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Was robed in silk and gold, and every day
Fared sumptuously; was titled, honour'd, served.
Thousands his nod awaited, and his will
For law received.

Turn now thine eye, and look on poverty!
Look on the lowest of her ragged sons:
We find him by the way, sitting in dust;
He has no bread to eat, no tongue to ask;

No limbs to walk; no home, no house, no friend.
See how his hand, if any hand he has,

Involuntarily opens, and trembles forth,

As comes the traveller's foot; and hear his groan.
On him hail, rain, and tempest rudely beat;
And all the winds of heaven, in jocular mood,
Sport with his wither'd rags, that, toss'd about,
Display his nakedness to passers by,
And grievously burlesque the human form.
Observe him yet more narrowly: his limbs,
With palsy shaken, about him blasted lie;
And all his flesh is full of putrid sores,

And noisome wounds, his bones of racking pains.
Strange vesture this for an immortal soul!
Strange retinue to wait a lord of earth!
It seems as Nature, in some surly mood,
After debate and musing long, had tried
How vile and miserable thing her hand
Could fabricate, then made this meagre man:
A sight so full of perfect misery,
That passengers their faces turn'd away,
And hasted to be gone; and delicate
And tender woman took another path.

This great disparity of outward things
Taught many lessons; but this taught in chief,
Though learn'd by few: that God no value set,
That man should none, on goods of worldly kind;
On transitory, frail, external things,

Of migratory, ever-changing sort;

And further taught, that in the soul alone,
The thinking, reasonable, willing soul,
God placed the total excellence of man;
And meant him evermore to seek it there.

130. ALLOTMENT. Thy

THOU cam'st not to thy place by accident, It is the very place God meant for thee;

Pollok.

And shouldst thou there small scope for action see,

Do not for this give room to discontent,
Nor let the time thou owest to God be spent
In idly dreaming how thou mightest be,
In what concerns thy spiritual life, more free
From outward hindrance or impediment.
For presently this hindrance thou shalt find
That without which all goodness were a task

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134. ALLUREMENTS. Resisting

ULYSSES, sailing by the Siren's isle,

Seal'd first his comrades' ears, then bade them fast
Bind him with many a fetter to the mast,

Lest those sweet voices should their souls beguile,
And to their ruin flatter them, the while
Their homeward bark was sailing swiftly past;
And thus the peril they behind them cast,
Though chased by those weird voices many a mile.
But yet a nobler cunning Orpheus used:
No fetter he put on, nor stopp'd his ear,

But ever, as he pass'd, sang high and clear
The blisses of the gods, their holy joys,
And with diviner melody confused
And marr'd earth's sweetest music to a noise.

135. ALMS.

Law of

R. C. Trench.

IN alms regard thy means, and others' merits.
Think Heaven a better bargain than to give
Only thy single market-money for it,

Join hands with God to make a man to live.
Give to all something; to a good poor man,
Till thou change names, and be where he began.

Man is God's image; but a poor man is

Christ's stamp to boot: both images regard. God reckons for him, counts the favour His:

137. AMBITION. Baseness of ungoverned

DARE to be great without a guilty crown;
View it, and lay the bright temptation down.
'Tis base to seize on all.-Dryden.

138. AMBITION. Cheat of

WHAT IS AMBITION? 'Tis a glorious cheat!
It seeks the chamber of the gifted boy
And lifts his humble window, and comes in.
The narrow walls expand, and spread away
Into a kingly palace, and the roof
Lifts to the sky, and unseen fingers work
The ceilings with rich blazonry, and write
His name in burning letters over all.
And ever, as he shuts his 'wildered eyes,
The phantom comes and lays upon his lids
A spell that murders sleep, and in his ear
Whispers a deathless word, and on his brain
Breathes a fierce thirst no water will allay.
He is its slave henceforth! His days are spent
In chaining down his heart, and watching where
To rise by human weaknesses. His nights
Bring him no rest in all their blessed hours.
His kindred are forgotten or estranged.
Unhealthful fires burn constant in his eye.
His lip grows restless, and its smile is curl'd
Half into scorn-till the bright, fiery boy,
That was a daily blessing but to see,

Write, So much given to God; thou shalt be His spirit was so bird-like and so pure,

heard.

Let thine alms go before, and keep Heaven's gate
Open for thee; or both may come too late.
George Herbert.

136. ALMSGIVING. A Reason for

I AM a humble pensioner
Myself for daily bread;
Shall I forget my brothers
Who seem in greater need?

I know not how it happen'd

That I had more than they,
Unless God meant that I should give
A part of it away.

