AGAIN, how can she but immortal be,

When with the motions of both will and wit,
She still aspireth to eternity,

And never rests till she attain to it.

Live well, and then how soon soe'er thou die,
Thou art of age to claim eternity.

Beyond is all abyss,

Davies.

Randolph.

Eternity, whose end no eye can reach. Milton.

Eternity, thou pleasing, dreadful thought!
Through what variety of untried beings-

Through what new scenes and changes must we pass!
The wide, th' unbounded prospect lies before me,
But shadows, clouds, and darkness rest upon it.

Eternity no parent does admit,

But in itself did first itself beget;

Addison.

A gulph, whose large extent no bounds engage,
A still-beginning, never-ending age.
Eternity, that boundless race,

Which time himself can never run,
Swift as he flies with an unwearied pace,

Which, when ten thousand thousand years are done, Is still the same, and still to be begun.

Shall I be left forgotten in the dust,

Congreve.

When fate, relenting, lets the flower revive! Shall nature's voice, to man alone unjust,

Bid him, though doom'd to perish, hope to live? Is it for this fair virtue oft must strive

With disappointment, penury, and pain?

No: heaven's immortal spring shall yet arrive, And man's majestic beauty bloom again,

Bright thro' the eternal years of love's triumphant reign.

Beattie.

Now came still evening on, and twilight grey
Had in her sober livery all things clad:
Silence accompanied; for beasts and birds,
They to their grassy couch, these to their nests
Were sunk; all save the woeful nightingale.-Milton.

Now stir the fire, and close the shutters fast,
Let fall the curtains, wheel the sofa round,
And, while the bubbling and loud-hissing urn
Throws up a steamy column, and the cup
That cheers but not inebriates, waits on each,
So let us welcome peaceful evening in.

Cowper.

The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,
The lowing herd winds slowly o'er the lea,
The ploughman homeward plods his weary way,
And leaves the world to darkness and to me.
Now fades the glimmering landscape on the sight,
And all the air a solemn stillness holds,
Save where the beetle wheels his droning flight,
And drowsy tinklings lull the distant folds.
Save that from yonder ivy-mantled tower,

The moping owl does to the moon complain
Of such as, wandering near her secret bower,
Molest her ancient solitary reign.

It was an evening bright and still,
As ever blushed on wave or bower,
Smiling from heaven, as if nought ill
Could happen in so sweet an hour.

Come to the sunset tree!

The day is past and gone,
The woodman's axe is free,
And the reaper's work is done;

The twilight star to heaven,

And the summer dew to flowers,

And rest to us is given

In the cool soft evening hours.

Gray.

Moore.

Mrs. Hemans.

THERE is some soul of goodness in things evil, Would men observingly distil it out. Shakspere.

So farewell, hope, and with hope farewell fear;
Farewell remorse; all good to me is lost;
Evil, be thou my good!

Peace, brother, be not over-exquisite
To cast the fashion of uncertain evils;

Milton.

For, grant they be so, while they rest unknown,
What need a man forestall his date of grief,
And run to meet what he would most avoid?

Timely advised, the coming evil shun.

If men curse thee, plant their lies
When for truths they best may grow;
Let the railers make thee wise,
Preaching peace where'er thou go;
God, no useless plant hath planted,
Evil, (wisely used,) is wanted.

O, seek not destined evils to divine

Milton.

Prior.

Ebenezer Elliott.

Found out at last too soon! cease here the search, "Tis vain, 't is impious.

Evil results from imperfection,

W. S. Landor.

Evil is limited. One cannot form
A scheme for universal evil.

Bailey.

EXAMPLE. EXCESS.

277

EXAMPLE.

No age hath been, since nature first began
To work Jove's wonders, but hath left behind
Some deeds of praise for mirrors unto man,

Which, more than threatful laws, have men inclin'd; To tread the paths of praise excites the mind; Mirrors tie thoughts to virtue's due respects; Example hastens deeds to good effects.

For as the light

Not only serves to show, but renders us
Mutually profitable: so our lives,

In acts exemplary, not only win

Davenant.

Ourselves good names, but do to others give
Matter for virtuous deeds, by which we live.

Example is a living law, whose sway

Chapman.

Men more than all the written laws obey. Sedley.

EXCESS.

To gild refined gold, to paint the lily,
To throw a perfume on the violet,
To smooth the ice, or add another hue
Unto the rainbow, or with taper's light

To seek the bounteous eye of heaven to garnish,
Is wasteful and ridiculous excess.

Let the superfluous and lust-dieted man,

Shakspere.

That braves your ordinance, feel your power quickly; So distribution shall undo excess,

And each man have enough.

Shakspere.

Kings by grasping more than they can hold,
First made their subjects by oppression bold;
And popular sway, by forcing kings to give
More than was fit for subjects to receive,
Ran to the same extremes; and one excess
Made both, by striving to be greater, less.-Denham.

278

EXCHANGE. EXECUTION.

EXCHANGE.

EXCHANGE forgiveness with me, noble Hamlet;
Mine and my father's blood lie not upon thee,
Nor thine on me.

Shakspere.

If blood you seek, I will my own resign;
O spare her life, and in exchange take mine.

Nothing, no place is strange.

While his fair bosom is the world's exchange.

We pledged our hearts, my love and I,—

I in my arms the maiden clasping;
I could not tell the reason why,

But oh! I trembled like an aspen.
Her father's love she bade me gain;
I went, and shook like any reed!
I strove to act the man-in vain!
We had exchanged our hearts indeed.

Dryden.

Denham.

EXECUTION.

I HAVE seen

Coleridge.

When after execution, judgment hath
Repented o'er his doom.

Shakspere.

O Tyburn, could'st thou reason and dispute,
Could'st thou but judge as well as execute;

How often would'st thou change the felon's doom,
And truss some stern chief justice in his room.

How slow the time

To the warm soul, that, in the very instant
It forms, would execute a great design!

The keen spirit

Dryden.

Thomson.

Seizes the prompt occasion-makes the thought
Start into instant action, and at once

Plans and performs, resolves and executes!

Hannah More.