For modes of faith let graceless zealots fight;

He can't be wrong, whose life is in the right. Pope E. М.
Christians have burnt each other, quite persuaded
That all the Apostles would have done as they did.

Byron, Don Juan, 1. 83.

Shall I ask the brave soldier, who fights by my side
In the cause of mankind, if our creeds agree P
Shall I give up the friend I have valued and tried,
If he kneel not before the same altar with me?
From the heretic girl of my soul shall I fly,
To seek somewhere else a more orthodox bliss?
No! perish the hearts and the laws that would try
Truth, valour, or love, by a standard like this. Moore, Ir. Mel

And many more such pious scraps,

To prove (what we've long prov'd perhaps)

That mad as Christians used to be

About the thirteenth century,

There's lots of Christians to be had

In this, the nineteenth, just as mad! Moore, Twop. Post Bag.

BILLING-see Kissing.

Still amorous, and fond, and billing,

Like Philip and Mary on a shilling. Butler, Hud. III. 1. 687.

BILLS.

Dreading that climax of all human ills,
The inflammation of his weekly bills.
In my young days they lent me cash that
Which I found very troublesome to pay.

BIOGRAPHER.

After my death I wish no other herald,
No other speaker of my living actions,
To keep mine honour from corruption,

But such an honest chronicler as Griffith. Sh. Hen. VIII. VI. 2.

BIRDS.

The crow doth sing as sweetly as the lark,
When neither is attended; and, I think,
The nightingale, if she should sing by day,
When every goose is cackling, would be thought
No better a musician than the wren.

Sh. Mer. Ven. v. 1.

But, like the birds, great nature's happy commoners,
That haunt in woods, in meads, and flow'ry gardens,
Rifle the sweets and taste the choicest fruits,

Yet scorn to ask the lordly owner's leave. Rowe, Fair Pen. 11. 3.

BIRDS-BIRTHDAY.

51

BIRDS-continued.

Ten thousand warblers cheer the day, and one
The live-long night: nor those alone whose notes
Nice-fingered art must emulate in vain,
But cawing rooks, and kites that swim sublime
In still repeated circles, screaming loud,
The jay, the pie, and ev'n the boding owl

That hails the nightly moon, have charms for men.

Cowper, Task, B. I.

You call them thieves and pillagers; but know

They are the winged warders of your farms,
Who from the corn fields drive the insidious foe,
And from your harvest keep a hundred harms;

Even the blackest of them all, the crow,

Renders good service as your men-at-arms,

Crushing the beetle in his coat of mail,

And crying havoc on the slug and snail. Longfellow, Birds of K.

BIRTH-see Descent, Pedigree.

Let high birth triumph! what can be more great ?

Nothing-but merit in a low estate.

To virtue's humblest son let none prefer

Vice, though descended from the Conqueror. Young, L. F. 1. 141.

I've learned to judge of men by their own deeds,

I do not make the accident of birth

The standard of their merit.

BIRTHDAY.

Is that a birthday? 'tis alas too clear,

Mrs. Hale.

'Tis but the funeral of the former year. Pope, to Mrs. M. B.

My birthday!-what a different sound

That word had in my youthful ears;

And now each time the day comes round,

Less and less white its mark appears.

Another year! another leaf

Is turned within life's volume brief,
And yet not one bright page appears
Of mine within that book of years.
Why should we count our life by years,
Since years are short, and pass away!
Or, why by fortune's smiles or tears,
Since tears are vain, and smiles decay!
O! count by virtues-these shall last
When life's lame-footed race is o'er;
And these, when earthly joys are past,
May cheer us on a brighter shore.

Moore.

Hoffman, Am.

Mrs. Hale, Am.

52

BLACKGUARDS.

BLACKGUARDS-BLINDNESS.

They each pull'd different ways, with many an oath, "Arcades ambo," id est-blackguardsboth. Byron. D. J. 1v.93.

BLASPHEMY.

Great men may jest with saints; 'tis wit in them;

But, in the less, foul profanation.

That in the captain's but a choleric word,

Which in the soldier is flat blasphemy. Sh. M. for M. 11. 2.

Should each blasphemer quite escape the rod,

Because the insult's not to man, but God P

BLESSINGS-see Benediction.

Angels preserve my dearest father's life;
Bless it with long uninterrupted days!
Oh! may he live till time itself decay-
Till good men wish him dead, or I offend him!

Reward him for the noble deed, just heavens,
For this one action guard him, and distinguish him
With signal mercies, and with great deliverance ;
Save him from wrong, adversity, and shame;
Let never-fading honours flourish round him,
And consecrate his name ev'n to time's end:
Let him know nothing but what's good on earth,
And everlasting blessedness hereafter.

