Familiar Quotations, - [best romance ebooks .txt] 📗
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The little and the great,
Feels not the wants that pinch the poor,
Nor plagues that haunt the rich man's door.
Translation of Horace. Book ii. Ode x.
But strive still to be a man before your mother.[424:2]
Connoisseur. Motto of No. iii.
[414:1] See Pope, page 314.
[414:2] See Prior, page 287.
[415:1] See Pope, page 331.
[415:2] See Pope, page 336.
[415:3] See Butler, page 213.
The story of a lamp which was supposed to have burned about fifteen hundred years in the sepulchre of Tullia, the daughter of Cicero, is told by Pancirollus and others.
[416:1] La Bruyère.
[417:1] Buckingham: The Rehearsal (the two Kings of Brentford).
[417:2] See Bacon, page 167.
[418:1] Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging-place of wayfaring men!—Jeremiah ix. 2.
Oh that the desert were my dwelling-place!—Byron: Childe Harold, canto iv. stanza 177.
[418:2] Servi peregrini, ut primum Galliæ fines penetraverint eodem momento liberi sunt (Foreign slaves, as soon as they come within the limits of Gaul, that moment they are free).—Bodinus: Liber i. c. 5.
Lord Campbell ("Lives of the Chief Justices," vol. ii. p. 418) says that "Lord Mansfield first established the grand doctrine that the air of England is too pure to be breathed by a slave." The words attributed to Lord Mansfield, however, are not found in his judgment. They are in Hargrave's argument, May 14, 1772, where he speaks of England as "a soil whose air is deemed too pure for slaves to breathe in."—Lofft: Reports, p. 2.
[418:3] See Churchill, page 413.
[419:1] See Dryden, page 277.
[419:2] No pleasure endures unseasoned by variety—Pub. Syrus: Maxim 406.
[419:3] He has spent all his life in letting down buckets into empty wells; and he is frittering away his age in trying to draw them up again.—Lady Holland's Memoir of Sydney Smith, vol. i. p. 259.
[420:1] See Bishop Berkeley, page 312.
[420:2] See Thomson, page 356.
[421:1] It was Cowper who gave this now common name to the mignonette.
[421:2]
No hammers fell, no ponderous axes rung;
Like some tall palm the mystic fabric sprung.
Heber: Palestine.
So that there was neither hammer nor axe, nor any tool of iron heard in the house while it was in building.—1 Kings vi. 7.
[422:1] Write the vision, and make it plain, upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.—Habakkuk ii. 2.
He that runs may read.—Tennyson: The Flower.
[423:1] See Young, page 312.
[423:2] Var. How he esteems your merit.
[424:1] Keep the golden mean.—Publius Syrus: Maxim 1072.
[424:2] See Beaumont and Fletcher, page 199.
ERASMUS DARWIN. 1731-1802.Soon shall thy arm, unconquer'd steam! afar
Drag the slow barge, or drive the rapid car;
Or on wide-waving wings expanded bear
The flying chariot through the field of air.
The Botanic Garden. Part i. Canto i. Line 289.
No radiant pearl which crested Fortune wears,
No gem that twinkling hangs from Beauty's ears,
Not the bright stars which Night's blue arch adorn,
Nor rising suns that gild the vernal morn,
Shine with such lustre as the tear that flows
Down Virtue's manly cheek for others' woes.
The Botanic Garden. Part ii. Canto iii. Line 459.
[425]
BEILBY PORTEUS. 1731-1808.In sober state,
Through the sequestered vale of rural life,
The venerable patriarch guileless held
The tenor of his way.[425:1]
Death. Line 108.
One murder made a villain,
Millions a hero. Princes were privileged
To kill, and numbers sanctified the crime.[425:2]
Death. Line 154.
War its thousands slays, Peace its ten thousands.
Death. Line 178.
Teach him how to live,
And, oh still harder lesson! how to die.[425:3]
Death. Line 316.
[425:1] See Gray, page 385.
[425:2] See Young, page 311.
[425:3] See Tickell, page 313.
GEORGE WASHINGTON. 1732-1799.Labour to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire,—conscience.
Rule from the Copy-book of Washington when a schoolboy.
To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace.[425:4]
Speech to both Houses of Congress, Jan. 8, 1790.
'T is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world.
His Farewell Address.
[425:4] Qui desiderat pacem præparet bellum (Who would desire peace should be prepared for war).—Vegetius: Rei Militari 3, Prolog.
In pace, ut sapiens, aptarit idonea bello (In peace, as a wise man, he should make suitable preparation for war).—Horace: Book ii. satire ii.
[426]
LORD THURLOW. 1732-1806.The accident of an accident.
Speech in Reply to the Duke of Grafton. Butler's Reminiscences, vol. i. p. 142.
