Familiar Quotations, - [best romance ebooks .txt] 📗
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[534]
There is nothing so powerful as truth,—and often nothing so strange.
Argument on the Murder of Captain White. Vol. vi. p. 68.
Fearful concatenation of circumstances.[534:1]
Argument on the Murder of Captain White. Vol. vi. p. 88.
A sense of duty pursues us ever. It is omnipresent, like the Deity. If we take to ourselves the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, duty performed or duty violated is still with us, for our happiness or our misery. If we say the darkness shall cover us, in the darkness as in the light our obligations are yet with us.
Argument on the Murder of Captain White. Vol. vi. p. 105.
I shall defer my visit to Faneuil Hall, the cradle of American liberty, until its doors shall fly open on golden hinges to lovers of Union as well as lovers of liberty.[534:2]
Letter, April, 1851.
[529:3] This oration will be read five hundred years hence with as much rapture as it was heard. It ought to be read at the end of every century, and indeed at the end of every year, forever and ever.—John Adams: Letter to Webster, Dec. 23, 1821.
[530:1] Mr. Adams, describing a conversation with Jonathan Sewall in 1774, says: "I answered that the die was now cast; I had passed the Rubicon. Swim or sink, live or die, survive or perish with my country was my unalterable determination."—John Adams: Works, vol. iv. p. 8.
Live or die, sink or swim.—Peele: Edward I. (1584?).
[531:1] Mr. Webster says of Mr. Adams: "On the day of his death, hearing the noise of bells and cannon, he asked the occasion. On being reminded that it was 'Independent Day,' he replied, 'Independence forever.'"—Works, vol. i. p. 150. Bancroft: History of the United States, vol. vii. p. 65.
[531:2]
We shall be strong to run the race,
And climb the upper sky.
Watts: Spiritual Hymns, xxiv.
[531:3] He it was that first gave to the law the air of a science. He found it a skeleton, and clothed it with life, colour, and complexion; he embraced the cold statue, and by his touch it grew into youth, health, and beauty.—Barry Yelverton (Lord Avonmore): On Blackstone.
[531:4] See Scott, page 493.
[532:1] A national debt, if it is not excessive, will be to us a national blessing.—Alexander Hamilton.
[532:2] When the State of Pennsylvania held its convention to consider the Constitution of the United States, Judge Wilson said of the introductory clause, "We, the people, do ordain and establish," etc.: "It is not an unmeaning flourish. The expressions declare in a practical manner the principle of this Constitution. It is ordained and established by the people themselves." This was regarded as an authoritative exposition.—The Nation.
That government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.—Abraham Lincoln: Speech at Gettysburg, Nov. 19, 1863.
[533:1] See Scott, page 495.
[533:2]
The martial airs of England
Encircle still the earth.
Amelia B. Richards: The Martial Airs of England.
[533:3] See Patrick Henry, page 429.
[534:1] See Scott, page 494.
[534:2] Mr. Webster's reply to the invitation of his friends, who had been refused the use of Faneuil Hall by the Mayor and Aldermen of Boston.
JANE TAYLOR. 1783-1824.Though man a thinking being is defined,
Few use the grand prerogative of mind.
How few think justly of the thinking few!
How many never think, who think they do!
Essays in Rhyme. (On Morals and Manners. Prejudice.) Essay i. Stanza 45.
Far from mortal cares retreating,
Sordid hopes and vain desires,
Here, our willing footsteps meeting,
Every heart to heaven aspires.
Hymn.
I thank the goodness and the grace
Which on my birth have smiled,
And made me, in these Christian days,
A happy Christian child.
A Child's Hymn of Praise.
[535]
Oh that it were my chief delight
To do the things I ought!
Then let me try with all my might
To mind what I am taught.
For a Very Little Child.[535:1]
Who ran to help me when I fell,
And would some pretty story tell,
Or kiss the place to make it well?
My mother.
My Mother.
[535:1] Written by Ann Taylor.
REGINALD HEBER. 1783-1826.Failed the bright promise of your early day.
Palestine.
No hammers fell, no ponderous axes rung;
Like some tall palm the mystic fabric sprung.[535:2]
Majestic silence!
Palestine.
Brightest and best of the sons of the morning,
Dawn on our darkness, and lend us thine aid.
Epiphany.
By cool Siloam's shady rill
How sweet the lily grows!
First Sunday after Epiphany. No. ii.
When Spring unlocks the flowers to paint the laughing soil.
Seventh Sunday after Trinity.
Death rides on every passing breeze,
He lurks in every flower.
At a Funeral. No. i.
Thou art gone to the grave; but we will not deplore thee,
Though sorrows and darkness encompass the tomb.
At a Funeral. No. ii.
Thus heavenly hope is all serene,
But earthly hope, how bright soe'er,
Still fluctuates o'er this changing scene,
As false and fleeting as 't is fair.
On Heavenly Hope and Earthly Hope.
[536]
From Greenland's icy mountains,
From India's coral strand,
Where Afric's sunny fountains
Roll down their golden sand.
Missionary Hymn.
Though every prospect pleases,
And only man is vile.
Missionary Hymn.
