Truth. Colton. THE adorer of Truth is above all present things. Firm in the midst of Temptation, and frank in the midst of Treachery, he will be attacked by those who have prejudices, simply because he is without then, decried as a bad bargain by all who want to purchase, because he alone is not to be bought, and abused by all parties, because he is the advocate of none; like the Dolphin, which is always painted more crooked than a ram's horn, although every Naturalist knows that it is the straightest Fish that swims. TRO RUTH is as impossible to be soiled by any outward touch, as the Sunbeam; though this ill hap wait on her nativity, that she never comes into the world, but like a bastard, to the ignominy of him that brought her forth; till time, the midwife rather than the mother of Truth, have washed and salted the infant, declared her legitimate, and churched the father of his young Minerva, from the needless causes of his purgation. HOW much more doth Beauty beauteous seem The Rose looks fair, but fairer we it deem For that sweet odour which doth in it live. As the perfumed tincture of the Roses; When summer's breath their masked buds discloses ; They live unwoo'd, and unrespected fade; Die to themselves: sweet Roses do not so; Of their sweet Deaths are sweetest odours made. ALL Truth is precious, if not all divine, And what dilates the pow'rs must needs refine. RUTH is established by investigation and delay; TRUTH is simple, requiring neither Study nor Art. HE affairs of this world are kept together by what TH little Truth and Integrity still remains amongst us; and yet I much question whether the absolute dominior of Truth would be compatible with the existence of any society now existing upon the face of the Earth. Pure Truth, like pure Gold, has been found unfit for circulation, because men have discovered that it is far more convenient to adulterate the Truth, than to refine themselves. They will not advance their Minds to the Standard, therefore they lower the Standard to their Minds. Truth. Shakespeare. IF circumstances lead me, I will find Where Truth is hid, though it were hid indeed THE expression of Truth is Simplicity. Truth. Cowper. MUCH learned dust Involves the combatants, each claiming Truth, TRUTH needs no colour, with his colour fix'd; RUTH is the object of Reason, and this is one; Beauty Tis the object of Taste, and this is multiform. TRUTH Truth. Colton. can hardly be expected to adapt herself to the crooked policy and wily sinuosities of worldly affairs ; for Truth, like light, travels only in straight lines. TRU RUTH, by whomsoever spoken, comes from God. It is, in short, a divine essence. TRUTH came once into the world with her Divine Master, and was a perfect shape most glorious to look on: but when he ascended, and his Apostles after him were laid asleep, then straight arose a wicked race of deceivers, who, as that story goes of the Egyptian Typhon with his conspirators, how they dealt with the good Osiris, took the virgin Truth, hewed her lovely form into a thousand pieces, and scattered them to the four winds. From that time ever since, the sad friends of Truth, such as durst appear, imitating the careful search that Isis made for the mangled body of Osiris, went up and down gathering up limb by limb still as they could find them. We have not yet found them all, nor ever shall do, till her Master's second coming; he shall bring together every joint and member, and shall mould them into an immortal feature of Loveliness and Perfection. a man be sincerely wedded to Truth, he must make up his mind to find her a portionless Virgin, and he must take her for herself alone. The contract, too, must be to love, cherish, and obey her, not only until Death, but beyond it; for this is an union that must survive not only Death, but Time, the conqueror of Death. THE TRUTH fears nothing but Concealment. Truth. From the French. adherence to Truth does not produce so much good in the world, as the appearances of it do mischief. Truth. Steele. THOUGH men may impose upon themselves what they please, by their corrupt imaginations, Truth will ever keep its station; and as glory is nothing else but the shadow of Virtue, it will certainly disappear at the depar. ture of Virtue. HE Truth. Sir Philip Sidney. E that finds Truth, without loving her, is like a bat; which, though it have eyes to discern that there is a Sun, yet hath so evil eyes, that it cannot delight in the Sun. Isin spring, there less of Sincerity in Nature during her gambols her wintry gloom? Does not the bird's blithe caroling come from the Heart, quite as much as the quadruped's monotonous cry? And it is then altogether impossible to take up one's abode with Truth, and to let all sweet homely feelings grow about it, and cluster around it, and to smile upon it as on a kind father or mother, and to sport with it and hold light and merry talk with it as with a loved brother or sister, and to fondle it and play with it as with a child? No otherwise did Socrates and Plato commune with Truth; no otherwise Cervantes and Shakespeare. This playfulness of Truth is beautifully represented by Landor, in the Conversation between Marcus Cicero and his brother, in an allegory which has the voice and the spirit of Plato. On the other hand, the outcries of those who exclaim against every sound more lively than a bray or a bleat, as derogatory to Truth, are often prompted, not so much by their deep feeling of the dignity of the Truth in question, as of the dignity of the person by whom that Truth is maintained. It is our Vanity, our Self-Conceit, that makes us so sore and irritable. To a grave argument we may reply gravely, and fancy that we have the best of it: but he who is too dull or too angry to smile, cannot answer a smile, except by fretting and fuming. Truth. HE greatest friend of Truth is Time; her greatest Tenemy is Prejudice; and her constant companion is Humility. THE Truth. Colton. HE temple of Truth is built indeed of stones of Crystal, but, inasmuch as men have been concerned in rearing it, it has been consolidated by a cement composed of baser materials. It is deeply to be lamented that Truth herself will attract little attention, and less Esteem, until it be amalgamated with some particular party, persuasion, or sect; unmixed and unadulterated, it too often proves as unfit for currency, as pure gold for circulation. Sir Walter Raleigh has observed, that he that follows Truth too closely, must take care that she does not strike out his teeth. TRUTH is a great stronghold, barred and fortified by God and Nature; and diligence is properly the Understanding's laying siege to it; so that, as in a kind of warfare, it must be perpetually upon the watch, observing all the avenues and passes to it, and accordingly makes its approaches. Sometimes it thinks it gains a point; and presently again it finds itself baffled and beaten off: yet still it renews the Onset, attacks the difficulty afresh, plants this reasoning, and that argument, this consequence, and that distinction, like so many intellectual batteries, till at length it forces a way and passage into the obstinate enclosed Truth, that so long withstood and defied all its assaults. Truth. Sir T. Brown. VERY man is not a proper champion for Truth, nor E it to the up the gauntlet in the cause of Verity; many, from the ignorance of these maxims and an inconsiderate zeal unto Truth, have too rashly charged the troops of Error, and remain as trophies unto the Enemies of Truth: a man may be in as just possession of Truth, as of a city, and yet be forced to surrender; 'tis therefore far better to enjoy her with Peace, than to hazard her on a battle. SOME Truth. Cato. OME men are more beholden to their bitterest Enemies, than to Friends who appear to be sweetness itself. The former frequently tell the Truth, but the latter never. Truth. WHAT! gone without a word? Ay, so true Love should do: it cannot speak; HUMAN nature is not so much depraved as to hinder us from respecting Goodness in others, though we ourselves want it. This is the reason why we are so much charmed with the pretty prattle of children, and even the expressions of Pleasure or uneasiness in some part of the brute creation. They are without Artifice or Malice; and we love Truth too well to resist the charms of Sincerity. |