When I forget my sovereign, may my God forget me.[426:1]
27 Parliamentary History, 680; Annual Register, 1789.
[426:1] Whereupon Wilkes is reported to have said, somewhat coarsely, but not unhappily it must be allowed, "Forget you! He'll see you d——d first." Burke also exclaimed, "The best thing that could happen to you!"—Brougham: Statesman of the Time of George III. (Thurlow.)
JOHN DICKINSON. 1732-1808.Then join in hand, brave Americans all!
By uniting we stand, by dividing we fall.
The Liberty Song (1768).
Our cause is just, our union is perfect.
Declaration on taking up Arms in 1775.[426:2]
[426:2] From the original manuscript draft in Dickinson's handwriting, which has given rise to the belief that he, not Jefferson (as formerly claimed), is the real author of this sentence.
W. J. MICKLE. 1734-1788.The dews of summer nights did fall,
The moon, sweet regent of the sky,[426:3]
Silvered the walls of Cumnor Hall
And many an oak that grew thereby.
Cumnor Hall.
For there 's nae luck about the house,
There 's nae luck at a';
[427]There 's little pleasure in the house
When our gudeman 's awa'.
The Mariner's Wife.[427:1]
His very foot has music in 't
As he comes up the stairs.
The Mariner's Wife.
[426:3] Jove, thou regent of the skies.—Pope: The Odyssey, book ii. line 42.
Now Cynthia, named fair regent of the night.—Gay: Trivia, book iii.
And hail their queen, fair regent of the night.—Darwin: The Botanic Garden, part i. canto ii. line 90.
[427:1] "The Mariner's Wife" is now given "by common consent," says Sarah Tytler, to Jean Adam (1710-1765).
JOHN LANGHORNE. 1735-1779.Cold on Canadian hills or Minden's plain,
Perhaps that parent mourned her soldier slain;
Bent o'er her babe, her eye dissolved in dew,
The big drops mingling with the milk he drew
Gave the sad presage of his future years,—
The child of misery, baptized in tears.[427:2]
The Country Justice. Part i.
[427:2] This allusion to the dead soldier and his widow on the field of battle was made the subject of a print by Bunbury, under which were engraved the pathetic lines of Langhorne. Sir Walter Scott has mentioned that the only time he saw Burns this picture was in the room. Burns shed tears over it; and Scott, then a lad of fifteen, was the only person present who could tell him where the lines were to be found.—Lockhart: Life of Scott, vol. i. chap. iv.
ISAAC BICKERSTAFF. 1735-1787.Hope! thou nurse of young desire.
Love in a Village. Act i. Sc. 1.
There was a jolly miller once,
Lived on the river Dee;
He worked and sung from morn till night:
No lark more blithe than he.
Love in a Village. Act i. Sc. 2.
And this the burden of his song
Forever used to be,—
I care for nobody, no, not I,
If no one cares for me.[427:3]
Love in a Village. Act i. Sc. 2.
[428]
Young fellows will be young fellows.
Love in a Village. Act ii. Sc. 2.
Ay, do despise me! I 'm the prouder for it; I like to be despised.
The Hypocrite. Act v. Sc. 1.
[427:3]
If naebody care for me,
I 'll care for naebody.
Burns: I hae a Wife o' my Ain.
JAMES BEATTIE. 1735-1803.Ah, who can tell how hard it is to climb
The steep where Fame's proud temple shines afar?
The Minstrel. Book i. Stanza 1.
Zealous, yet modest; innocent, though free;
Patient of toil, serene amidst alarms;
Inflexible in faith, invincible in arms.
The Minstrel. Book i. Stanza 11.
Old age comes on apace to ravage all the clime.
The Minstrel. Book i. Stanza 25.
Mine be the breezy hill that skirts the down,
Where a green grassy turf is all I crave,
With here and there a violet bestrewn,
Fast by a brook or fountain's murmuring wave;
And many an evening sun shine sweetly on my grave!
The Minstrel. Book ii. Stanza 17.
At the close of the day when the hamlet is still,
And mortals the sweets of forgetfulness prove,
When naught but the torrent is heard on the hill,
And naught but the nightingale's song in the grove.
The Hermit.
He thought as a sage, though he felt as a man.
The Hermit.
But when shall spring visit the mouldering urn?
Oh when shall it dawn on the night of the grave?
The Hermit.
By the glare of false science betray'd,
That leads to bewilder, and dazzles to blind.
The Hermit.
And beauty immortal awakes from the tomb.
The Hermit.
[429]
JOHN ADAMS. 1735-1826.Yesterday the greatest question was decided which ever was debated in America; and a greater perhaps never was, nor will be, decided among men. A resolution was passed without one dissenting colony, that those United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States.
Letter to Mrs. Adams, July 3, 1776.
The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epocha in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and
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