Page images
PDF
EPUB
[blocks in formation]

They are as sick, that surfeit with too much,
As they that starve with nothing; therefore it
Is no mean happiness to be seated
In the mean; superfluity comes sooner
By white hairs, but competency lives longer.
Ibid.

EXTREMES-Fate of.

The fate of all extremes is such, Men may be read, as well as books, too much. To observations, which ourselves we make, We grow more partial for th' observer's sake, To written wisdom, as another's, less : Maxims are drawn from notions, these from

[blocks in formation]

Oh! o'er the eye Death most exerts his might, And hurls the spirit from her throne of light! Byron.

EYE-Expression of the.

A beautiful eye makes silence eloquent; a kind eye makes contradiction an assent; an enraged eye makes beauty deformed. This little member gives life to every other part about us; and I believe the story of Argus implies no more, than that the eye is in every part; that is to say, every other part would be mutilated, were not its force represented more by the eye than even by itself. Addison.

EYES-like those of a Demon.
His eyes have all the seeming of a demon's
that is dreaming.
E. A. Poe.
EYES-Talismanic Effect of the.

A pair of bright eyes with a dozen glances suffice to subdue a man; to enslave him, and inflame; to make him even forget; they dazzle him so, that the past becomes straightway dim to him; and he so prizes them, that he would give all his life to possess them. What is the

EYES.

fond love of dearest friends compared to his treasure? Is memory as strong as expectancy, fruition as hunger, gratitude as desire?

Thackeray.

Large eyes were admired in Greece, where they still prevail. They are the finest of all, when they have the internal look; which is not common. The stag or antelope eye of the orientals is beautiful and lamping, but is accused of looking skittish and indifferent. "The epithet of stag-eyed," says Lady Wortley Montague, speaking of a Turkish love-song, "pleases me extremely; and I think it a very lively image of the fire and indifference in his mistress's eyes." We lose in depth of expres sion, when we go to inferior animals for comparisons with human beauty. Homer calls Juno ox-eyed; and the epithet suits well with the eyes of that goddess, because she may be supposed, with all her beauty, to want a certain humanity. Her large eyes look at you with a royal indifference. Shakspeare has kissed them, and made them human. Speaking of violets, he describes them as being

"Sweeter than the lids of Juno's eyes." This is shutting up their pride, and subjecting them to the lips of love. Large eyes may become more touching under this circumstance than any others, because of the field which the large lids give for the veins to wander in, and the trembling amplitude of the ball beneath. Little eyes must be good tempered, or they are ruined. They have no other resource. But this will beautify them enough. They are made for laughing, and should do their duty. Leigh Hunt.

EYES-an Index of the Feelings.

That fine part of our constitution, the ere. seems as much the receptacle and seat of our passions, appetites, and inclinations, as the mind itself; and at least it is the outward portal to introduce them to the house within, or rather the common thoroughfare to let our affections pass in and out. Love, anger, pride, and avarice, all visibly move in those little. orbs. Addison

EYES-Grey.

Men with grey eyes are generally keen, energetic, and at first cold; but you may depend upon their sympathy with real sorrow. Search the ranks of our benevolent men, and you will agree with me. Dr. Least. EYES-Power of the.

Oh those eyes!-those deep, unutterable eyes, with "down-falling eyelids, full of dreams! and slumber," and within them a cold, living

light, as in mountain lakes as evening, or in Lurks in the legend told my infant years,

the river of Paradise, for ever gliding,

"With a brown, brown current, Under the shade perpetual, that never Ray of the sun lets in, nor of the moon."

I dislike an eye that twinkles like a star. Those only are beautiful which, like the planets, have a steady, lambent light,- -are luminous, not sparkling. Longfellow. EYES OF WOMEN-Inspiring Influence of the.

Long while I sought to what I might compare Those powerful eyes which lighten my dark spright,

Yet find I nought on earth to which I dare
Resemble th' image of their godly light.
Not to the sun, for they do shine by night;
Nor to the moon, for they are changed

[blocks in formation]

Than lies upon that truth we live to learn.
For fable is love's world-his house, his birth-
place;
Delightedly dwells he 'mong fays and talismans,
And spirits; and delightedly believes
Divinities, being himself divine.

