The Works of George Byron: With His Letters and Journals, and His Life, Volume 14

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Page 70 - There is some soul of goodness in things evil, Would men observingly distil it out, For our bad neighbour makes us early stirrers, Which is both healthful, and good husbandry : Besides, they are our outward consciences, And preachers to us all ; admonishing, That we should 'dress us fairly for our end.
Page 358 - My days are in the yellow leaf; The flowers and fruits of love are gone ; The worm, the canker, and the grief Are mine alone...
Page 359 - No torch is kindled at its blaze A funeral pile. The hope, the fear, the jealous care, The exalted portion of the pain And power of love, I cannot share, But wear the chain. But 'tis not thus - and 'tis not here Such thoughts should shake my soul, nor now, Where glory decks the hero's bier, Or binds his brow. The sword, the banner, and the field, Glory and Greece, around me see ! The Spartan, borne upon his shield, Was not more free.
Page 22 - My father could not keep his place in Eden. What had / done in this ? — I was unborn : I sought not to be born ; nor love the state To which that birth has brought me. Why did he Yield to the serpent and the woman ? or, Yielding, why suffer ? What was there in this...
Page 326 - Even such a shell the universe itself Is to the ear of Faith ; and there are times, I doubt not, when to you it doth impart Authentic tidings of invisible things ; Of ebb and flow, and ever-during power ; And central peace, subsisting at the heart Of endless agitation.
Page 26 - Souls who dare use their immortality — Souls who dare look the Omnipotent tyrant in His everlasting face, and tell him that His evil is not good!
Page 63 - Cain is a proud man : if Lucifer promised him kingdom, &c. it would elate him : the object of the Demon is to depress him still further in his own estimation than he was before, by showing him infinite things and his own abasement, till he falls into the frame of mind that leads to the catastrophe, from mere internal irritation, not premeditation, or envy of Abel (which would have made him contemptible), but from the rage and fury against the inadequacy of his state to his conceptions, and which...
Page 325 - How often we forget all time, when lone, Admiring Nature's universal throne, Her woods, her wilds, her waters, the intense Reply of hers to our intelligence ! Live not the stars and mountains? Are the waves Without a spirit?
Page 359 - The sword, the banner, and the field, Glory and Greece, around me see ! The Spartan, borne upon his shield, Was not more free. Awake! (not Greece — she is awake!) Awake, my spirit! Think through whom Thy life-blood tracks its parent lake, And then strike home ! Tread those reviving passions down, Unworthy manhood ! — unto thee Indifferent should the smile or frown Of beauty be.
Page 359 - The land of honourable death Is here: — up to the field, and give Away thy breath! Seek out — less often sought than found — A soldier's grave, for thee the best; Then look around and choose thy ground, And take thy rest.

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