Page images
PDF
EPUB
[blocks in formation]

Crabbe.

Such harmony in motion, speech, and air,
That without fairness, she was more than fair.

There's beauty all around our paths,

If but our watchful eyes

Can trace it 'midst familiar things,

And through their lowly guise.

Mrs. Hemans.

Without the smile, from partial beauty won,

Oh, what were man ?-a world without a sun! Campbell, P.Н.

[blocks in formation]

Her grace of motion and of look, the smooth

And swimming majesty of step and tread,

The symmetry of form and feature, set
The soul afloat, even like delicious airs

Of flute or harp.

Milman.

What is beauty? Alas! 'tis a jewel, a glass,

A bubble, a plaything, a rose,

'Tis the snow, dew, or air; 'tis so many things rare,

That 'tis nothing, one well may suppose.

'Tis a jewel, Love's token; glass easily broken,

A bubble that vanisheth soon;

A plaything that boys cast aside when it cloys,

A rose quickly faded and strewn.

MS.

[blocks in formation]

BEES.

MS.

Dr. Johnson.

James Montgomery.

Sh. Hen. V. 1. 2.

So work the honey-bees;
Creatures, that by a rule in nature, teach
The art of order to a peopled kingdom.
The careful insect 'midst his works I view,
Now from the flowers exhaust the fragrant dew,
With golden treasures load his little thighs,
And steer his distant journey through the skies;
Some against hostile drones the hive defend,
Others with sweets the waxen cells distend,
Each in the toil his destin'd office bears,

And in the little bulk a mighty soul appears.
Even bees, the little alms-men of spring bowers,
Know there is richest juice in poison-flowers.

BEGINNING.

Nothing so difficult as a beginning
In poesy, unless, perhaps, the end;
For oftentimes, when Pegasus seems winning
The race, he sprains a wing, and down we tend,
Like Lucifer when hurl'd from heaven for sinning;
Our sin the same, and hard as his to mend,
Being pride, which leads the mind to soar too far,
Till our own weakness shows us what we are.

Gay.

Keats.

Byron.

BEGGARS.

BEGGARS.-BELLS.

47

Beggars, mounted, run their horse to death. Sh. Hen. v1.3.1.4.
His house was known to all the vagrant train,
He chid their wand'rings but relieved their pain;
The long remember'd beggar was his guest,
Whose beard descending swept his aged breast.

Goldsmith, Des. Vill.

Base worldlings, that despise all such as need;
Who to the needy beggar still are dumb,
Not knowing unto what themselves may come.

He makes

a

Heywood, Roy. King.

beggar first, that first relieves him; Not usurers make more beggars where they live, Than charitable men that use to give. Heywood, Roy. King.

BELIEF.

Th' unlettered christian who believes in gross

Plods on to heaven, and ne'er is at a loss.

And when religious sects ran mad,

He held, in spite of all his learning,

That if a man's belief is bad,

It will not be improv'd by burning.

BELLES.

Where none admire, 'tis useless to excel;

Where none are beaux, 'tis vain to be a belle.

Dryden.

Praed.

Lyttleton, Soliloquy of a Beauty, 1. 11.

Yet graceful ease, and sweetness void of pride,

Might hide her faults, if belles had faults to hide;

If to her share some female errors fall,

Look on her face, and you'll forget them all.

BELLS.

Pope, Rape of L. 11. 15.

How soft the music of those village bells,
Falling at intervals upon the ear

In cadence sweet; now dying all away.
Now pealing loud again and louder still,
Clear and sonorous as the gale comes on;
With easy force it opens all the cells
Where memory slept.

Cowper, Task, VI. 6.

When on the undulating ear they swim!
Now loud as welcomes! faint now as farewells!

And trembling all about the breezy dells,
As fluttered by the wings of cherubim.

Thos. Hood.

Those evening bells! those evening bells!
How many a tale their music tells

Of youth, and home, and that sweet time,
When last I heard their soothing chime!

Moore.

[blocks in formation]

The bells themselves are the best of preachers;
Their brazen lips are learned teachers,

From their pulpits of stone in the upper air,
Sounding aloft, without crack or flaw,
Shriller than trumpets under the law,
Now a sermon and now a prayer.
The clangorous hammer is the tongue,
This way, that way, beaten and swung;
That from mouth of brass, as from mouth of gold

May be taught the Testaments, New and Old.

BENEDICTION-see Blessings. Compliments. Greetings.

Now the fair goddess, Fortune,

Fall deep in love with thee;
Prosperity be thy page!

........

The heavens rain odours on you!

Longfellow.

Sh. Coriol. 1. 5.

Sh. Tw. N. 111. 1.

The grace of heaven,

Sh. Oth. 11. 1.

Before, behind thee, and on every hand,

Enwheel thee round!

BENEFITS.

To brag of benefits one hath bestown,

Doth make the best seem less, and most seem none.

Broome, Nov.

A benefit upbraided, forfeits thanks. Lady Carew, Mariam.

BENEVOLENCE-see Bounty.

How far that little candle throws his beams!

So shines a good deed in a naughty world. Sh. Mer. V. v. 1.

Such moderation with thy bounty join,

That thou may'st nothing give that is not thine;

That liberality is but cast away.

Which makes us borrow what we cannot pay.

Denham.

Is there a variance ? enter but his door,

Balk'd are the courts, and contest is no more.
Despairing quacks with curses left the place,
And vile attorneys, now an useless race. Pope, Moral Essays

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!

BESEECHING-see Tears.

Beattie, Minst.

Fall at his feet; cling round his reverend knees;
Speak to him with thy eyes; and with thine tears.

BESEECHING -BIGOTRY.

BESE ECHING-continued.

Melt his cold heart, and wake dead nature in him:

49

Crush him in thy arms; torture him with thy softness:
Nor till thy prayers are granted, set him free. Otway, Ven. Prs

BEST. I profess not talking: only this,

Let each man do his best.

Sh. Hen. IV. p. 1, v. 2.

Who does the best his circumstance allows,

Does well, acts nobly-angels could no more. Young, N. T. 90. BETTING -see Wagers.

I've heard old cunning stagers

Say, fools for arguments use wagers. Butler, Hud. p. 2. 1. 297.

Most men, till by losing rendered sager,

Will back their own opinions by a wager.

[blocks in formation]

Byron, Beppo, 27.

Most wondrous book! bright candle of the Lord!

Star of Eternity! The only star

By which the bark of man can navigate

The sea of life, and gain the coast of bliss

Securely.

Cowper.

Pollok, Course of Time.

[blocks in formation]

But better had they ne'er been born,

Who read to doubt, or read to scorn. Scott, Monastery, 1. 12.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

His very name a title-page, and next

His life a commentary on the text.

BIGOTRY.

Sure 'tis an orthodox opinion,

Woodbridge.

That grace is founded in dominion. Butler, Hud. 1, 11. 1173.

The good old man, too eager in dispute

Flew high; and as his Christian fury rose,

Damn'd all for heretics who durst oppose. Dryden. Rel. Laici.

Soon their crude notions with each other fought;

The adverse sect deny'd what this had taught;

And he at length the amplest triumph gain'd,

Who contradicted what the last maintain'd. Prior, Solom. I.

E

« PreviousContinue »