SOCIETY NECESSARY TO HAPPINESS. Wisdom, though richer than Peruvian mines, Denies, or damps, an undivided joy. Joy is an impost, joy is an exchange; Rich fruit! heaven-planted! never pluck'd by one. Young. CLOUDS OF THE BRAIN. A thousand fantasies Begin to throng into my memory, Of calling shapes, and beckoning shadows dire, Milton. HONOUR FOR WHAT? Men, like butterflies, Show not their mealy wings but to the summer; And not a man, for being simply man, Hath any honour; but honour for those honours Which when they fall, as, being slippery standers, Shakspere. FROM THE CRADLE TO THE TOMB. Pale, fearful death with bloody dart doth strike Mirror of Magistrates. THE SUNSHINE OF THE MIND. Thou canst not reach the height that I shall find; A generous soul is sunshine to the mind. Sir Robert Howard. SHATTERED DIAMONDS. Religion's ray no clouds obscure, It sheds a radiance calm and pure, His heart may break 'neath sorrow's stroke, Like diamonds shining when they're broke, WHY ARE WE NOT IN THE SUNSHINE? If thou wouldest have more light and heat, why art thou no more in the sunshine? For want of this recourse to heaven, thy soul is a lamp that is not lighted, and thy duties as a sacrifice which hath no fire. Fetch me coal daily from this altar, and see if thy offering will not burn. Light thy lamp at this flame, and feed it daily with oil from hence, and see if it will not gloriously shine. Keep close to this reviving fire, and see if thy affections will not be warm. A PLEA FOR GENIUS. Great brains (like brightest glass) crack straight, while those Of stone or wood hold out, and fear not blows; And we their hoary heads can see, Bishop Earle. OF JESTING. It is good to make a jest, but not to make a trade of jesting. The Earl of Leicester, knowing that Queen Elizabeth was much delighted to see a gentleman dance well, brought the master of a dancing-school to dance before her. "Pooh," said the queen, "it is his profession; I will not see him." Wanton jests make fools laugh, and wise men frown. Jest not with the two-edged sword of God's Word. Will nothing please thee to wash thy hands in but the font, or to drink healths in but the church chalice? Let not thy jests, like mummy, be made of dead men's flesh. Abuse not any that are departed, for to wrong their memories is to rob their ghosts of their windingsheets. Scoff not at the natural defects of any which are not in their power to amend. Oh! 'tis cruelty to beat a cripple with his own crutches. No time to break jests when the heart-strings are about to be broken. He that will lose a friend for a jest, deserves to die a beggar by the bargain. Thomas Fuller. THE INERTIA OF SORROW. Sad sorrow, like a heavy, ringing bell, CHURCH MUSIC. Sweetest of sweets, I thank you: when displeasure Did through my body wound my mind, You took me thence, and in your house of pleasure Now I in you without a body move, Comfort, I'll die; for if you post from me, But if I travel in your company, Herbert. AN EASY TASK AND A DIFFICULT ONE. 'Tis by comparison, an easy task Earth to despise; but to converse with Heaven, We have, or hope, of happiness and joy, And stand in freedom loosen'd from the world, |