RESTLESSNESS. cannot be happy in one way, be happy in another; and this facility of disposition wants but little aid from philosophy; for health and good-humour are almost the whole affair. Many run after felicity like an absent man hunting for his hat, while it is on his head or in his hand. Though sometimes, small evils, like invisible insects, inflict great pain, yet the chief secret of comfort lies in not suffering trifles to vex one, and in prudently cultivating an undergrowth of small pleasures, since very few great ones, alas! are let on long leases. Sharpe. From tenfold darkness; sudden as the spark From smitten steel, from nitrous grain the blaze. Above, around, beneath, amazement all ! RESURRECTION-The. At midnight, 'tis presumed this pomp will of perpetual youth from dust and ashes, tempt burst coy Truth in many light and airy forms from the bottom of her well, and discover one crumb of comfort, or one grain of good, in the commonest and least-regarded matter that passes through our crucible. Spirits of past times, creatures of imagination, and people of Man, starting from his couch, shall sleep no more ! The day is broke, which never more shall to-day, are alike the objects of our seeking; close! and, unlike the objects of search with most philosophers, we can insure their coming at our command. Dickens. RETIREMENT. No surly porter stands in guilty state, Sinks to the grave with unperceived decay, RETIREMENT-Men of. We are men of secluded habits, with something of a cloud upon our early fortunes; whose enthusiasm, nevertheless, has not cooled with age; whose spirit of romance is not yet quenched; who are content to ramble through the world in a pleasant dream, rather than ever waken again to its harsh realities. We are alchemists, who would extract the essence RETIREMENT-Necessity for. He must know little of the world, and still less of his own heart, who is not aware how difficult it is, amidst the corrupting examples with which it abounds, to maintain the spirit of devotion unimpaired, or to preserve, in their due force and delicacy, those vivid moral impressions, that quick perception of good, and instinctive abhorrence of evil, which form 1 RETIREMENT-Reprehension of. Exert your talents and distinguish yourself. and don't think of retiring from the world until the world will be sorry that you retire. I hate a fellow, whom pride, or cowardice, or laziness, drives into a corner, and who does nothing when he is there but sit and growl. Let him come out as I do, and bark. JohnsON. RETIREMENT-Sweets of. Ah, prince! hadst thou but known the joys which dwell With humble fortunes, thou wouldst curse thy royalty! ! Let me advise thee to retreat betimes Content thyself to be obscurely good!-- sway, The post of honour is a private station. RETROSPECTION. Addison. RETIREMENT AND STUDY-Use to be made of. It is a mean of obtaining knowledge which may rightly influence the conduct of the individual. Knowledge is still the object, but it is not the ultimate object: it is not the knowledge which lies, like the miser's hoard, unproductive, while other heaps are accumulating; it is rather like the wealth which is continually current, and is ever ministering to the necessities and comforts of mankind. From such a description of the end of study, it fol And all our frugal ancestors were bless'd There live retired; pray for the peace of and debates of mankind. Rome; call, Nor on the marble floor the stealthy fall RETROSPECTION. When I look upon the tombs of the great, every motion of envy dies; when I read the epitaphs of the beautiful, every inordinate desire forsakes me; when I meet with the grief of parents upon a tombstone, my heart melts with compassion; when I see the tombs of the parents themselves, I reflect how vain it is to grieve for those whom we must quickly follow; when I see kings lying beside those who deposed them, when I behold rival wits placed side by side, or the holy men who divided the world with their contests and disputes, I reflect with sorrow and astonishment on the frivolous competitions, factions, Addison. RETROSPECTION-Pleasures of. The child is father of the man ; And I could wish my days to be The thought of our past years in me doth breed Perpetual benediction: not indeed For that which is most worthy to be bless'dDelight and liberty the simple creed Of childhood, whether busy or at rest, With new-fledged hope still fluttering in his breast • Our noisy years seem moments in the being Of the eternal silence; truths that wake, To perish never: Which neither listlessness nor mad endeavour, REVENGE-Definition of. Wild justice. REVENGE-an Evil. A pure and simple revenge does in no way restore man towards the felicity which the injury did interrupt. For revenge is but doing a simple evil, and does not, in its formality, imply reparation; for the mere