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

In cadence sweet!

The Task. Book vi. Winter Walk at Noon. Line 1.

Here the heart

May give a useful lesson to the head,

And Learning wiser grow without his books. Ibid. Line 85.

Knowledge is proud that he has learn'd so

much;

Wisdom is humble that he knows no more.
Books are not seldom talismans and spells.

Ibid. Line 96.

Some to the fascination of a name

Surrender judgment hoodwink'd.

Ibid. Line 101.

I would not enter on my list of friends (Though graced with polish'd manners and fine

sense,

Yet wanting sensibility) the man

Who needlessly sets foot upon a worm.

Ibid. Line 560.

An honest man, close-button'd to the chin, Broadcloth without, and a warm heart within. Epistle to Joseph Hill.

Shine by the side of every path we tread With such a lustre, he that runs may read.1 Tirocinium. Line 79.

1 Compare Habakkuk ii. 2.

Absence of occupation is not rest,

A mind quite vacant is a mind distress'd.
Retirement. Line 623.

An idler is a watch that wants both hands;
As useless if it goes as if it stands.

Ibid. Line 681.

Built God a church, and laughed his word to Ibid. Line 688.

scorn.

I praise the Frenchman, his remark was shrewd,1
How sweet, how passing sweet is solitude!
But grant me still a friend in my retreat,
Whom I may whisper, solitude is sweet.

Ibid. Line 739.

Is base in kind, and born to be a slave.

No.

Table Talk. Line 28.

Freedom has a thousand charms to show, That slaves, howe'er contented, never know. Ibid. Line 260.

Just knows, and knows no more, her Bible true,
A truth the brilliant Frenchman never knew.
Truth. Line 327.

How much a dunce that has been sent to roam,
Excels a dunce that has been kept at home.
The Progress of Error. Line 415.

A kick that scarce would move a horse

May kill a sound divine.

The Yearly Distress.

1 La Bruyère.

O that those lips had language! Life has pass'd With me but roughly since I heard thee last. On the Receipt of my Mother's Picture.

The son of parents passed into the skies.

Ibid.

There goes the parson, oh! illustrious spark! And there, scarce less illustrious, goes the clerk. On observing some Names of Little Note.

A fool must now and then be right by chance.
Conversation. Line 96.

He would not, with a peremptory tone,
Assert the nose upon his face his own.

Ibid. Line 121.

A moral, sensible, and well-bred man
Will not affront me, and no other can.

Ibid. Line 193.

Pernicious weed! whose scent the fair annoys, Unfriendly to society's chief joys,

Thy worst effect is banishing for hours

The sex whose presence civilizes ours.

Ibid. Line 251.

I cannot talk with civet in the room,
A fine puss-gentleman that's all perfume.

Ibid. Line 283.

The solemn fop; significant and budge;
A fool with judges, amongst fools a judge.1

Ibid. Line 299.

1 Compare Johnson, ante, p. 342.

His wit invites you by his looks to come,
But, when you knock, it never is at home.1
Conversation. Line 303.

Our wasted oil unprofitably burns,

Like hidden lamps in old sepulchral urns.2

Ibid. Line 357.

That, though on pleasure she was bent,
She had a frugal mind.

History of John Gilpin,

A hat not much the worse for wear. Ibid.

Now let us sing, Long live the king,
And Gilpin long live he;

And when he next doth ride abroad,

May I be there to see!

Toll for the brave!

The brave that are no more!

All sunk beneath the wave,

Fast by their native shore!

Ibid.

On the Loss of the Royal George.

I shall not ask Jean Jaques Rousseau
If birds confabulate or no.

Pairing Time Anticipated.

1 Compare Pope, Epigram, ante, p. 313.

2 Love in your hearts as idly burns

As fire in antique Roman urns.

Butler, Hudibras, Part ii. Canto i. 309.

The story of the lamp which was supposed to have burned above 1,550 years in the sepulchre of Tullia, the daughter of Cicero, is told by Pancirollus and others.

Misses! the tale that I relate

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This lesson seems to carry,
Choose not alone a proper mate,
But proper time to marry.

Pairing Time Anticipated.

What peaceful hours I once enjoy'd!
How sweet their memory still!

But they have left an aching void

The world can never fill.

Walking with God.

And the tear that is wiped with a little address May be follow'd, perhaps, by a smile.

A worm is in the bud of youth,
And at the root of age.

The Rose.

Stanzas subjoined to a Bill of Mortality.

And Satan trembles when he sees
The weakest saint upon his knees.

Exhortation to Prayer.

God moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform;
He plants his footsteps in the sea

And rides upon the storm.

Light Shining out of Darkness.

Behind a frowning providence

He hides a shining face.

I am monarch of all I survey,

My right there is none to dispute.

Ibid.

Verses supposed to be written by Alexander Selkirk.

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