THE BASIS OF AMBITION.

Ambition hath one heel nail'd in hell,

Though she stretch her fingers to touch the heavens.

Lilly.

AMBITION THE LUST OF POWER.

What is ambition, sir?

The lust of power.

Like glory, boy, it licenses to kill;

A strong temptation to do bravely ill;
A bait to draw the bold and backward in ;
The dear-bought recompense of highest sin:
For when to death we make the conquer'd yield,
What are we but the murd'rers of the field?

Lee.

AMBITION-SUPREME PASSION.
Ambition, like a torrent, ne'er looks back-
And is a swelling and the last affection
A high mind can put off; being both a rebel
Unto the soul and reason, and enforceth
All laws, all conscience, treads upon religion,
And offereth violence to nature's self.

Ben Jonson.

D

BENEFIT OF AFFLICTION.

Distress is Virtue's opportunity;

We only live, to teach us how to die.

A BOASTER,

Southerne.

With all his tumid boasts, is like the sword-fish, Who only wears his weapon in his mouth.

THE PLEASURES OF CONTENTMENT.

Madden.

When man has cast off his ambitious greatness,
And sunk into the sweetness of himself,
Built his foundation upon honest thoughts,
Not great but good desires his daily servants,
How quietly he sleeps! How joyfully
He wakes again, and looks on his possessions,
And from his willing labours feeds with plea-
Beaumont and Fletcher.

sure!

THE COWARDICE OF FALSEHOOD.

Lying's a certain mark of cowardice:

And, when the tongue forgets its honesty,

The heart and hand may drop their functions

too,

And nothing worthy be resolved or done.

Southerne.

LOVE OF COUNTRY.

'Tis said the world is ev'ry wise man's country;
Yet, after having view'd its various nations,
I'm weak enough still to prefer my own
To all I've seen beside.—You smile, my friend!
And think, perhaps, 'tis instinct more thau rea

son:

Why, be it so.

Instinct preceded reason, E'en in the wisest men, and may sometimes Be much the better guide. But, be it either, I must confess that even death itself Appear'd to me with twice its native horrors, When apprehended in a foreign land. Death is, no doubt, in ev'ry place the same; Yet Nature casts a look towards home, and most Who have it in their power choose to expire Where they first drew their breath.

FEAR OF DEATH.

Lilly.

'Tis not the stoic's lessons got by rote,
The pomp of words, and pedant dissertations,
That can sustain thee in that hour of terror:
Books have taught cowards to talk nobly of it;
But when the trial comes, they stand aghast.

Rowe.

CERTAINTY OF DEATH.

Sooner or later all things pass away,

And are no more.

The beggar and the king

With equal steps tread forward to their end:
The reconciling grave

Swallows distinction first, that made us foes;
Then all alike lie down in peace together.

Southerne.

DEATH.

This vast and solid earth, that blazing sun, Those skies through which it rolls, must all have end.

What then is man? the smallest part of nothing. Day buries day; month, month; and year, the

year.

Our life is but a chain of many deaths;

Can then death's self be fear'd? our life much rather.

Life is the desert, life the solitude.

Death joins us to the great majority:

'Tis to be borne to Platos and to Cæsars; 'Tis to be great for ever;

'Tis pleasure, 'tis ambition, then, to die.

Young.

WHAT IS DEATH?

'Tis to lay these clogs our bodies by,
And be removed to blest eternity.

By death relief from all our griefs we gain,
And by one put an end to years of pain;
By that we in one minute find out more,
Than all the busy gownmen study for;
Who, after in dull search they've ages spent,
Learn nothing but to know they're ignorant.

DEATH NOT FEARED BY THE GOOD.

The name of Death was never terrible

Otway.

To him that knew to live; nor the loud torrent Of all afflictions, singing as they swim,

A gall of heart but to a guilty conscience: Whilst we stand fair, though by a two-edged

sterm

We find untimely falls, like early roses

Bent to the earth, we bear our native sweetness. Beaumont and Fletcher.

DEATH A BLESSING.

Death is a blessing, and a thing so far
Above that worst of all our frailties, fear,
It claims our joy, since by it we put on
The top of happiness, perfection.

Otway.