.

There are some hours that pass so soon,

Our spell-touch'd hearts scarce know they end.

May thy soul with pleasure shine,

Lasting as the gloom of mine!

MRS. A. B. WELBY

CHARLES WOLFE.

Ah Pauline! who can gaze upon thee now

And watch thy cheek all beaming with delight, Nor grieve to think that thou so soon shalt know Despair, and grief, and sorrow's withering blight! J. T. WATSON.

May friendship open unto you

The path of peace and holy love; May life continual joys renew;

May hope not too deceptive prove ;— May sweet contentment round you throw Such bliss as may be found below!

J. T. WATSON.

Zeal and duty are not slow;

But on occasion's forelock watchful wait.

BUTLER

MILTON'S Paradise Regained.

236

ENVY EQUALITY.

His zea.

None seconded, as out of reason judg'd,

Or singular and rash.

MILTON'S Paradise Regained

No wild enthusiast ever yet could rest,
Till half mankind were like himself possess'd.

On such a theme 't were impious to be calm;
Passion is reason, transport, temper, here!

CowPER.

YOUNG'S Night Thoughts

For virtue's self may too much zeal be had:
The worst of madmen is a saint run mad.

-With all the zeal

Which young and fiery converts feel,
Within whose heated bosoms throngs
The memory of a thousand wrongs.

POPE

BYRON'S Siege of Corinth

And rash enthusiasm, in good society,
Were nothing but a moral inebriety.

BYRON'S Don Juan

But faith, fanatic faith, once wedded fast
To some dear falsehood, hugs it to the last.

Consider, man; weigh well thy frame,
The king, the beggar, are the same;
Dust form'd us all. Each breathes his day,
Then sinks into his native clay.

GAY's Fables.

ERROR.

Ask of thy mother earth, why oaks are made
Taller or stronger than the weeds they shade,
Or, ask of yonder argent fields above,
Why Jove's satellites are less than Jove?

POPE'S Essay on Man

Order is heaven's first law; and, this confest,
Some are, and must be, greater than the rest.

237

POPE'S Essay on Man.

None but thyself can be thy parallel.

To cope with thee, would be about as vain
As for a brook to cope with ocean's flood.

BYRON'S Don Juan.

As some fierce comet of tremendous size,
To which the stars did rev'rence as it pass'd,
So he through learning and through fancy took
His flight sublime, and on the loftiest top
Of fame's dread mountain sat.

POLLOK's Course of Time.

For mountains issue out of plains, and not
Plains out of mountains; and so, likewise, kings
Are of the people, not the people of kings.

BAILEY'S Festus

ERROR.

For he that once hath missèd the right way,

The further he doth go, the further he doth stray,

SPENSER'S Fairy Queen

More proselytes and converts use t' accrue
To false persuasions than the right and true,
For error and mistakes are infinite,

While truth has but one way to be i' the right.

BUTLER

Even so, by tasting of that fruit forbid,

Where they sought knowledge, they did error find
Ill they desir'd to know, and ill they did,

And to give passion eyes, made reason blind.

DAVIES' Immortality of the Soul

Truth, crush'd to earth, shall rise again:
The eternal years of God are hers;
But Error, wounded, writhes with pain,
And dies among his worshippers.

W. C. BRYANT.

ESTEEM.

Love is not love,

When it is mingled with respects, that stand

Aloof from the entire point.

SHAKSPEARE.

For all true love is grounded on esteem.

BUCKINGHAM.

O, why is gentle love

A stranger to that mind,

Which pity and esteem can move,
Which can be just and kind?

LORD LYTTLETON.

Take my esteem, if you on that can live;
But, frankly, sir, 't is all I have to give.

She attracts me daily with her gentle virtues,
So soft, and beautiful, and heavenly.

DRYDEN.

JAMES A. HILLHOUSE