I see them on their winding way,
About their ranks the moonbeams play.
Lines written to a March.
[535:2] Altered in later editions to—
No workman's steel, no ponderous axes rung,
Like some tall palm the noiseless fabric sprung.
WASHINGTON IRVING. 1783-1859.Free-livers on a small scale, who are prodigal within the compass of a guinea.
The Stout Gentleman.
The almighty dollar,[536:1] that great object of universal devotion throughout our land, seems to have no genuine devotees in these peculiar villages.
The Creole Village.
[536:1] See Jonson, page 178.
LEIGH HUNT. 1784-1859.Abou Ben Adhem (may his tribe increase!)
Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace.
Abou Ben Adhem.
Write me as one who loves his fellow-men.
Abou Ben Adhem.
And lo! Ben Adhem's name led all the rest.
Abou Ben Adhem.
Oh for a seat in some poetic nook,
Just hid with trees and sparkling with a brook!
Politics and Poetics.
With spots of sunny openings, and with nooks
To lie and read in, sloping into brooks.
The Story of Rimini.
[537]
SAMUEL WOODWORTH. 1785-1842.How dear to this heart are the scenes of my childhood,
When fond recollection presents them to view.
The Old Oaken Bucket.
Then soon with the emblem of truth overflowing,
And dripping with coolness, it rose from the well.
The Old Oaken Bucket.
The old oaken bucket, the iron-bound bucket,
The moss-covered bucket, which hung in the well.
The Old Oaken Bucket.
ALLAN CUNNINGHAM. 1785-1842.A wet sheet and a flowing sea,
A wind that follows fast,
And fills the white and rustling sail,
And bends the gallant mast.
And bends the gallant mast, my boys,
While like the eagle free
Away the good ship flies, and leaves
Old England on the lee.
A Wet Sheet and a Flowing Sea.
While the hollow oak our palace is,
Our heritage the sea.
A Wet Sheet and a Flowing Sea.
When looks were fond and words were few.
Poet's Bridal-day Song.
SIR W. F. P. NAPIER. 1785-1860.Napoleon's troops fought in bright fields, where every helmet caught some gleams of glory; but the British soldier conquered under the cool shade of aristocracy. No honours awaited his daring, no despatch gave his name to the applauses of his countrymen; his life of danger and hardship was uncheered by hope, his death unnoticed.
Peninsular War (1810). Vol. ii. Book xi. Chap. iii.
[538]
JOHN PIERPONT. 1785-1866.A weapon that comes down as still
As snowflakes fall upon the sod;
But executes a freeman's will,
As lightning does the will of God;
And from its force nor doors nor locks
Can shield you,—'t is the ballot-box.
A Word from a Petitioner.
From every place below the skies
The grateful song, the fervent prayer,—
The incense of the heart,[538:1]—may rise
To heaven, and find acceptance there.
Every Place a Temple.
[538:1] See Cotton, page 362.
BRYAN W. PROCTER. 1787-1874.The sea! the sea! the open sea!
The blue, the fresh, the ever free!
The Sea.
I 'm on the sea! I 'm on the sea!
I am where I would ever be,
With the blue above and the blue below,
And silence wheresoe'er I go.
The Sea.
I never was on the dull, tame shore,
But I loved the great sea more and more.
The Sea.
Touch us gently, Time![538:2]
Let us glide adown thy stream
Gently,—as we sometimes glide
Through a quiet dream.
Touch us gently, Time.
[538:2] See Crabbe, page 445.
[539]
LORD BYRON 1788-1824.Farewell! if ever fondest prayer
For other's weal avail'd on high,
Mine will not all be lost in air,
But waft thy name beyond the sky.
Farewell! if ever fondest Prayer.
I only know we loved in vain;
I only feel—farewell! farewell!
Farewell! if ever fondest Prayer.
When we two parted
In silence and tears,
Half broken-hearted,
To sever for years.
When we Two parted.
Fools are my theme, let satire be my song.
English Bards and Scotch Reviewers. Line 6.
'T is pleasant, sure, to see one's name in print;
A book 's a book, although there 's nothing in 't.
English Bards and Scotch Reviewers. Line 51.
With just enough of learning to misquote.
English Bards and Scotch Reviewers. Line 66.
As soon
Seek roses in December, ice in June;
Hope constancy in wind, or corn in chaff;
Believe a woman or an epitaph,
Or any other thing that 's false, before
You trust in critics.
English Bards and Scotch Reviewers. Line 75.
Perverts the Prophets and purloins the Psalms.
English Bards and Scotch Reviewers. Line 326.
Oh, Amos Cottle! Phœbus! what a name!
English Bards and Scotch Reviewers. Line 399.
So the struck eagle, stretch'd upon the plain,
No more through rolling clouds to soar again,
View'd his own feather on the fatal dart,
And wing'd the shaft that quiver'd in his heart.[539:1]
English Bards and Scotch Reviewers. Line 826.
[540]
Yet truth will sometimes lend her noblest fires,
And decorate the verse herself inspires:
This fact, in virtue's name, let Crabbe attest,—
Though Nature's sternest painter, yet the best.
English Bards and Scotch Reviewers. Line 839.
Maid of
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