And yet with charity:-He was a man
Of an unbounded stomach, ever ranking
Himself with princes; one, that by suggestion
Tied all the kingdom: simony was fair play;
His own opinion was his law: I'the presence
He would say untruths; and be ever double,
Both in his words and meaning: He was never,
But where he meant to ruin, pitiful:

His promises were, as he then was, mighty;
But his performance, as he now is, nothing.
Of his own body he was ill, and gave
The clergy ill example.

Grif.

Noble madam,

And though he were unsatisfied in getting
Which was a sin), yet in bestowing, madam,
He was most princely ever witness for him,
Those twins of learning, that he raised in you,
Ipswich and Oxford! one of which fell with him,
Unwilling to outlive the good that did it;
The other, though unfinish'd, yet so famous,
So excellent in art, and still so rising,
That Christendom shall ever speak his virtue.
His overthrow heap'd happiness upon him;
For then, and not till then, he felt himself,
And found the blessedness of being little:
And, to add greater honours to his age
Than man could give him, he died fearing God.
Kath. After my death I wish no other herald,
No other speaker of my living actions,
To keep mine honour from corruption,
But such an honest chronicler as Griffith.

Whom I most hated living, thou hast made me,
With thy religious truth, and modesty,
Now in his ashes honour: Peace be with him!
Shakspeare.

BIOGRAPHY

to be consulted as a Mirror.

My advice is to consult the lives of other men, as he would a looking-glass, and from thence fetch examples for his own imitation. Terence.

BIOGRAPHY-to be Minutely Written.
A life that is worth writing at all, is worth
writing minutely.
Longfellow.
BIRDS-Beauty of.

Birds, the free tenants of earth, air, and ocean,
Their forms all symmetry, their motions grace;
In plumage delicate and beautiful,
Thick without burthen, close as fish's scales,
Or loose as full-blown poppies on the gale;
With wings that seem as they'd a soul within
them,

They bear their owners with such sweet
enchantment.
James Montgomery.

BIRDS-Dialects of.

I believe there is a dialect in the song of birds. The song, for example, of a thrush near London, or in any of the home counties, has little resemblance, except in tone and specific character, to that of the same bird in Devonshire, or near Exeter. The same notes, I suppose, will all of them be detected; but they are arranged, for the most part, in a different tune, and are not sung in the same way. They are given with different values, and the singing is pitched in a different key. One great distinction between the two cases is the number of guttural notes of which the song of a Devonshire thrush is often made up, but which near London are heard only at the end of a bar, or even much less frequently; while those chief notes which mainly constitute the song of the other bird, and make it so impressive, are rarely pronounced by the Devonshire thrush. Jesse.

BIRDS-Habits of.

Meanwhile the tepid caves, and fens, and shores,

Their brood as numerous hatch, from the egg

that soon

Bursting with kindly rapture forth disclosed Their callow young; but feather'd soon and fledge

They summ'd their pens; and, soaring the air sublime,

With clang despised the ground, under a cloud

BLACKSMITH-The Village.

The sagest knot (in a village) is generally at the blacksmith's, to whom the passing of the coach is an event fruitful of much speculation. The smith, with his horse's heel in his lap, pauses as the vehicle whirls by; the Cyclops round the anvil suspend their ringing hammers, and suffer the iron to grow cool; and the sooty spectre in brown paper cap, labouring at the bellows, leans on the handle for a moment, and permits the asthmatic engine to heave a long-drawn sigh, while he glares through the husky smoke and sulphureous gleams of the smithy.

BLAME-Reception of.

Washington Irving.

A man takes contradiction and advice much more easily than people think, only he will not bear it when violently given, even though it be well-founded. Hearts are flowers; they remain open to the softly-falling dew, but shut up in the violent downpour of rain. Richter. BLESSEDNESS-Antiquity of. Blessedness is a whole eternity, older than damnation. Ibid.

BLESSEDNESS-True.

True blessedness consisteth in a good life and a happy death. Solon.

BLESSING on the Devout.

He will bless them that fear the Lord, both small and great. David.

