VIRTUE A SAFEGUARD.

As great seamen, using all their wealth
And skills in Neptune's deep invisible paths,
In tall ships richly-built and ribb'd with brass,
To put a girdle round about the world;
When they have done it, coming near the haven,
Are fain to give a warning piece, and call
A poor, staid fisherman, that never pass'd
His country's sight, to waft and guide them in;
So when we wander furthest through the waves
Of glassy glory, and the gulfs of state,

Topp'd with all titles, spreading all our reaches,
As if each private arm would sphere the earth,
We must to Virtue for her guide resort,

Or we shall shipwreck in our safest port.

Chapman.

AMBITION TO BE AVOIDED.

Beware ambition;

Heaven is not reach'd with pride, but with sub.

THE LESSONS OF AFFLICTION.

Affliction is the wholesome soil of virtue ;
Where patience, honour, sweet humanity,
Calm fortitude, take root, and strongly flourish.
Mallet and Thomson.

DEATH-THE PANGS OF.

Endless parting

With all we can call ours, with all our sweetness, With youth, strength, pleasure, people, time, nay, reason;

For in the silent grave no conversation,

No joyful tread of friends, no voice of lovers, No careful father's counsel, nothing's heard, Nor nothing is, but all oblivion,

Dust, and an endless darkness.

UNEXPECTED HAPPINESS.

Fletcher.

Joys unexpected, and in desperate plight, Are still most sweet, and prove from whence they come;

When earth's still moon-like confidence in joy Is at her full true joy descending far

From past her sphere, and from that highest

heaven

That moves and is not moved.

Chapman.

JUSTICE: WHY TYPIFIED AS Blind.

Justice painted blind,

Infers his ministers are obliged to hear
The cause and truth; the judge, determine of it;
And, not sway'd or by favour or affection,
By a false gloss or corrected comment, alter
The true intent and letter of the law.

JUSTICE.

Massinger.

What wouldst thou have, good fellow?
Justice, madam.

O ambitious beggar, wouldst thou have that
That lives not in the world?

Why, all the undelved mines cannot buy

An ounce of justice, 'tis a jewel so inestimable. I tell thee, God hath engross'd all justice in His hands,

And there is none but what comes from Him.

Kyd.

MAGNANIMITY A MARK OF GREATNESS.
Great minds erect their never-falling trophies
On the firm base of mercy; but to triumph
Over a suppliant, by proud fortune captivated,
Argues a bastard conquest.
Massinger.

THE PLEASURES OF MUSIC.

Though cheerfulness and I have long been

strangers,

Harmonious sounds are still delightful to me: There's sure no passion in the human soul, But finds its food in music.

Lilly.

DISCRETION AND VALOUR.

Discretion

And hard valour are the twins of honour,
And, nursed together, make a conqueror;
Divided, but a talker. Beaumont and Fletcher.

THE USE OF ADVERSITY.

By adversity are wrought

The greatest works of admiration ;

And all the fair examples of renown

Out of distress and misery are grown. Daniel.

USES OF AFFLICTION.

Perfumes, the more they're chafed, the more they render

Their pleasant scents; and so affliction
Expresseth virtue fully, whether true
Or else adulterate.

Webster.

WHAT COURTS SHOULD BE.

That's a court indeed;

Not mix'd with clowneries used in common

houses;

But, as courts should be, the abstracts of their kingdoms,

In all the beauty, state, and worth they hold.

The world is not contracted in a man,
With more proportion and expression,
Than in her court her kingdom.

THE BOOK OF NATURE.

Chapman.

Oh, bid my soul

Lift up her intellectual eyes to heaven,
And in this ample book of wonders read
Of what celestial mould, what sacred essence,
Herself is form'd; the search whereof will drive
Sounds musical among the jarring spirits,
And in sweet tune set that which none inherits.
Decker.

THE CRUELTY OF REVENGE.

Revenge, that thirsty dropsy of our souls,
Makes us covet that which hurts us most.

Massinger.