The poorest highway beggar

And I have needs the same;
Close side by side we waited,
While God call'd out the name.

So, brother, it but happen'd

The name he call'd was mine,
The food was given for us both.
Here! Half of it is thine!

Is frozen, in the very flush of youth,
Into a cold, care-fretted, heartless man.

And what is its reward? At best, a name!
Praise-when the ear has grown too dull to hear,
Gold-where the senses it should please are dead;
Wreaths where the hair they cover has grown grey,
Fame when the heart it should have thrill'd is
numb;

All things but love-when love is all we want;
And close behind comes Death, and ere we know
That ev'n these unavailing gifts are ours,

He sends us, stripp'd and naked, to the grave!
N. P. Willis.

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If 'tis a vice, then let those souls beware, Thrice noble though they be, and passing fair In the world's eye, and high upon the scrolls, Her favour'd minions where the world enrolls, Lest it conduct to shame! Be thine the care, Soldier of Christ, that nobler strife to dare, Which the rash spirit of the world controls, And makes ambition virtue! Be it thine To win thy bright unfading diadem

By works of love! Around his brows shall shine In heaven from glory's source the purest beam, Whose aspect here, with beauty most divine, Reflects the image of the GOOD Supreme.

142. AMBITION. Curse of

Mant.

WOE to thee, wild Ambition! I employ
Despair's low notes thy dread effects to tell :

Born in high heaven, her peace thou could'st destroy;

And but for thee there had not been a hell. Through the celestial domes thy clarion peal'd; Angels, entranced, beneath thy banners ranged And straight were fiends; hurl'd from the shrinking field,

They waked in agony to wail the change. Darting through all her veins the subtle fire,

The world's fair mistress first inhaled thy breath; To lot of higher beings learn'd to aspire, Dared to attempt, and doom'd the world to death. Maria A. Brooks.

143. AMBITION: destroys Peace.

ONE shall rise

Of proud ambitious heart, who, not content
With fair equality, fraternal state,
Will arrogate dominion undeserved

Over his brethren, and quite dispossess Concord and law of nature from the earth.

Milton.

O dire Ambition! what infernal power Unchain'd thee from thy native depth of hell, To stalk the earth with thy destructive train, Murder and lust! to waste domestic peace And every heartfelt joy.-Brown.

144. AMBITION. Devil of

How, like a mounting devil in the heart,
Rules the unrein'd Ambition! Let it once
But play the monarch, and its haughty brow
Glows with a beauty that bewilders thought
And unthrones peace for ever. Putting on
The very pomp of Lucifer, it turns
The heart to ashes, and with not a spring
Left in the bosom for the spirit's lip,
We look upon our splendour and forget
The thirst for which we perish! Yet hath life
Many a falser idol.-N. P. Willis.

145. AMBITION. Disappointments of

I AM as one

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ON what foundations stands the warrior's pride,
How just his hopes, let Swedish Charles decide:
A frame of adamant, a soul of fire,
No dangers fright him, and no labours tire;
O'er love, o'er fear, extends his wide domain,
Unconquer'd lord of pleasure and of pain.
No joys to him pacific sceptres yield,
War sounds the trump, he rushes to the field;
Behold surrounding kings their power combine,
And one capitulate, and one resign;

Peace courts his hand, but spreads her charms in vain;

'Think nothing gain'd,' he cries, till nought remain,

On Moscow's walls till Gothic standards fly,
And all be mine beneath the polar sky.'
The march begins in military state,
And nations on his eye suspended wait;
Stern famine guards the solitary coast,
And winter barricades the realms of frost.
He comes, nor want nor cold his course delay;
Hide, blushing glory, hide Pultowa's day!
The vanquish'd hero leaves his broken bands,
And shows his miseries in distant lands;
Condemn'd a needy supplicant to wait,
While ladies interpose and slaves debate.
But did not Chance at length her error mend?
Did not subverted empire mark his end?
Did rival monarchs give the fatal wound,
Or hostile millions press him to the ground?

His fall was destined to a barren strand,

A petty fortress, and a dubious hand;

He left the name, at which the world grew pale,
To point a moral or adorn a tale.—Johnson.

150. AMBITION. Examples of NAPOLEON, Frederic, Charles, and Cromwell

these

Swept the earth with a besom dipp'd in fire. They would have kings and nations bend their knees; Theirs was the untamed thirst of something higher,

An energy of hope, that could not tire, The love of self to deeds of might sublimed.

Ambition wrought to habitudes of ire, Force, reckless force, uncheck'd, unbent, untimed, An aim to gain a height where power had never climb'd.

