Page images
PDF
EPUB

Why and Because. — Lavater.

CALL him wise whose Actions, Words, and Steps are all a clear because to a clear why.

The Widow. — Pope.

THUS day by day, and month by month we past;
It pleased the Lord to take my spouse at last.
I tore my gown, I soil'd my locks with dust,
And beat my breasts, as wretched Widows must;
Before my face my Handkerchief I spread,

To hide the flood of Tears I did not shed.

The Widow's two Mites. Webster.

WH

HAT more tender, more solemnly affecting, more profoundly pathetic, than this charity, this offering to God, of a farthing! We know nothing of her name, her family, or her tribe. We only know that she was a poor Woman, and a Widow, of whom there is nothing left upon record but this sublimely simple story, that when the rich men came to cast their proud offerings into the treasury, this poor Woman came also, and cast in her two Mites, which made a farthing! And that example, thus made the subject of divine commendation, has been read, and told, and has gone abroad everywhere, and sunk deep into a hundred million of hearts, since the commencement of the Christian era, and has done more good than could be accomplished by a thousand marble palaces, because it was charity mingled with true benevolence, given in the fear, the love, the service, and the honour of God; because it was charity, that had its origin in religious feeling; because it was a gift to the honour of God!

[blocks in formation]

FOR nothing lovelier can be found

In Woman, than to study household good,
And good works in her Husband to promote.

The Wife. Shakspeare.

My noble Father,

I do perceive here a divided duty;

To

you I am bound for Life and Education;

My Life and Education both do learn me

How to respect you; you are the lord of duty,

I am hitherto your daughter: but here's my Husband;

And so much duty as my mother show'd

To you, preferring you before her Father,
So much I challenge, that I may profess
Due to my Lord.

The Wife. — G. H. Drummond. "TIS not in Hymen's gay propitious hour,

With summer beams and genial breezes blest, That Man a Consort's worth approveth best: 'Tis when the skies with gloomy Tempests lour, When Cares and Sorrows all their torrents pour, She clasps him closer to her hallow'd Breast, Pillows his Head, and lays his Heart to rest; Drying her cheek from sympathetic shower.

The Wife. - Pope.

SHE who ne'er answers till a Husband cools,
Or, if she rules him, never shows she rules;
Charms by accepting, by submitting sways,
Yet has her Humour most, when she obeys.

The Wife. Shakspeare.

THOU art alone,

If thy rare qualities, sweet Gentleness,

Thy meekness saint-like, wife-like government,-Obeying in commanding, and thy parts, Sovereign and pious else, could speak thee out, The Queen of earthly Queens.

The Wife. — Milton.

WHAT thou bid'st

Unargued I obey; so God ordains ;

God is thy law; thou mine: to know no more
Is Woman's happiest knowledge, and her Praise.
The Wife. Hammond.
BEAUTY and worth in her alike contend,
To charm the fancy, and to fix the mind;
In her, my Wife, my Mistress, and my Friend,
I taste the joys of Sense and Reason join'd.

The Wife. - Milton.

SOLE partner, and sole part, of all these Joys,
Dearer thyself than all.

The Wife. Prior.

SO, if for any sins of ours,

Or our forefathers' higher powers, Severe, though just, afflict our Life With that prime ill, a talking Wife; Till Death shall bring the kind relief, We must be patient, or be deaf.

I

The Wife. — Byron.

THINK you, if Laura had been Petrarch's Wife,
He would have written Sonnets all his life?

The Wife. - Milton.

THY Likeness, thy fit help, thy other self,
Thy wish exactly to thy Heart's desire.

The Wife. -Irving.

HAVE often had occasion to remark the fortitude with which Women sustain the most overwhelming reverses of fortune. Those disasters which break down the spirit of a man and prostrate him in the dust, seem to call forth all the energies of the softer sex, and give such intrepidity and elevation to their character, that at times it approaches to sublimity. Nothing can be more touching than to behold a soft and tender female, who had been all weakness and dependence, and alive to every trivial roughness while treading the prosperous paths of life, suddenly rising in mental force to be the comforter and supporter of her husband under misfortune, and abiding with unshrinking firmness the bitterest blast of adversity.

The Will.- Shakspeare.

