3. What hope is there remaining of liberty, if whatever is their pleasure, it is lawful for them to do; if what is lawful for them to do, they are able to do; if what they are able to do, they dare do; if what they dare do, they really execute; and if what they execute is no way offensive to you.-Cicero. 4. Nothing is more pleasant to the faney, than to enlarge itself by degrees in its contemplation of the various proportions which its several objects bear to each other; when it compares the body of a man to the bulk of the whole earth; the earth to the circle it describes round the sun; that circle to the sphere of the fixed stars; the sphere of the fixed stars to the circuit of the whole creation; the whole creation itself, to the infinite space that is every where diffused around it. Spectator. 5. After we have practised good actions awhile, they become easy; and when they are easy, we begin to take pleasure in them; and when they please us, we do them frequently; and by frequency of acts, a thing grows into a habit; and a confined habit is a second kind of nature; and so far as any thing is natural, so far it is necessary; and we can hardly do otherwise; nay, we do it many times when we do not think of it. Tillotson. 6. It is pleasant to be virtuous and good, because that is to excel many others; it is pleasant to grow better, because that is to excel ourselves; it is pleasant to mortify and subdue our lusts, because that is victory; it is pleasant to command our appetites and passions, and to keep them in due order, within the bounds of reason and religion, because that is empire. Tillotson. 7. Tully has a very beautiful gradation of thoughts to show how amiable virtue is. We love a righteous man, says he, who lives in the remotest parts of the earth, though we are altogether out of the reach of his virtue, and can receive from it no manner of benefit; nay, one who died several ages ago, raises a secret fondness and benevolence for him in our minds, when we read his story; nay, what is still more, one who has been the enemy of our country, provided his wars were regulated by justice and humanity. -Spectator. 8. As trees and plants necessarily arise from seeds, so are you Antony, the seed of this most calamitous war.You mourn, O Romans, that three of our armies have been slaughtered-they were slaughtered by Antony; you lament the loss of your most illustrious citizens-they were torn from you by Antony; the authority of this order is deeply wounded-it is wounded by Antony; in short all the calamities we have ever since beheld (and what calamities have we not beheld ?) have been entirely owing to Antony. As Helen was of Troy, so the bane, the misery, the destruction of this state is- -Antony.- -Cicero. 9. Give me the cup. And let the kettle to the trumpets speak, The trumpets to the cannoneers within, The cannons to the heavens, the heavens to earth, 10. At thirty, man suspects himself a fool; Pushes his prudent purpose to resolve, Resolves and re-resolves-then dies the same.—— -Young. VII-Examples of the principal Emotions and Passions ADMIRATION, CONTEMPT, Joy, GRIEF, COURAGE, FEAR, LOVE, HATRED, PITY, ANGER, REVENGE and JEALOUSY. 1. WHAT a piece of work is man! How noble in reason! How infinite in faculties! In form and moving how express and admirable! In action how like an angel! In apprehension how like a god Hamlet. 2. Away! No woman could descend so low. A skipping, dancing, worthless tribe you are. And when the circling glass warms your vain hearts, And fancy raptures that you never knew.Fair Penitent. 3. Let mirth go on; let pleasure know no pause, But fill up every minute of this day. 'Tis yours, my children, sacred to your loves. 4. All dark and comfortless. O misery! What words can sound my grief! Shut from the living whilst among the living; Tragedy of Lear. 5. Thou speak'st a woman's; hear a warrior's wish. Then shall our foes repent their bold invasion, Tragedy of Douglas. 6. Ah! Mercy on my soul! What's that? My old friend's ghost! They say, none but wicked folks walk. I wish I were at the bottom of a coalpit! La! how pale, and how long his face is grown since his death! He never was handsome; and death has improved him very much the wrong way.-Pray, do not come near me! I wished you very well when you were alive. But I could never abide a dead man cheek by jowl with me.-Ah! Ah! mercy on me! No nearer, pray! If it be only to take your leave of me, that you are come back, I could have excused you the ceremony with all my heart.-Or if you-mercy on us! No nearer, pray-or if you have wrong'd any body, as you always lov'd money a little, I give you the word of a frighted Christian, I will pray, as long as you please, for the deliverance and repose of your departed soul. My good, worthy, noble friend, do, pray, disappear, as ever you would wish your old friend, Anselm, to come to his senses again. Moliere's Blunderer. 7. Who can behold such beauty and be silent! O! I could talk to thee forever; Forever fix and gaze on those dear eyes; For every glance they send darts through my soul ! 8. How like a fawning publican he looks ! I hate him for he is a Christian : But more, for that in low simplicity I will feed fat that ancient grudge I bear him. E'en there where the merchants most do congregate, Orphan. 9. As, in a theatre, the eyes of men, Even so, or with much more contempt, men's eyes That had not God, for some strong purpose, steel'd 10. Hear me, rash man, on thy allegiance hear me. And kingdom. If, when three days are expired, -Tragedy of Lear. 11. If it will feed nothing else, it will feed my revenge. He hath disgraced me, and hindered me of half a million, laughed at my losses, mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine enemies. And what's his reason? I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? Is he not fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same summer and winter, as a Christian is ? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that. If a Jew wrong a Christian, what is his humility? Revenge. If a Christian wrong a Jew, what would his sufferance be, by Christian example? Why, revenge. The villany you teach me I will execute; and it shall go hard, but I will better the instruction.- –Merchant of Venice. 12. Ye amaranths! Ye roses, like the morn! The day's uncommon heat has overcome her. Then take, my longing eyes, your last full gaze- Where shall I strike? Who strikes her, strikes himself- But see she smiles! I never shall smile more It strongly tempts me to a parting kiss Ha, smile again! She dreams of him she loves.- FINIS Revenge. |