They sought they knew not what,-they set no bound

To their wide-clenching grasp their longing grew,

As grew their empire, -keenly, as the hound
Catches the deer-track in the morning dew,
They snuff'd the scent of conquest,-victory threw
Her laurels at their feet-awhile they gave

Blood to the earth like water,-madly flew
Their gore-fed eagles. But the wildest wave
Breaks and subsides at last; their end was in the
grave.

Now they are dust and ashes; other swarms

People the ground they wasted, other men Rise to be torn and toss'd by other storms. Ambition sleeps a moment in her den

To gain new breath, and fire, and strength; but then

She blows the ember'd coals, and they are flame.
So it must be, for it hath ever been :-
Age rolls on age, and heroes are the same,—
The rest, the crowd, the mob, the warlike hunter's
game.--J. G. Percival.

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HEW Atlas for my monument; upraise
A pyramid for my tomb, that, undestroy'd
By rank, oblivion, and the hungry void,
My name shall echo through prospective days.
O careless conqueror! cold, abysmal grave!
Is it not sad-is it not sad, my heart-
To smother young Ambition, and depart
Unhonour'd and unwilling, like death's slave?
No rare immortal remnant of my thought
Embalms my life; no poem firmly rear'd
Against the shock of time, ignobly fear'd,
But all my life's progression come to nought.
Hew Atlas! build a pyramid in a plain !
O, cool the fever burning in my brain!

David Gray.

152. AMBITION. Fling away

I CHARGE thee, fling away Ambition;

By that sin fell the angels: how can man then,
The image of his Maker, hope to win by 't? .
Love thyself last, cherish those hearts that hate thee,
Corruption wins not more than honesty.
Still, in thy right hand, carry gentle peace

To silence envious tongues. Be just and fear not.
Let all the ends thou aim'st at be thy country's,
Thy God's, and truth's.-Shakespeare.

153. AMBITION : impatient.

AMBITION is like love, impatient
Both of delays and rivals.-Denham.

154 AMBITION. Ingratitude of

Brutus. The abuse of greatness is, when it disjoins Remorse from power: and to speak truth of Cæsar, I have not known when his affections sway'd More than his reason. But 'tis a common proof, That lowliness is young Ambition's ladder, Whereto the climber upward turns his face : But when he once attains the upmost round, He then unto the ladder turns his back, Looks in the clouds, scorning the base degrees By which he did ascend.-Shakespeare.

155. AMBITION : insatiable.

AMBITION is a lust that's never quench'd,
Grows more inflamed and madder by enjoyment.

Otway.

Ambition, like a torrent, ne'er looks back; It is a swelling, and the last affection

A high mind can put off. It is a rebel

Both to the soul and reason, and enforces
All laws, all conscience; treads upon religion,
And offers violence to nature's self.-Ben Jonson.

The world sufficed not Alexander's mind;
Coop'd up he seem'd, in earth and seas confined.

Dryden.

156. AMBITION: makes life a toil. BLINDED greatness, ever in turmoil, Still seeking happy life, makes life a toil.

Daniel.

157. AMBITION: may be an excellence.
MAN was mark'd

A friend, in his creation, to himself,
And may, with fit Ambition, conceive
The greatest blessings and the brightest honours
Appointed for him, if he can achieve them
The right and noble way.—Massinger.

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160. AMBITION: natural to man.

NATURE, that framed us of four elements,
Warring within our breasts for regimen,
Doth teach us all to have aspiring minds:
Our souls, whose faculties can comprehend
The wondrous architecture of the world,
And measure ev'ry wand'ring planet's course,
Still climbing after knowledge infinite,
And always moving as the restless spheres,
Wills us to wear ourselves, and never rest
Until we reach the ripest fruit of all,

That perfect bliss and sole felicity,

The sweet fruition of a heav'nly crown.-Marlo.

So strong the zeal t' immortalize himself

Beats in the breast of man, that ev'n a few,
Few transient years won from the abyss abhorr'd
Of blank oblivion seem a glorious prize,

And even to a clown.-Cowper.

161. AMBITION: often leads to disgrace. WHERE ambition of place goes before fitness Of birth, contempt and disgrace follow.-Chapman.

162. AMBITION. Penalties of

THEY that stand high have many blasts to shake them,

And if they fall, they dash themselves to pieces.

Shakespeare.

O false ambition!

Thou lying phantom! whither hast thou lured me?
Ev'n to this giddy height; where now I stand
Forsaken, comfortless; with not a friend
In whom my soul can trust.—Brown,

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