O, still my fervent prayer will be,
"Heaven's choicest blessings rest on thee."

BLINDNESS.

Oh! happiness of blindness, now no beauty
Inflames my lust; no other's good, my envy;
Or misery, my pity; no man's wealth
Draws my respect; nor poverty, my scorn;
Yet still I see enough! man to himself
Is a large prospect, raised above the level
Of his low creeping thoughts.

Pope.

Otway,

Rowe.

Miss Gould.

Denham, Sophy.

Milton, Samson Agonistes.

O dark, dark, dark, amid the blaze of noon;
Irrevocably dark! total eclipse,

Without all hope of day.

O, loss of sight, of thee I most complain!
Blind among enemies, O worse than chains,

Dungeons, or beggary, or decrepid age!
Light, the prime work of God, to me's extinct,

And all her various objects of delight

Annull'd, which might in part my grief have eas'd. Ib. S. A.

BLINDNESS-BLUNTNESS.

BLINDNESS-continued.

Thus with the year
Seasons return, but not to me returns
Day, or the sweet approach of ev'n or morn,
Or sight of vernal bloom, or summer's rose,
Or flocks, or herds, or human face divine;
But clouds instead, and ever-during dark
Surrounds me, from the cheerful ways of men
Cut off, and for the book of knowledge fair
Presented with an universal blank

53

Of nature's works, to me expung'd and raised,
And wisdom at one entrance quite shut out. Milton, P. L. III. 40.

These eyes, though clear

To outward view of blemish or of spot,
Bereft of light, their seeing have forgot;
Nor to their idle orbs doth sight appear
Of sun, or moon, or star, throughout the year,
Or man, or woman. Yet I argue not
Against heaven's hand or will, nor bate a jot
Of heart or hope; but still bear up, and steer

Right onward.

BLISS-see Happiness.

Milton, Sonnet xxII. 1.

Pope.

Condition, circumstance, is not the thing,

Bliss is the same in subject or in king.

The spider's most attenuated web

Is cord, is cable, to man's tender tie

On earthly bliss; it breaks at every breeze. Young, N.T. 1. 178.

O, "darkly, deeply, beautifully blue,"

As some one somewhere sings about the sky.

BLUNTNESS.

Rudeness is a sauce to his good wit,

Byron.

Byron, Don Juan, Iv. 110.

Which gives men stomach to digest his words

With better appetite.

I have neither wit, nor words, nor worth,

Sh. Jul. C. 1. 2.

Action, nor utterance, nor the power of speech,

To stir men's blood: I only speak right on. Sh. Jul. C. 111. 2.

These kind of knaves I know, which in their plainness

Harbour more craft, and more corrupter ends,

Than twenty silly duckling observants,

That stretch their duties nicely.

Sh. Lear, 11. 2.

54

BLUNTNESS-BOASTING.

BLUNTNESS-continued.

'Tis not enough your counsel still be true;
Blunt truths more mischief than nice falsehoods do.

BLUSHING

Pope. E. C. 572.

A crimson blush her beauteous face o'erspread,
Varying her cheeks, by turn, with white and red;
The driving colours, never at a stay,
Run here and there, and flush, and fade away.
From every blush that kindles in thy cheeks,
Ten thousand little loves and graces spring

To revel in the roses.

The rising blushes, which her cheek o'erspread,
Are opening roses in the lily's bed.

Parnell.

Rowe, Tamerlane.

Gay, Dione, II. 3.

Pope.

Scott, Rokeby, III. 5.

Do good by stealth, and blush to find it fame.

With every change his features played,

As aspens show the light and shade.

Though looks and words,

By the strong mastery of his practised will,

Are overruled, the mounting blood betrays

An impulse in its secret spring, too deep

For his control.

Southey.

Moore.

BOASTING-see Braggart.

The empty vessel makes the greatest sound. Sh. Hen. V. VI. 4.

The man that once did sell the lion's skin,

While the beast lived, was killed with hunting him. Ib. IV. 3.

What cracker is this same, that deafs our ears

With this abundance of superfluous breath? Sh. K. John, 11.1.

Here's a large mouth, indeed,

That spits forth death, and mountains, rocks, and seas;

Talks as familiarly of roaring lions,

As maids of thirteen do of puppy dogs.

Sh. K. John, 11. 2.

Sh. Ham. v. 1.

A mad-cap ruffian, and a swearing jack,

That thinks with oaths to face the matter out. Sh. Tam. S. 11. 1.

The honour is overpaid,

When he that did the act is commentator.

We rise in glory, as we sink in pride:

Shirley.

Where boasting ends, there dignity begins. Young, N. T. 8.