Page images
PDF
EPUB

Hail wedded love, mysterious law, true source
Of human offspring, sole propriety

In Paradise of all things common else.
By thee adult'rous lust was driven from men
Among the bestial herds to range; by thee
Founded in reason, loyal, just and pure,
Relations dear, and all the charities

Of father, son, and brother first were known.

Milton's Paradise Lost, b. 4.

Whom thus the angel interrupted mild.
Lament not, Eve, but patiently resign
What justly thou hast lost; nor set thy heart,
Thus over-fond, on that which is not thine;
Thy going is not lonely; with thee goes
Thy husband; him to follow thou art bound;
Where he abides, think there thy native soil.

[ocr errors]

Ibid. b. 11.

Oh speak the joy! ye, whom the sudden tear
Surprises often, when you look around,
And nothing strikes the eye but sights of bliss,
All various nature pressing on the heart
And elegant sufficiency, content;
Retirement, rural quiet, friendship, books,
Ease and alternate labour, useful life,
Progressive virtue, and approving Heaven.
These are the matchless joys of virtuous love;
And thus their moments fly.

Thomson's Seasons-Spring.

But happy they! the happiest of their kind!
Whom gentler stars unite, and in one fate
Their hearts, their fortunes, and their beings blend.
'Tis not the coarser tie of human laws,
Unnatural oft, and foreign to the mind,
That binds their peace, but harmony itself,
Attuning all their passions into love;

Where friendship full exerts her softest power,
Perfect esteem enlivened by desire

Ineffable, and sympathy of soul;

Thought meeting thought, and will preventing will, With boundless confidence: for nought but love

Can answer love, and render bliss secure.

Thomson's Seasons-Spring.

What is the world to them,

Its pomp, its pleasure, and its nonsense all?
Who in each other clasp whatever fair
High fancy forms, and lavish hearts can wish;
Or on the mind, or mind illumin'd face;
Truth, goodness, honour, harmony, and love,
The richest bounty of indulgent Heaven..

Oh friendly to the best pursuits of man,
Friendly to thought, to virtue, and to peace,
Domestic life in rural leisure pass'd!
Few know thy value, and few aste thy sweets,
Though many boast thy favours, and affect
To understand and choose thee for their own.

Ibid.

Cowper's Task, b. 3.

Domestic happiness, thou only bliss
Of Paradise that has survived the fall!

Thou art the nurse of virtue. In thine arms
She smiles, appearing as in truth she is,
Heav'n-born and destined to the skies again.
Thou art not known where pleasure is adored,
That reeling goddess with the zoneless waist
And wand'ring eye, still leaning on the arm
Of novelty, her fickle frail support;

For thou art meek and constant, hating change,
And finding in the calm of truth-tied love
Joy that her stormy raptures never yield.

Ibid.

Ibid.

MEETING.

The joys of meeting pay the pangs of absence;
Else who could bear it?

Rowe's Tamerlane.

Absence, with all its pains,

Is by this charming moment wip'd away.

Thomson's Agamemnon, b. 2, s. 2.

It is the hour when they

Who love us are accustomed to descend
Through the deep clouds o'er rocky Ararat!
How my heart beats!

Byron's Heaven and Earth, pt. 1, s. 1.

Meanwhile the winged heralds by command
Of sov'reign power, with awful ceremony
And trumpet's sound, throughout the host proclaim
A solemn council forthwith to be held

At Pandemonium, the high capital

Of Satan and his peers. Milton's Paradise Lost, b. 1.
MELANCHOLY.

He comes! he comes! in every breeze the power
Of Philosophic Melancholy comes!

His near approach the sudden starting tear
The glowing cheek, the mild dejected air,
The softened feature, and the beating heart,
Pierced deep with many a virtuous pang, declare.
O'er all the soul his sacred influence breathes!
Inflames imagination; thro' the breast
Infuses every tenderness; and far

Beyond dim earth exalts the swelling thought.

Thomson's Seasons-Autumn.

There is a mood,

(I sing not to the vacant and the young,)

There is a kindly mood of melancholy,

That wings the soul, and points her to the skies.

Dyer's Ruins of Rome.

MEMORY.

Oh remembrance!

Why dost thou open all my wounds again?

Lee's Theodosius.

A confus'd report pass'd thro' my ears,
But full of hurry, like a morning dream,

It vanish'd in the bus'ness of the day. Lee's Edipus.

Thinking will make me mad: Why must I think,
When no thought brings me comfort?

Southern's Fatal Marriage.

Thought is damnation! 'Tis the plague of devils

To think on what they are!

Rowe's Ambitious Stepmother.

Joy's recollection is no longer joy,

While sorrow's memory is a sorrow still.

Byron's Doge of Venice.

On this dear jewel of my memory

My heart will ever dwell, and fate in vain,
Possessing that, essay to make me wretched.

Lord John Russell's Don Carlos.

Ask the faithful youth

Why the cold urn of her whom long he lov'd
So often fills his arms; so often draws
His lonely footsteps at the silent hour,
To pay the mournful tribute of his tears?
Oh! he will tell thee, that the wealth of worlds
Should ne'er seduce his bosom to forego
That sacred hour, when, stealing from the noise
Of care and envy, sweet remembrance soothes
With virtue's kindest looks his aching breast,
And turns his tears to rapture.

Akenside's Pleasures of Imagination, b. 2.

L

It haunts me still, tho' many a year has fled,
Like some wild melody.

Rogers's Italy.

MERCY.

He that's merciful

Unto the bad, is cruel to the good.

Randolph's Muse's Looking-glass.

'Tis mercy! mercy!

The mark of Heav'n impress'd on human kind,
Mercy, that glads the world, deals joy around;
Mercy that smooths the dreadful brow of power,
And makes dominion light; mercy, that saves,
Binds up the broken heart, and heals despair.

Rowe's Lady Jane Grey, a. 5, s. 1.

Think on mercy!

Mercy! the brightest diadem of empire!
Mercy! that does distinguish men from brutes!
And kings that use it right, from common men!

Motley's Imperial Captive.

Let usurpation, that eternal slave
To fear, the tyrant's greater tyrant, dye
Her thirsty purple deep in native blood;
The lawful prince, by daring to forgive,
Asserts the great prerogative of Heav'n,
And proves his claim divine.

Jeffery's Edwin.

In mercy and justice both,

Through heav'n and earth, so shall my glory excel, But mercy first and last shall brightest shine.

Milton's Paradise Lost, b. 3.

O mercy, Heav'nly born! Sweet attribute !

Thou great, thou best prerogative of

power

!

Justice may guard the throne, but join'd with thee, On rocks of adamant it stands secure,

And braves the storm beneath.

Somervile's Chace, b. 3.

« PreviousContinue »