ADVERSITY. I will bear it With all the tender suff'rance of a friend, Otway's Orphan. To-day a conquerer, and to-night a slave ! Higgon's Generous Conqueror. How sudden are the blows of fate! what change, Cibber's Casar in Egypt. The gods in bounty work up storms about us, Their hidden strength, and throw out into practice In the smooth seasons and the calms of life. Addison's Cato. Where is the hero, who ne'er found his equal? Frowde's Fall of Saguntum. To exult Ev'n o'er an enemy oppress'd, and heap Smollett's Regicide. Now let us thank th' eternal Power; convinc'd, Who has not known ill fortune, never knew Mallet and Thomson's Alfred. Affliction is the wholesome soil of virtue : Where patience, honor, sweet humanity, Calm fortitude, take root, and strongly flourish. Ibid. The brave unfortunate are our best acquaintance; And give us their example how to suffer. Francis's Eugenia. When a great mind falls, The noble nature of man's gen'rous heart Joanna Baillie's Basil, a. 5, s 3. List to me, monk, it is thy trade to talk, Hear one plain tale that doth saws, surpass all Hear it from me- -Count Bertram-aye-Count Bertram, The darling of his liege and of his land, Whose smile was fortune, and whose will was law- For water to refresh his parched lip, And this hard-matted couch to throw his limbs on. Maturin's Bertram, a 2, s 1. If I once fall, how many knees, now bending, Sir A. Hunt's Julian. We bleed, we tremble, we forget, we smile. Affliction is the good man's shining scene; As night to stars, woe lustre gives to man. Ibid, n. 9. Heaven gives us friends to bless the present scene; All discipline, indulgence, on the whole. Ibid, n. 9, Ye good distress'd! Ye noble few! who here unbending stand The storms of wintry time will quickly pass, Thomson's Seasons-Winter. ADVICE. Learn to dissemble wrongs, to smile at injuries, Search, and know all mankind's mysterious ways; This is the way, This only, to be safe in such a world as this is. Rowe's Ulysses. Saints And cool-soul'd hermits, mortify'd with care, And bent by age and palsies, whine out maxims, Hill's Henry V. What could I more? I warn'd thee, I admonished thee, foretold The danger, and the lurking enemy That lay in wait; beyond this had been force, Milton's Paradise Lost, b. 9. AGE. Of no distemper, of no blast he died, But fell like autumn fruit that mellow'd long, Till, like a clock worn out with eating time, Lee's Edipus. These are the effects of doting age, Dryden's Sebastian. Age sits with decent grace upon his visage, Thirst of power and riches now bear sway, Frowde's Philotas. Those wise old men, those plodding grave state pe dants, Forget the course of youth; their crooked prudence, Into their fine-spun schemes the generous heart, Thomson's Tancred and Sigismunda, a. 2, s. 6. AGE. This heart, by age and grief congeal'd, Is no more sensible to love's endearments, Than are our barren rocks to morn's sweet dew, That calmly trickles down their rugged cheeks. Miller's Mahomet. His mien is lofty, his demeanour great, Dr. Johnson's Irene. There age essaying to recal the past, Full many a glance at the too faithful mirror, Byron's Doge of Venice, a. 4, s. 1. Fresh hopes are hourly sown In furrow'd brows. So gentle life's descent, Young's Night Thoughts, n. 2. O my coevals! remnants of yourselves! |