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PRESENT example gets within our guard,
And acts with double force, by few repell'd.
Ambition fires ambition; love of gain
Strikes, like a pestilence, from breast to breast.
Riot, pride, perfidy, blue vapours breathe;
And inhumanity is caught from man,

From smiling man! A slight, a single glance,
And shot at random, often has brought home
A sudden fever to the throbbing heart
Of envy, rancour, or impure desire.

We see, we hear, with peril; safety dwells
Remote from multitude. The world's a school
Of wrong; and what proficients swarm around!
We must or imitate or disapprove ;
Must list as their accomplices or foes:
That stains our innocence, this wounds our peace.
Young.

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The servant, thou art lord o'er all this realm;
Why take the pains to buy a little salt?'
'It is a little thing,' said Nushirvan,
'And so, at first, was all the evil whose
Most monstrous load now presses so the world.
Were there no little wrongs, no great could be.
If I from off a poor man's tree should pluck
A single apple, straight my slaves would rob
The whole tree to its root: if I should seize
Five eggs, my ministers at once would snatch
A hundred hens. Therefore strict justice must
I, even in unimportant acts, observe.
Bring salt, but pay the peasant what he asks.'

1117. EXAMPLE. Reward of

IF men of good lives,

Oriental.

Who, by their virtuous actions, stir up others
To noble and religious imitation,

Receive the greater glory after death,

As sin must needs confess; what may they feel
In height of torment, and in weight of vengeance,
Not only they themselves not doing well,
But set a light up to show men to hell?

Middleton

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The longing for ignoble things;

The strife for triumph more than truth; The hardening of the heart, that brings Irreverence for the dreams of youth;

All thoughts of ill; all evil deeds,

That have their root in thoughts of ill; Whatever hinders or impedes

The action of the nobler will;—
All these must first be trampled down
Beneath our feet, if we would gain
In the bright fields of fair renown
The right of eminent domain.

We have not wings, we cannot soar;
But we have feet to scale and climb
By slow degrees, by more and more,
The cloudy summits of our time.
The mighty pyramids of stone

That wedge-like cleave the desert airs, When nearer seen, and better known, Are but gigantic flights of stairs.

The distant mountains, that uprear
Their solid bastions to the skies,
Are cross'd by pathways, that appear

As we to higher levels rise.

The heights by great men reach'd and kept
Were not attain'd by sudden flight;
But they, while their companions slept,
Were toiling upward in the night.

Standing on what too long we bore
With shoulders bent and downcast eyes,
We may discern-unseen before-
A path to higher destinies.

Nor deem the irrevocable Past

As wholly wasted, wholly vain, If rising on its wrecks, at last

To something nobler we attain.-Longfellow.

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But so many books thou readest,
But so many schemes thou breedest,
But so many wishes feedest,

That thy poor head almost turns.
And (the world's so madly fangled,
Human things so fast entangled,)
Nature's wish must now be strangled
For that best which she discerns.
So it must be! yet while leading
A strain'd life, while over-feeding,
Like the rest, his wit with reading,

No small profit that man earns,

Who through all he meets can steer him,
Can reject what cannot clear him,
Cling to what can truly cheer him!

Who each day more surely learns

That an impulse, from the distance
Of his deepest, best existence,

To the words 'Hope, Light, Persistence,'
Strongly stirs and truly burns!

1124. EXCESS. Penalty of

Matthew Arnold.

VIOLENT fires soon burn out themselves;
Small showers last long, but sudden storms are short;
He tires betimes, that spurs too fast betimes;
With eager feeding, food doth choke the feeder ;
Light vanity, insatiate cormorant,
Consuming means, soon preys upon itself.

Shakespeare.

1125. EXCITEMENT. Caution against DON'T catch the fidgets; you have found your place Just in the focus of a nervous race, Fretful to change, and rabid to discuss, Full of excitements, always in a fuss; Think of the patriarchs; then compare as men These lean-cheek'd maniacs of the tongue and pen! Run like a man, but don't be work'd to death; And with new notions, let me change the rule,Don't strike the iron till it's slightly cool.--Holmes. 1126. EXERCISE.

WEARINESS

Can snore upon the flint, when resty Sloth Finds the down pillow hard.-Shakespeare. He does allot for every exercise

A sev'ral hour; for Sloth, the nurse of vices, And rust of action, is a stranger to him.

Massinger.

The wise for cure on exercise depend:
God never made His work for man to mend.
Dryden.

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An instant's pause, and lives but while she moves.
Its own revolvency upholds the world.
Winds from all quarters agitate the air,
And fit the limpid element for use,

Else noxious: oceans, rivers, lakes, and streams,
All feel the fresh'ning impulse, and are cleansed
By restless undulation: e'en the oak
Thrives indeed indignant, and to feel

The impression of the blast with proud disdain,
Frowning, as if in his unconscious arm

He held the thunder; but the monarch owes
His firm stability to what he scorns-
More fix'd below, the more disturb'd above.
The law, by which all creatures else are bound,
Binds man, the lord of all. Himself derives
No mean advantage from a kindred cause,
From strenuous toil his hours of sweetest ease.
The sedentary stretch their lazy length
When custom bids, but no refreshment find,
For none they need; the languid eye, the cheek
Deserted of its bloom, the flaccid, shrunk,
And wither'd muscle, and the vapid soul,
Reproach their owner with that love of rest
To which he forfeits e'en the rest he loves.
Not such the alert and active. Measure life
By its true worth, the comforts it affords,
And theirs alone seems worthy of the name,
Good health, and, its associate in the most,
Good temper; spirits prompt to undertake,
And not soon spent, though in an arduous task ;
The powers of fancy and strong thought are theirs ;
E'en age itself seems privileged in them,
With clear exemption from its own defects;
A sparkling eye beneath a wrinkled front
The veteran shows, and, gracing a grey beard
With youthful smiles, descends towards the grave
Sprightly, and old almost without decay.-Cowper.
1127. EXILE.

