Was seen of old, dear Lord, Thy form,

All calmly walking on the sea; And raging elements were still, Obedient to Thy sovereign will.

So on life's restless, heaving wave,

When night and storm my sky o'ercast,
Oft hast Thou come to cheer and save,

Hast changed my fear to joy at last;
Thy voice hath bid the tumult cease,
And soothed my throbbing heart to peace.

But ah! too soon my fears return,
And dark mistrust disturbs anew;
What smother'd fires within yet burn
My days of peace, alas, how few!
These heart-throes-shall they ne'er be past?
These strifes-shall they for ever last?

I heed not danger, toil, or pain,
Care not how hard the storm may beat,
If in my heart Thy peace may reign,

And faith and patience keep their seat;

If strength Divine may nerve my soul,
And love my every thought control.

Oh may that voice that quell'd the sea,
And laid the surging waves to rest,
Speak in my spirit, set me free

From passions that disturb my breast;
Jesus, I yield me to Thy will,

And wait to hear Thy 'Peace, be still!'
Ray Palmer.

2680. PEACE AND JOY: how they are obtained.

OFT when of God we ask

For fuller, happier life,
He sets us some new task,

Involving care and strife;

Is this the boon for which we sought? Has prayer new trouble on us brought? This is, indeed, the boon,

Though strange to us it seems; We pierce the rock, and soon

The blessing on us streams; For when we are the most athirst, Then the clear waters on us burst.

We toil as in a field

Wherein, to us unknown,
A treasure lies conceal'd,

Which may be all our own; And shall we of the toil complain That speedily will bring us gain?

We dig the wells of life,

And God the water gives; We win our way by strife;

Then He within us lives;

And only war could make us meet
For peace so sacred and so sweet.-Lynch.

2681. PEASANTS.

ILL fares the land, to hast'ning ills a prey,
Where wealth accumulates and men decay:
Princes and lords may flourish, or may fade;
A breath can make them, as a breath has made;
But a bold peasantry, their country's pride,
When once destroy'd can never be supplied.
Goldsmith.

Unknown to them, when sensual pleasures cloy,
To fill the languid pause with finer joy;
Unknown those powers that raise the soul to flame,
Catch every nerve, and vibrate through the frame.
Their level life is but a mouldering fire,
Unquench'd by want, unfann'd by strong desire;

Unfit for raptures, or, if raptures cheer,
On some high festival of once a year,
In wild excess the vulgar breast takes fire,
Till, buried in debauch, the bliss expire.

Goldsmith.

Far from the madd'ning crowd's ignoble strife, Their sober wishes never learn'd to stray; Along the cool sequester'd vale of life

They kept the noiseless tenor of their way.

Gray.

November chill blows loud wi' angry sugh;
The short'ning winter-day draws near a close;
The miry beasts retreating frae the pleugh;
The black'ning trains o' craws to their repose:
The toil-worn cotter frae his labour goes,
This night his weekly moil is at an end,

Collects his spades, his mattocks, and his hoes,
Hoping the morn at ease and rest to spend,

And weary, o'er the moor, his course does homeward bend.-Burns.

2682. PEN. The

THE poet's pen is the true divining rod

Which trembles towards the inner founts of feeling;
Bringing to light and use, else hid from all,
The many sweet clear sources which we have
Of good and beauty in our own deep bosoms;
And marks the variations of all mind
As does the needle.-Bailey.

Beneath the rule of men entirely great,
The pen is mightier than the sword. Behold
The arch-enchanter's wand! itself a nothing!
But taking sorcery from the master hand,
To paralyze the Cæsars, and to strike
The loud earth breathless!-Bulwer.

Of sin oppress'd her heart; for all the blame, And the poor malice of the worldly shame,

To her was past, extinct, and out of date.

Only the sin remain'd, the leprous state;

She would be melted by the heat of love
By fires far fiercer than are blown to prove
And purge the silver we adulterate.