The intelligible forms of ancient poets,
The fair humanities of old religion,
The power, the beauty, and the majesty
That had their haunts in dale, or piny moun-
tain,

Or forest, by slow stream, or pebbly spring.
Or chasms and watery depths: all these have
vanish'd,

They live no longer in the faith of reason!
But still the heart doth need a language; still
Doth the old instinct bring back the old names;
And to yon starry world they now are gone,
Spirits or gods, that used to share this earth
With man as with their friend; and to the
lover,

Yonder they move, from yonder visible sky
Shoot influence down; and even at this day
'Tis Jupiter who brings whate'er is great,
And Venus who brings everything that's fair.
Coleridge.

FACE-Beauty of the.

Fire burns only when we are near it; but a beautiful face burns and inflames, though at a distance. Xenophon.

Read o'er the volume of his lovely face,
And find delight writ there with beauty's pen;
Examine every several lineament,
And what obscure in this fair volume lies,
Find written in the margin of his eyes.
Shakspeare.

FACE-Changes of the.

How much her grace is alter'd on the sudden ! How long her face is drawn! How pale she looks,

And of an earthly cold! Mark you her eyes? Ibid.

FACE-A Fascinating.

Her face had a wonderful fascination in it. It was such a calm, quiet face, with the light of the rising soul shining so peacefully through it. At times, it wore an expression of seriousness, of sorrow even; and then seemed to make the very air bright with what the Italian poets so beautifully call the "lampeggiar dell' angelico riso," the lightning of the angelic smile. Longfellow.

FACE-not always an Index of the Heart. Every man in this age has not a soul

Of crystal, for all men to read their actions through:

[blocks in formation]

FACETIOUSNESS-Lawful.

Such facetiousness is not unreasonable or unlawful, which ministereth harmless divertisement and delight to conversation; harmless, I say, that is, not intrenching upon piety, nor infringing charity or justice, nor disturbing peace. For Christianity is not so tetrical, so harsh, so envious, as to bar us continually from innocent, much less from wholesome and useful pleasure, such as human life doth need or require. And if jocular discourse may serve to good purposes of this kind; if it may be apt to raise our drooping spirits, to allay our irksome cares, to whet our blunted industry, to recreate our minds, being tired and cloyed with graver occupations; if it may breed alacrity, or maintain good-humour among us; if it may conduce to sweeten conversation and endear society, then it is not inconvenient or unprofitable. If for these ends we may use other recreations, employing on them our ears and eyes, our hands and feet, our other instruments of sense and motion, why may we not so well accommodate our organs of speech and interior sense? Why should those games which excite our wit and fancies be less reasonable, since they are performed in a manly way, and have in them a smack of reason; seeing, also, they may be so managed as not only to divert and please, but to improve and profit the mind, rousing and quickening it, yea, sometimes enlightening and instructing it, by good sense, conveyed in jocular expression.

FACTION-to be Avoided.

Avoid the politic, the factious fool,

Barrow.

[blocks in formation]

FAIRIES.

men who engage in it hide their designs-their secret prayer is, "Havoc do thy worst."

That talking knave

Cheneviz.

Consumes his time in speeches to the rabble,
And sows sedition up and down the city;
Picking up discontented fools, belying
The senators and government; destroying
Faith amongst honest men, and praising
knaves.
Otway.

FACTS-Food to the Mind.

Facts are to the mind the same thing as food to the body. On the due digestion of facts depends the strength and wisdom of the one, just as vigour and health depend on the other. The wisest in council, the ablest in debate, and the most agreeable companion in the commerce of human life, is that man who has assimilated to his understanding the greatest number of facts. Burke.

FAILURE-a Practical Lesson.

It is far from being true, in the progress of knowledge, that after every failure we must recommence from the beginning. Every failure is a step to success; every detection of what is false directs us towards what is true; every trial exhausts some tempting form of error. Not only so; but scarcely any attempt is entirely a failure; scarcely any theory, the result of steady thought, is altogether false; no tempting form of error is without some latent charm derived from truth. Whewell.

FAILURE-in Great Objects.

There is not a fiercer hell than failure in a great object. Keats.

FAIRIES-Departure of the.

