From ostentation as from weakness free, Inscribed above the portals from afar, Stand the soul-quickening words-BELIEVE AND LIVE. BELLS. Cowper. YOUR flock, assembled by the bells, Encircle you to hear with reverence. Shakspere. Get thee gone, and dig my grave thyself, And bid the merry bells ring to thy ear, Those flattering bells have all One sound at wedding, and at funeral. Shakspere. Webster. Loud ringing changes all our bells have marred; So long they're out of tune and out of frame, Put them in frame anew, and once begin The humble records of my life to search, Herbert. I have not herded with mere pagan beasts, Now loud as welcomes! faint now as farewells! Thos. Hood. The bells themselves are the best of preachers; From their pulpits of stone in the upper air, That from mouth of brass, as from mouth of gold, Upon which, like the bell, our hopes are hung; Of morals, and symbols, and history; And the upward and downward motions show Downward, the scripture brought from on high, Upward, the vision and mystery! On the pagoda spire, The bells are swinging, Their little golden circles in a flutter, Longfellow. With tales the wooing winds have dared to utter; Till all are singing, As if in a choir; Of golden-nested birds in heaven were singing; And with a lulling sound, The music floats around, And drops like balm into the drowsy ear. Mrs. E. C. Judson. Those evening bells-those evening bells— Moore. 108 BENEFICENCE. BENEVOLENCE. BENEFICENCE-BENEFITS. BENEFICENCE regardless of herself, When noble benefits shall prove Not well disposed, the mind grown once corrupt, As many as offered life Shakspere. A benefit upbraided, forfeits thanks; To brag of benefits one hath bestown, Milton. Lady Carew. Doth make the best seem less, and most seem none; So oftentimes the greatest courtesy Is by the doer made an injury. Brome. BENEVOLENCE. GRASP the whole worlds of reason, life, and sense, In one close system of benevolence. Nature all Is blooming and benevolent, like thee. Pope. Thomson. Ah! little think the gay, licentious, proud, Ah! little think they, while they dance along, How many feel, this very moment, death, ** * * Thought, fond man, Of these, and all the thousand nameless ills, Thomson. From the low prayer of want and plaint of woe, O never, never turn away thine ear! Forlorn in this bleak wilderness below, Ah! what were man should heaven refuse to hear! What to thyself thou wishest to be done; All human weal and woe learn thou to make thine own. James Beattie. And he whose wakeful tenderness removes Th' obstructing thorn, which wounds the friend he loves, Smooths not another's rugged path alone, But scatters roses to adorn his own.—. O God! with sympathetic care, Blacklock. He is the wisest and the happiest man, He clothes the naked, he the hungry feeds, Egone. 110 BENIGNITY. BEST. Giver of all things fair! BENIGNITY. THIS turn hath made amends! Thou hast fulfilled Thy words, Creator bounteous and benign, So shall the world go on, Milton. To good malignant, to bad men benign. Milton. Different are thy names, As thy kind hand has founded many cities, Or dealt benign thy various gifts to men. Prior. Oh, truly good and truly great! For glorious as he rose, benignly so he set. Prior. Does well, acts nobly-angels could no more. He doeth well who doeth good Young. Egone. |