repeating of our own right is permitted to them that will do it by charitable instruments. All the ends of human felicity are secured without revenge, for without it we are permitted to restore ourselves; and therefore it is against natural reason to do an evil, that no way co-operates the proper and perfective end of human nature. And he is a miserable person, whose good is the evil of his neighbour; and he that revenges, in many cases, does worse than he that did the injury; in all cases as bad. Jeremy Taylor. Bacon. REVENGE. REVENGE-Folly of. Heat not a furnace for your foe so hot REVENGE-Implacability of. I'll have my bond; I will not hear thee speak: Shakspeare. REVENGE-Spirit of. O, that the slave had forty thousand lives; One is too poor, too weak for my revenge! Southey. I would have him nine years a killing. Shakspeare. REVENGE-Passion of. Revenge is an act of passion; vengeance, of justice: injuries are revenged, crimes are avenged. Johnson REVENGE-Self-punishment of. He who studieth revenge keepeth his own wounds green. Bacon. REVENGE-Best Sort of. The best sort of revenge is not to be like him who did the injury. Antoninas. REVENGE-to whom Sweet. With mind serene, and could not wish to see REVENGE-Vindication of. Lo, by thy side, where Rape and Murder stand: But they were not aware that there are things Which make revenge a virtue by reflection, And not an impulse of mere anger; though The laws sleep, justice wakes, and injured souls REVENGE. Of thousand ties, which to the common heart mock A clumsy relic of forgotten days; REVOLUTION-a Law of Nature. The dying day; stars rise and set, and rise; 1 breath St. Matthew. REWARD AND REVOLUTION-Dangers of. The whirlpool of the hour ingulfs mortals Have long been twined, without the bleeding RICHES-Avidity of. rent RICHES. REVOLUTIONISTS of. Who quarrel more than beggars? Who does more earnestly long for a change than he that is uneasy in his present circumstances? And who run to create confusions with so desperate a boldness as those who, having The Christian expects his reward, not as due to merit; but as connected, in a constitution of grace, with those acts which grace enables him to perform. The pilgrim who has been led to the gate of heaven will not knock there as worthy of being admitted; but the gate shall open to him, because he is brought thither. He who sows, even with tears, the precious seed of faith, hope, and love, shall "doubtless come again with joy and bring his sheaves with him," because it is in the very nature of that seed to yield, under the kindly influence secured to it, a joyful harvest. Cecil. RETRIBUTION Future. External happiness and misery are not in this life always the consequences of virtue and vice; this world is not the theatre of Divine retribution; but there is a life beyond the grave, where the good will receive their reward, Michaelis. Fond men, by passions wilfully betray'd, RICHES-Comparison of. Ye friends to truth, ye statesmen who survey Goldsmith. RICHES-Definition of. I take him to be the only rich man that lives upon what he has, owes nothing, and is contented; for there is no determinate sum of money, nor quantity of estate, that can denote a man rich, since no man is truly rich that has not so much as perfectly satiates his desire of having more; for the desire of more is want, Howe. and want is poverty. RICHES-Emptiness of. Can gold calm passion, or make reason thine? RICHES. them; and none worse when they come to them. Be not penny-wise; riches have wings, and sometimes they fly away of themselves, sometimes they must be set flying to bring in Bacon more. Riches, like insects, while conceal'd they lie, Wait but for wings, and in their season fly. To whom can riches give repute and trust, Content or pleasure, but the good and just? Judges and senates have been bought for gold; Esteem and love were never to be sold. Pope. We see how much a man has, and therefore we envy him; did we see how little he enjoys, we should rather pity him. Seed. A great estate is a great disadvantage to those who do not know how to use it, for nothing is more common than to see wealthy persons live scandalously and miserably; riches do them no service in order to virtue and happiness; therefore 'tis precept and principle, not an estate, that makes a man good for something. Antoninas. If thou art rich, then show the greatness of thy fortune, or, what is better, the greatness of thy soul, in the meekness of thy conversation; condescend to men of low estate, support the distressed, and patronise the neglected Be great; but let it be in considering riches as they are, as talents committed to an earthen vessel; that thou art but the receiver, and that to be obliged and to be vain, too, is but the old solecism of pride and beggary, which, though they often meet, yet ever make but an Sterne. absurd society. |