They are flown, Beautiful fictions of our fathers, wove In Superstition's web when Time was young, And fondly loved and cherish'd-they are flown, Before the wand of science! Hills and vales, The enchantments, the delights, the visions all, Mountains and moors of Devon, ye have lost The elfin visions that so bless'd the sight In the old days romantic. Naught is heard Now, in the leafy world, but earthly strainsVoices, yet sweet, of breeze, and bird, and brook,

And waterfall; the day is silent else, And night is strangely mute! the hymnings high

And immortal music, men of ancient times Heard, ravish'd oft, are flown! O ye have lost Mountains, and moors, and meads, the radiant throngs

[blocks in formation]

There is a fountain in the forest called
The Fountain of the Fairies. When a child,
With most delightful wonder, I have heard
Tales of the elfin tribe, that on its banks
Hold midnight revelry. An ancient oak,
The goodliest of the forest, grows beside;
It ever has been deem'd their fav'rite tree.
They love to lie and rock upon its leaves,
And bask them in the sunshine. Many a time
Hath the woodman shown his boy where the
dark round

On the green sward beneath its boughs bewrays
Their nightly dance, and bid him spare the tree.
Fancy had cast a spell upon the place
And made it holy: and the villagers
Would say that never evil thing approach'd
Unpunish'd there. The strange and fearful
pleasure

That fill'd me by that solitary spring
Ceased not in riper years; and now it woke
Deeper delight, and more mysterious awe.

[blocks in formation]

FAIRIES-Gambols of the.

About this spring, if ancient fame say true,
The dapper elves their moonlight sports renew;
Their pigmy king and little fairy queen
In circling dances gamboll'd on the green,
While tuneful sprites a merry concert made,
And airy nasic warbled through the shade.

Pope.

In days of old, when Arthur fill'd the throne, Whose acts and fame to foreign lands were blown,

The king of elves and little fairy queen Gamboll'd on heaths, and danced on every

green;

And where the jolly troop had led the round, The grass unbidden rose, and mark'd the ground;

Nor darkling did they dance,-the silver light Of Phoebe served to guide their steps aright, And, with their tripping pleased, prolong'd the night.

Her beams they follow'd where at first she play'd,

Not longer than she shed her horns they

stay'd:

From thence with airy flight to distant parts convey'd.

Above the rest our Britain held they dear, More solemnly they kept their sabbaths here, And made more spacious rings, and revell'd half the year.

I speak of ancient times, for now the swain, Returning late, may pass the woods in vain, And never hope to see the nightly train.

FAIRIES-Retreat of the.

Dryden.

This nook the tiny theatre has been
Where elves have acted plays; such as they
took

From the fond legends of old fairy book.
Their tiring room beneath these hollows green,
While clust'ring glowworms lighted up the

scene.

Their orchestra these hanging boughs, which shook

With music, such as lulls the nightly brook. Their audience twinkling stars and moon

serene.

Their strains inaudible to ear unblest,

But the sweet lark, listening the live-long night,

Against a reedy tuft hath lean'd her breast, And borne them to heaven's gate at morning

light;

And birds that elves most love, with emulous throats,

Do catch in leafy glens sweet fairy notes.

Eagles.

[blocks in formation]

FAITH.

estate,) a deep and inward conviction, which is as a moon to us; and like the moon, with all its massy and deceptive gleams, it yet lights us on our way (poor travellers as we are, and benighted pilgrims.) With all its spots and changes, and temporary eclipses-with all its vain haloes and bedimming vapours-it yet reflects the light that is to rise upon us, which even now is rising, though intercepted from our immediate view by the mountains that enclose and frown over the whole of our mortal life.

Coleridge.

[blocks in formation]

Illuminates my faith, and bids me trust
All that may happen to the will of Heaven.
New force inspires me and my strengthen'd
soul

Feels energy divine; the fair example

Of steadfast martyrs and of dying saints
Has warn'd me to better thoughts: I now
Can with a smile behold misfortune's face,
And think the weight of miseries a trial.
The heavenly precepts brighten to my mind,
No useful part of duty left behind.
Here the consenting principles unite,
A beam divine directs our steps aright,
And shows the mortal in the Christian light.

Havard

« PreviousContinue »