She sat and wept, and with her untress'd hair
Still wiped the feet she was so blest to touch;
And He wiped off the soiling of despair
From her sweet soul, because she loved so much.
I am a sinner, full of doubts and fears:
Make me a humble thing of love and tears!

Hartley Coleridge.

2684. PENITENCE. Prayer of

My God, oh let me call Thee mine,
Weak, wretched sinner though I be;
My trembling soul would fain be Thine,
My feeble faith still clings to Thee!
Not only for the past I grieve,
The future fills me with dismay;
Unless Thou hasten to relieve,

Thy suppliant is a castaway!

I cannot say my faith is strong,
I dare not hope my love is great:
Put strength and love to Thee belong;
Oh do not leave me desolate

I know I owe my all to Thee;
Oh take the heart I cannot give!
Do Thou my strength, my Saviour be,
And make me to Thy glory live.

THE people like a headlong torrent go,
And every dam they break or overflow;
But unopposed they either lose their force,
Or wind in volumes to their former course.
Dryden.

Thus think the crowd, who, eager to engage,
Take quickly fire, and kindle into rage;
Who ne'er consider, but without a pause
Make up in passion what they want in cause.
Dryden.

2687. PERFECTION. Degree of

PRESS to the mark (the Spirit cries,
And cannot cry to saints in vain);
Ambitious of your calling's prize,
The height of holiness attain.
Let down from heaven the ladder see,
And mount, till all the steps are past.
Perfection is the last degree,
Perfection is attain'd the last.

Charles Wesley.

2688. PERFECTION. Natural
To gild refined gold, to paint the lily,
To throw a perfume on the violet,
To smooth the ice, or add another hue
Unto the rainbow, or with taper-light

To seek the beauteous eye of Heaven to garnish, Is wasteful and ridiculous excess.-Shakespeare.

2689. PERFECTION: not to be found.
WHOEVER thinks a perfect work to see,
Thinks what ne'er was, nor is, nor e'er shall be.
Pope.

2690. PERFECTION: reached through suffering.
PERFECT through suffering! Is this the path
My Saviour trod?

And shall I shrink to follow Thee,

Thou Lamb of God?

Perfect through suffering! The heart may faint
Upon the road,

And flesh and spirit both may fail ;—
Yet hope in God.

Perfect through suffering! The gold refined,
No dross remains,

And o'er the furnace watcheth One,
To guide the flames.

Perfect through suffering! Is this the path
My Saviour trod?

Then welcome be its fiery cross;

It leads to God.

2691. PERFECTION: slowly attained.
NATURE, in her productions, slow, aspires
By just degrees to reach perfection's height.
Somerville.

So slow

The growth of what is excellent, so hard T' attain perfection in this nether world.

Cowper.

2692. PERFECTION : unexpectedly attained.

MANY things impossible to thought Have been by need to full perfection brought.

Dryden.

2693. PERFECTION. Way of

OH, how the thought of God attracts And draws the heart from earth,

And sickens it of passing shows

And dissipating mirth! God only is the creature's home; Though long and rough the road,

Yet nothing less can satisfy

The love that longs for God.

Oh! utter but the name of God

Down in your heart of hearts, And see how from the world at once All tempting light departs.

A trusting heart, a yearning eye,
Can win their way above:
If mountains can be moved by faith,
Is there less power in love?
How little of that road, my soul,

How little hast thou gone!
Take heart, and let the thought of God
Allure thee farther on.
The freedom from all wilful sin,
The Christian's daily task-
Oh! these are graces far below
What longing love would ask.

Dole not thy duties out to God;

But let thy hand be free: Look long at Jesus: His sweet blood— How was it dealt to thee?

The perfect way is hard to flesh:

It is not hard to love.

If thou wert sick for want of God,
How swiftly wouldst thou move!

Oh! keep thy conscience sensitive;
No inward token miss;
And go where grace entices thee:

Perfection lies in this.

Be docile to thine unseen Guide;
Love Him as He loves thee:
Faith and obedience are enough,
And thou a saint shalt be.-Faber.