VALUE dwells not in particular will;
It holds its estimate and Dignity
As well wherein 'tis precious of itself,
As in the prizer: 'tis mad Idolatry,

To make the service greater than the God;
And the Will dotes, that is inclinable
To what infectiously itself affects,
Without some Image of th' affected merit.
I take to-day a wife, and my election
Is led on in the conduct of my Will;
My Will enkindled by mine eyes and ears,
Two traded pilots 'twixt the dangerous shores
Of Will and Judgment: how may I avoid
(Although my Will distaste which is elected)
The wife I chose? there can be no evasion

To blench from this, and to stand firm by honour.

We turn not back the silks upon the Merchant,

When we have spoil'd them; nor the remainder viands

We do not throw in unrespective place,

Because we now are full.

The TWill.

Seneca.

NO action will be considered as blameless, unless the Will was so, for by the Will the Act was dictated.

The Will. — Shakspeare.

He wants Wit, that wants resolved Will.

The Will.

Shakspeare.

OUR bodies are our gardens; to the which our Wills are Gardeners; so that if we will plant nettles, or sow lettuce; set hyssop, and weed up thyme; supply it with one gender of herbs, or distract it with many; either to have it sterile with Idleness, or manured with Industry; why, the power and corrigible authority of this lies in our Wills. If the balance of our lives had not one scale of Reason to poise another of Sensuality, the Blood and baseness of our Natures would conduct us to most preposterous conclusions.

The Will. - Fuller.

PRESCRIBE no positive laws to thy Will: for thou mayest be forced to-morrow to drink the same Water thou despisest today.

[blocks in formation]

TO commit the execution of a purpose to one who disapproves of the plan of it, is to employ but one-third of the man; his Heart and his Head are against you, you have commanded only his Hands.

The Will.

Shakspeare.

THE Will of man is by his Reason sway'd.

The UUill. — Dryden.

LET Fortune empty her whole quiver on me.
I have a Soul, that like an ample shield,
Can take in all, and verge enough for more;
Fate was not mine, nor am I Fate's:
Souls know no Conquerors.

Free Will.- Milton.

GOD made thee perfect, not immutable;
And good he made thee, but to persevere
He left it in thy pow'r; ORDAINED THY WILL
By nature FREE, not over-ruled by Fate
Inextricable, or strict Necessity.

Free Will. — Milton.

INGRATE, he had of me

All he could have; I made him just and right,
Sufficient to have stood, though free to fall.

Such I created all th' ethereal Powers

And Spirits, both them who stood and them who fail'd;
Freely they stood who stood, and fell who fell.

Free Will.

Milton.

OUR voluntary service He requires,

NOT OUR NECESSITATED; such with Him
Finds no acceptance, nor can find; for how
Can Hearts, not free, be tried whether they serve
Willing or no, who will but what they must
By Destiny, nor can no other choose?

Making a Will. Osborne.

WHAT you leave at your Death, let it be without controversy, else the Lawyers will be your heirs.

Windfalls. — Horace.

You do not value it greatly, because it came by Accident.
Winds and Waves. Shakspeare.

THIS Battle fares like to the Morning's war,
When dying Clouds contend with growing Light;
What time the Shepherd, blowing of his nails,
Can neither call it perfect Day nor Night.
Now sways it this way, like a mighty Sea
Forced by the tide to combat with the Wind:
Now sways it that way, like the self-same Sea
Forced to retire by fury of the Wind.

Sometime, the Flood prevails; and then, the Wind;

Now, one the better; then, another best;

Both tugging to be Victors, breast to breast,

Yet neither conqueror, nor conquer'd;

So is the equal poise of this fell War.

Wine. Milton.

ONE sip of this

Will bathe the drooping Spirits in delight
Beyond the bliss of dreams. Be wise, and taste.

Wine. Shakspeare.

GOOD Wine is a good familiar Creature, if it be well used.

Winter. Spenser.

LASTLY came Winter, cloathed all in frize,
Chattering his teeth for cold that did him chill;
Whilst on his hoary Beard his breath did freeze,
And the dull drops that from his purple bill.
As from a limbeck did adown distill;
In his right hand a tipped Staffe he held,
With which his feeble steps he stayed still,
For he was faint with Cold and weak with eld,
That scarce his loosed limbes he able was to weld.

« PreviousContinue »