362

LAWYERS-LEARNING.

8. There was on both sides much to say:
He'd hear the cause another day;

And so he did - and then a third
He heard it then, he kept his word,
But with rejoinders or replies,

Long bills, and answers stuff'd with lies,
For sixteen years the cause was spun,
And then stood where it first begun.

9. For forms of government let fools contest; Whatever's best administer'd is best.

10. Each state must have its policies:

DEAN SWIFT.

Kingdoms have edicts, cities have their charters;
Even the wild outlaw in his forest walk,
Keeps yet some touch of civil discipline.

11. No thief e'er felt the halter draw, With good opinion of the law.

POPE.

TRUMBULL'S Mc Fingal.

12. Are not our laws alike for high and low?
Or shall we bind the poor man in his fetters,
And let the rich go revel in his crimes?

CHARLES WEST THOMSON.

13. Unjust decrees they make, and call them just, And we submit to them - because we must.

J. T. WATSON.

LAWYERS.- (See Law.)

LEARNING.-(See EDUCATION.)

LETTERS.

1. Here are a few of the unpleasant'st words That ever blotted paper.

2. Full oft have letters caus'd the writers

To curse the day they were inditers.

SHAKSPEARE.

BUTLER'S Hudibras.

3. Heaven first taught letters for some wretch's aid,
Some banish'd lover, or some captive maid;

They live, they speak, they breathe what love inspires,
Warm from the soul, and faithful to its fires;
The virgin's wish without her fears impart,
Excuse the blush, and pour out all the heart-
Speed the soft intercourse from soul to soul,
And waft a sigh from Indus to the pole.

POPE'S Eloisa.

4. The earth has nothing like a she epistle,
And hardly heaven - because it never ends.

I love the mystery of a female missal,

Which, like a creed, ne'er says all it intends.

Take care what you reply to such a letter.

BYRON'S Don Juan.

5. Do you like letter-reading? If you do,

I have some twenty dozen very pretty ones;
Gay, sober, solemn, rapturous, very true,

And very lying-stupid ones and witty ones
On gilt-edg'd paper, blue perhaps, or pink,
And frequently in fancy-colour'd ink.

6. When absent far from those we love,
Is there a charm the heart can fetter?
When years roll on, and still we rove,
Is there no cure?

Oh! yes

a letter.

EPES SARGENT.

364

7.

LIBERTY-LIFE.

When he had

A letter from his lady dear, he bless'd
The paper that her hand had travell'd o'er,
And her eyes look'd on; and would think he saw
Gleams of that light she lavish'd from her eyes,
Wandering amid the words of love there trac❜d,
Like glow-worms amid buds of flowers.

BAILEY'S Festus.

8. Well, Mary, I've seen your nice billet,
It came unto me while at dinner;
My appetite was good — that did kill it,
If it did not, then Satan's no sinner!
I read it, perus'd it, and scann'd it-
I ponder'd, reflected, and thought
What could be the notion that plann'd it?
The conclusion arriv'd at- was nought.

LIBERTY. (See FREEDOM.)

J. T. WATSON.

LIFE.

1. O, why do wretched men so much desire
To draw their days unto the utmost date,
And do not rather wish them soon expire,
Knowing the misery of their estate,

And thousand perils which them still await?

SPENSER'S Fairy Queen.

2. Life's but a walking shadow; a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more; it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

SHAKSPEARE.

3. Life is as tedious as a twice-told tale, Vexing the dull ear of a drowsy man.

4. Oh, how this spring of life resembleth The uncertain glory of an April day,

5.

Which now shows all the beauty of the sun,
And, by and by, a cloud takes all away!

We are such stuff

As dreams are made of, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.

SHAKSPEARE.

SHAKSPEARE.

SHAKSPEARE.

6. Since every man who lives is born to die, And none can boast sincere felicity,

With equal mind what happens let us bear,
Nor joy, nor grieve for things beyond our care;
Like pilgrims, to th' appointed place we tend,
The world's an inn, and death the journey's end.

DRYDEN.

7. Who breathes, must suffer; and who thinks, must mourn; And he alone is blest, who ne'er was born.

8. There's not a day, but, to the man of thought, Betrays some secret, that throws new reproach On life, and makes him sick of seeing more.

PRIOR.

YOUNG'S Night Thoughts.

9. Oh, thoughtless mortals! ever blind to fate, Too soon dejected, and too soon elate!

10. Love, Hope, and Joy, fair Pleasure's smiling train,
Hate, Fear, and Grief, the family of Pain;
These, mix'd with art, and to due bounds confin'd,
Make and maintain the balance of the mind:
The lights and shades, whose well-accorded strife
Gives all the strength and colour of our life.

POPE.

POPE'S Essay on Man.

366

11.

LIFE.

Life can little more supply,

Than just to look about us and to die.

POPE'S Essay on Man.

12. For who, to dumb forgetfulness a prey,

This pleasing, anxious spirit e'er resign'd-
Left the warm precincts of the genial day,
Nor cast one longing, lingering look behind?

13. Catch then, Oh catch the transient hour, Improve each moment as it flies; Life's a short summer man a flower

He dies, alas! how soon he dies!

14. Our youthful summer oft we see
Dance by on wings of game and glee,
While the dark storm reserves its rage,
Against the winter of our age.

GRAY'S Elegy.

DR. JOHNSON.

SCOTT's Marmion.

15. Between two worlds life hovers like a star,
"Twixt night and morn, upon the horizon's verge.

BYRON'S Don Juan.

16. Well, well — the world must turn upon its axis,

And all mankind turn with it, heads or tails;
And live and die, make love and pay our taxes,

And, as the veering wind shifts, shift our sails.

BYRON'S Don Juan.

17. Who with the weight of years would wish to bend,
When youth itself survives young love and joy?
Alas! when mingling souls forget to blend,
Death has but little left him to destroy !

18.

To give birth to those

BYRON'S Childe Harold.

Who can but suffer many years, and die,
Methinks is merely propagating death
And multiplying murder.

BYRON'S Cain.