BLESSING of the Lord.

The blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich, and He addeth no sorrow with it. Solomon.

BLESSING-of the Spanish Peasantry.

As we journeyed on, a trifling incident occurred which very favourably disposed us towards the peasantry of Spain. A large party of field-labourers, attired in scarlet jackets and sashes, were returning to their homes after the toils of the day, and were singing in unison a lively song, in token of the happiness within their hearts. The sun was now sinking behind the hills, and the stars of evening were beginning to gem the vast canopy of heaven. A soft and rich twilight gave a sweet mellowness to the features of the surrounding landscape, infusing thoughts of romance and poetry into our minds, and making everything appear to us like the scenery of a picture or a dream. As we reached the body of peasantry, they immediately separated to each side of the road, and, as we

passed between them, they saluted us with the beautiful expression, "Vaga V. con Dios" (Go you with God!) A thrill of pleasure ran through my veins as I heard this national benediction, pronounced with such deep solemnity, and issuing like a full and majestic chorus from the lips of these humble tillers of the soil. Warren. BLESSINGS-transformed into Curses. Even the best things, ill used, become evils, and contrarily, the worst things, used well, good tongue used to deceit; prove good. a good wit, used to defend error; a strong arm to murder; authority to oppress; a good profession to dissemble; are all evil. Even God's own word is the sword of the Spirit, which, if it kill not our vices, kills our souls. Contrariwise (as poisons are used to wholesome medicine), afflictions and sins, by a good use, prove so gainful as nothing more. Words are as they are taken, and things are as they are used. There are even cursed blessings.

Bishop Hall. BLESSINGS-compared to Dew. The dews of heaven fall thick in blessings on her. Shakspeare.

BLESSINGS-of the Faithful.

A faithful man shall abound with blessings.
Solomon.

BLESSINGS-Invocations for.
Angels preserve my dearest father's life;
Bless it with long uninterrupted days!
Oh! may he live till time itself decay-
Till good men wish him dead, or I offend him!
Otway.

Hear me, bounteous Heaven! Pour down your blessings on this beauteous head,

Where everlasting sweets are always springing,
With a continual giving hand: let peace,
Honour, and safety always hover round her;
Feed her with plenty; let her eyes ne'er see
A sight of sorrow, nor her heart know mourning;
Crown all her days with joy, her nights with
rest,

Harmless as her own thoughts; and prop her virtue. Ibid.

Oh! gracious Heaven, Thou hast endless blessings still in store For virtue and for filial piety: Let grief, disgrace, and want, be far away; But multiply Thy mercies on his head: Let honour, greatness, goodness, still be with him, Rowe.

And peace in all his ways.

The God of Heaven both now and ever bless her. Shakspeare.

O ye immortal powers, that guard the just,
Watch round his couch, and soften his repose,
Banish his sorrows, and becalm his soul
With easy dreams! remember all his virtues,
And show mankind that goodness is your care.
Addison.

BLESSINGS-Requisites for.

Nothing raises the price of a blessing like its removal; whereas it was its continuance which should have taught us its value. There are three requisitions to the proper enjoyment of earthly blessings :-a thankful reflection on the goodness of the Giver; a deep sense of our unworthiness; a recollection of the uncertainty of long possessing them. The first would make us grateful; the second humble;

and the third moderate.

BLESSINGS-Slighted.

Hannah More.

BLINDNESS.

They who can calmly linger at the last,
Survey the future, and recal the past;
And with that hope which triumphs over pain;
Feel well assured they have not lived in vain ;
Then wait in peace their hour of final rest :-
These are the only blest!
Prince.

BLIND-Touch of the.

No floweret blooms Throughout the range of these rough hills, Nor in the woods, that could from him conceal Its birthplace. None whose figure did not live Upon his touch. Wordsworth.

BLINDNESS-Compensation for.

This fellow must have a rare understanding;
For nature recompenseth the defects
Of one part with redundance in another:
Blind men have excellent memories, and the
tongue,

Thus indisposed, there's treasure in the intellect. Shirley.