Bitterness of

HOME, kindred, friends, and country-these
Are ties with which we never part;
From clime to clime, o'er land and seas,
We bear them with us in our heart:
But, oh! 'tis hard to feel resign'd,
When these must all be left behind!

J. Montgomery.

But doth the exile's heart serenely there

In sunshine dwell? Ah! when was exile blest? When did bright scenes, clear heavens, or summer air Chase from his soul the fever of unrest.

Mrs Hemans.

1128. EXILE: impossible to the Christian. ALL countries are my Father's landsThy sun, Thy love, doth shine on all; We may in all lift up pure hands,

And with acceptance on Thee call. What if in prison I must dwell,

May I not there converse with Thee? Save me from sin, Thy wrath, and hell, Call me Thy child, and I am free.

No walls or bars can keep Thee out;
None can confine a holy soul;
The streets of heaven it walks about,
None can its liberty control.

1129. EXILE. Influence of

Richard Baxter.

AND they who before were strangers,

Meeting in exile, became straightway as friends to each other.-Longfellow.

1130. EXILE. The first

SOME natural tears they dropt, but wiped them soon; The world was all before them, where to choose Their place of rest, and Providence their guide: They hand in hand, with wand'ring steps and slow, Through Eden took their solitary way.―Milton.

1131. EXILE. The: his consolation.

My home in heaven alone to me remains :

The floods of faction o'er my country sweep;

For my uncertain feet, the land retains

No resting-place, no friend to weep;

No child to soothe the homeless poor forlorn;

I wander day by day with trembling limbs and torn.
What lot awaits me? What my mortal doom?
Where shall this jaded body find its rest?
Shall this poor trembling flesh e'er find a tomb?

By whom shall these dim eyes in death be blest? Will any watch? Will any pity me?

Will they be Christian watchers? Or shall sinners see?

Or shall no grave inclose this mortal frame,

When laid a heavy breathless corpse of clay? Cast on the rock uncover'd and in shame,

Or toss'd in scorn to birds and beasts of prey? Or burnt to ashes, given to the air?

Or thrown into the weedy deep to perish there?

Thy will be done, O Lord! That day shall spring,
When at Thy word this clay shall reappear!
No death I dread but that which sin will bring;
No fire or flood without Thy wrath I fear;

For Thou, O Christ, my Lord! art fatherland to me, My wealth and might and rest, my all I find in Thee. Gregory of Nazianzen, tr. by Schaff.

1132. EXISTENCE. Animal
THERE are a number of us creep
Into this world, to eat and sleep;
And know no reason why we're born,
But only to consume the corn,
Devour the cattle, fowl, and fish,
And leave behind an empty dish.
The crows and ravens do the same,
Unlucky birds of hateful name;
Ravens or crows might fill their places,
And swallow corn and carcasses,
Then if their tombstone, when they die,
Be n't taught to flatter and to lie,
There's nothing better will be said
Than that 'they've eat up all their bread,
Drunk up their drink, and gone to bed.'— Watts.

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Too brightly fair, too sweet to realize;

All seem but day-dreams of delight too dear! Strange hopes and fears in painful contest rise,

But tamed at length by suffering, comprehends
The tranquil happiness to which it tends,
Perceives the high-wrought bliss it aims to share,

While the scarce-trusted bliss seems but to cheat the Demands a richer soil, a purer air;
eyes.-Mrs Tighe.

1137. EXPENDITURE. Rules for

BE thrifty, but not covetous: therefore give
Thy need, thine honour, and thy friend his due.
Never was scraper brave man. Get to live;
Then live, and use it: else, it is not true
That thou hast gotten. Surely use alone
Makes money not a contemptible stone.

Never exceed thy income. Youth may make
Even with the year: but age, if it will hit,
Shoots a bow short, and lessens still his stake,
As the day lessens, and his life with it.
Thy children, kindred, friends upon thee call;
Before thy journey fairly part with all.-Herbert.

1138. EXPERIENCE. Discipline of How false is found, as on in life we go, Our early estimate of bliss and woe! Some sparkling joy attracts us, that we fain Would sell a precious birth-right to obtain. There all our hopes of happiness are placed; Life looks without it like a joyless waste; No good is prized, no comfort sought beside; Prayers, tears implore, and will not be denied. Heaven pitying hears the intemperate, rude appeal, And suits its answer to our truest weal. The self-sought idol, if at last bestow'd, Proves, what our wilfulness required, a goad; Ne'er but as needful chastisement, is given

The wish thus forced, and torn, and storm'd from
Heaven:

But if withheld in pity, from our prayer,
We rave, awhile, of torment and despair,
Refuse each proffer'd comfort with disdain,
And slight the thousand blessings that remain.

Meantime Heaven bears the grievous wrong, and waits

In patient pity till the storm abates;
Applies with gentlest hand the healing balm,
Or speaks the ruffled mind into a calm;
Deigning, perhaps, to show the mourner soon,
'Twas special mercy that denied the boon.
Our blasted hopes, our aims and wishes cross'd,
Are worth the tears and agonies they cost;
When the poor mind, by fruitless efforts spent,
With food and raiment learns to be content.
Bounding with youthful hope, the restless mind
Leaves that Divine monition far behind:

That 'tis not fitted, and would strangely grace
The mean condition of our mortal race;
And all we need, in this terrestrial spot,

Is calm contentment with the common lot.'
Jane Taylor.

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