434

PRUDENCE-PUNISHMENT.

One part, one little part, we dimly scan
Through the dark medium of life's

dream;

fevering

Yet dare arraign the whole stupendous plan,
I but that little part incongruous seem,
Nor is that part perhaps what mortals deem;
Oft from apparent ill our blessings rise.
O then renounce that impious self-esteem,
That aims to trace the secrets of the skies:
For thou art but of dust; be humble and be wise.
Beattie's Minstrel.
Yes, thou art ever present, Power Supreme!
Not circumscrib'd by time, nor fixt to space,
Confin'd to altars, nor to temples bound.
In wealth, in want, in freedom, or in chains,
In dungeons, or on thrones, the faithful find Thee!
Hannah More's Belshazzar.

Just as a mother, with sweet pious face,
Yearns tow'rds her children from her seat,
Gives one a kiss, another an embrace,
Takes this upon her knee, that on her feet;
And while from actions, looks, complaints, pre-

Prudence, thou virtue of the mind, by which
We do consult of all that's good or evil,
Conducting to felicity; direct

My thoughts and actions by the rules of reason.
Teach me contempt of all inferior vanities;
Pride in a marble portal gilded o'er,
Assyrian carpets, chairs of ivory,
The luxuries of a stupendous house,
Garments perfum'd, gems valued not for use,
But needless ornament: a sumptuous table,
A vulgar eye
And all the baits of sense.
Secs not the dangers which beneath them lie.
Nabb's Microcosmus.

Look forward what's to come, and back what's

PRUDENCE.

Rightly to be great,

Is not to stir without great argument;
But greatly to find quarrel in a straw,
When honour's at the stake.

Shakspeare.

As dare with rigour execute the laws.
Her fester'd members must be lanc'd and tented:
He's a bad surgeon that for pity spares
The part corrupted till the gangrene spread,
And all the body perish: he that's merciful
Unto the bad, is cruel to the good.

Randolph's Muses' Looking-Glass.
The laws are sinfully contriv'd. Justice
Should weigh the present crime, not future
Inference on deeds; but now they cheapen
Blood; 'tis spilt

To punish the example, not the guilt.

Oh! I wish I was a pure child again,
When life was calm as is a sister's kiss.

Bailey's Festus.

Spring has no blossom fairer than thy form;
Winter no snow-wreath purer than thy mind;
The dew-drop trembling to the morning beam
Is like thy smile, pure, transient, heaven-refin'd.
Mrs. Lydia Jane Pierson.

A lovelier nymph the pencil never drew;
For the fond graces formed her easy mien,
And heaven's soft azure in her eye was seen.

Be purity of life the test,

Sir W. Davenant's Just Italian. Leave to the heart, to heaven, the rest.

Do not, if one but lightly thee offend,
The punishment beyond the crime extend;
Or after warning the offence forget;
So God himself our failings did remit.

Hayley

Sprague's Poems,

"Tis not the fairest form that holds
The mildest, purest soul within;

Orgula, or the Fatal Error. 'Tis not the richest plant that folds
The sweetest breath of fragrance in.

From a maid in the pride of her purity;

Fair girl! by whose simplicity
My spirit has been won

From the stern earthliness of life,
As shadows flee the sun;

I turn again to think of thee,

And half deplore the thought,
That for one instant, o'er my soul,
Forgetfulness hath wrought!

Rufus Dawes

I turn to that charmed hour of hope,
When first upon my view

Came the pure sunshine of thine heart,
Borne from thine eyes of blue.
"T was thy high purity of soul-
Thy thought-revealing eye,
That placed me spell-bound at thy feet,
Sweet wanderer from the sky.

Willis G. Clark

And the Power on high that can shield the good Cast my heart's gold into the furnace flame,

Thus from the tyrant of the wood,

Hath extended its mercy to guard me well

From the hands of the leaguering infidel.

Byron's Siege of Corinth.

And if it come not thence refined and pure.
I'll be a bankrupt to thy hope, and heaven
Shall shut its gates on me.

Mrs. Sigourney.

QUACKS-RAGE.

Made all of terms and shreds; no less belyers Of great men's favours, than their own vile med'cines,

Which they will utter upon monstrous oaths: Selling that drug for two pence ere they part, Caroline May. Which they have valu'd at twelve crowns before. Jonson's Volpone.

The nostrum takes no trifling part away;
Time, too, with cash is wasted; 'tis the fate

Robert Morris. Of real helpers, to be call'd too late;

RAIN-RAINBOW - REAPERS.

Campbell's Poems Thomson's Seasons. The rainbow dies in heaven and not on earth.

438

REASON.

He that is of reason's skill bereft,

REASON-REBELLION.

Webster's Duchess of Malfy.

Man is not the prince of creatures,
But in reason; fail that, he is worse
Than horse, or dog, or beast of wilderness.

Field's Amends for Ladies.

Where men have several faiths, to find the true,
We only can the aid of reason use;
'Tis reason shows us which we should eschew,
When by comparison we learn to choose.
But though we there on reason must rely,
Where men to several faiths their minds dispose;
Yet after reason's choice, the schools are shy
To let it judge the very faith it chose.

Sir W. Davenant.

I see the errors that I would avoid,
And have my reason still, but not the use on 't:
It hangs upon me like a wither'd limb
Bound up and numb'd by some disease's frost,
The form the same, but all the use is lost.
Sir R. Howard's Great Favourite.
Thought

Precedes the will to think, and error lives
Ere reason can be born. Reason, the power

To guess at right and wrong, the twinkling lamp
Of wand'ring life, that winks and wakes by turns,
Fooling the follower betwixt shade and shining.

Within the brain's most secret cells,
A certain lord chief justice dwells,
Of sov'reign power, whom one and all,
With common voice we reason call.

Congreve.

Churchill.

The Infinite speaks in our silent hearts,
And draws our being to himself, as deep
Calleth unto deep. He who all thought imparts,
Demands the pledge, the bond of soul to keep;
But reason, wandering from its fount afar,

And stooping downward, breaks the subtle chain
That inus it to itself, like star to star,
And sun to sun, upward to God again.

Mrs. E. Oakes Smith.

| Every creature knoweth its capacities, running in the road of instinct,

And reason must not lag behind, but serve itself of all proprieties.

Tupper's Proverbial Philosophy.

I would not always reason. The straight path
Wearies us with its never-varying lines,
And we grow melancholy. I would make
Reason my guide, but she should sometimes sit
Patiently by the wayside, while I trac'd
The mazes of the pleasant wilderness
Around me. She should be my counsellor
But not my tyrant. For the spirit needs
Impulses from a deeper source than hers,
And there are motions, in the mind of man,
That she must look upon with awe.

Bryant's Poems
When I see cold man of reason proud,
My solitude is sad - I'm lonely in the crowd.
Dana's Poems.