BLINDNESS-Desolation of.

All dark and comfortless! Where are those various objects that but now Employ'd my busy eyes? Where are those eyes?

Dead are their piercing rays, that lately shot
O'er flow'ry vales to distant sunny hills,
And drew, with joy, the vast horizon in.
These groping hands are now my only guides,
And feeling, all my sight.

Shut from the living while amongst the living;
Dark as the grave amidst the bustling world;
At once from business and from pleasure
barr'd;

No more to view the beauty of the spring,
Nor see the face of kindred, or of friend!
Shakspeare.
BLINDNESS-The Poet's Lament over
his.

Seasons return, but not to me returns
Day, or the sweet approach of ev'n or morn,
Or sight of vernal bloom, or summer's rose,
Or flocks, or herds, or human face divine;
But cloud instead, and ever-during dark

are peace:

They who have lived as harmless as the dove,
Teachers of truth and ministers of love;
Love for all moral power-all mental grace-
Love for the humblest of the human race-
Love for that tranquil joy that virtue brings-
Love for the Giver of all goodly things;
True followers of that soul-exalting plan
Which Christ laid down to bless and govern

man:

Cut off, and for the book of knowledge fair
Presented with a universal blank

Of nature's works, to me expunged and rased,
And wisdom at one entrance quite shut out.
So much the rather thou, celestial light,
Shine inward, and the mind through all her
powers

Irradiate; there plant eyes, all mist from
thence
Purge and disperse.

Milton.

O loss of sight, of thee I most complain!
Blind among enemies, O worse than chains,
Dungeon, or beggary, or decrepit age !
Light, the prime work of God, to me is extinct,
And all her various objects of delight
Annull'd, which might in part my grief have
eased,

Inferior to the vilest now become

Of man or worm; the vilest here excel me:
They creep, yet see; I, dark in light, exposed
To daily fraud, contempt, abuse, and wrong,
Within doors, or without, still as a fool,
In power of others, never in my own;
Scarce half I seem to live, dead more than
half.

O dark, dark, dark, amidst the blaze of noon,
Irrecoverably dark, total eclipse

Without all hope of day!

O first-created beam, and Thou great Word,

Let there be light, and light was over all;"

Why am I thus bereaved Thy prime decree?
The sun to me is dark,

And silent as the moon
When she deserts the night,

Hid in her vacant interlunar cave.
Since light so necessary is to life,
And almost life itself, if it be true
That light is in the soul,

She all in every part; why was this sight
To such a tender ball as the eye confined,
So obvious and so easy to be quench'd,
And not, as feeling, through all parts diffused,
That she might look at will through every

pore !

Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart. St. Paul.

BLISS-bestowed by Heaven.

See the sole bliss Heaven could on all bestow! Which, who but feels, can taste, but thinks can know !

Yet poor with fortune, and with learning blind, The bad must miss, the good untaught will find;

Slave to no sect, who takes no private road, But looks through nature up to nature's God;

Joins heaven and earth, and mortal and divine;
Sees, that no being any bliss can know,
But touches some above, and some below;
Learns, from this union of the rising whole,
The first, last purpose of the human soul;
And knows where faith, laws, morals, all began,
All end in love of God, and love of man. Pope.
BLOCKHEAD-most Busy.

A bee is not a busier animal than a blockhead.
Ibid.

BLOCKHEAD-Want of Politeness in a. A blockhead cannot come in, nor go away, nor sit, nor rise, nor stand, like a man of La Bruyère.

sense.

BLOSSOMS-Evanescence of.

Fair pledges of a fruitful tree,
Why do ye fall so fast?
Your date is not so past

But you may stay yet here awhile,
To blush and gently smile,
And go at last.

What, were ye born to be

An hour or half's delight,
And so to bid good night?
"Twas pity nature brought ye forth,
Merely to show your worth,
And lose you quite !

But you are lovely leaves, where we
May read how soon things have
And after they have shown their pride,
Their end, though ne'er so brave,
Like you, awhile, they glide

design,

Dryden.