In war or peace, who his great purpose yields,
He is the only villain of this world:
But he who labours firm and gains his point,
Be what it will, which crowns him with success,
He is the son of fortune and of fame

By those admired, those specious villains most,
That else had bellow'd out reproach against him.
Thomson.

Hast thou attempted greatness? Then go on; Back-turning slackens resolution.-Herrick.

Perseverance is a virtue That wins each god-like act, and plucks success E'en from the spear-proof crest of rugged danger. Havard.

2699. PHILANTHROPY. Reward of ABOU BEN ADHEM (may his tribe increase!) Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace,

And saw within the moonlight in his room,
Making it rich and like a lily in bloom,

An angel writing in a book of gold:

Exceeding peace had made Ben Adhem bold,
And to the presence in the room he said,
'What writest thou?' The vision raised its head,
And, with a look made of all sweet accord,
Answer'd, 'The names of those who love the Lord.'
'And is mine one?' said Abou. Nay, not so,'
Replied the angel. Abou spoke more low,
But cheerily still; and said, 'I pray thee, then,
Write me as one that loves his fellow-men.'

The angel wrote, and vanish'd. The next night
It came again, with a great wakening light,
And show'd the names whom love of God had bless'd,
And, lo! Ben Adhem's name led all the rest!
Leigh Hunt.

2700. PHILANTHROPY. Works of

FROM realm to realm, with cross or crescent crown'd,
Where'er mankind and misery are found,

O'er burning sands, deep waves, or wilds of snow,
Mild Howard journeying seeks the house of woe.
Down many a winding step to dungeons dank,
Where anguish wails aloud and fetters clank,
To caves bestrew'd with many a mouldering bone,
And cells whose echoes only learn to groan,
Where no kind bars a whispering friend disclose,
No sunbeam enters, and no zephyr blows;
He treads, inemulous of fame or wealth,
Profuse of toil and prodigal of health ;
Leads stern-eyed Justice to the dark domains,
If not to sever, to relax the chains;
Gives to her babes the self-devoted wife,
To her fond husband liberty and life—
Onward he moves! disease and death retire ;
And murmuring demons hate him and admire.
Darwin.

2701. PHILOSOPHERS.

MUCH learned dust

Involves the combatants, each claiming truth,
And truth disclaiming both. And thus they spend
The little wick of life's poor shallow lamp
In playing tricks with nature, giving laws
To distant worlds, and trifling in their own.

Cowper.

They give the reins to wandering thoughts,
Till, by their own perplexities involved,
They ravel more, still less resolved,
But never find self-satisfying solution.—Milton.

As rivers, though they bend and twine,
Still to the sea their course incline;

Or as philosophers, who find
Some fav'rite system to their mind,

In every point to make it fit

Will force all nature to submit.-Swift.

2702. PHILOSOPHY: baffled.

SURVEY the magnet's sympathetic love,
That woos the yielding needle; contemplate
The attractive amber's power, invisible
Even to the mental eye; or when the blow
Sent from the electric sphere assaults thy frame,
Show me the hand that dealt it! Baffled here
By his Omnipotence, Philosophy
Slowly her thoughts inadequate revolves,

And stands with all His circling wonders round her,
Like heavy Saturn, in th' ethereal space,

Begirt with an inexplicable ring.-Smart.

2703. PHILOSOPHY. False

FALSE philosophy inspires Fallacious hope.-Milton.

2704. PHILOSOPHY. Incompleteness of THERE are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.-Shakespeare.

2705. PHILOSOPHY. Instinctive

BEHOLD

Where yon pellucid, populous hive presents
A yet uncopied model to the world!
There Machiavel, in the reflecting glass,
May read himself a fool. The chemist there
May, with astonishment invidious, view
His toils out-done by each plebeian bee,
Who, at the royal mandate, on the wing,
From various herbs, and from discordant flowers,
A perfect harmony of sweets compounds. --Smart.

2706. PHILOSOPHY. Powerlessness of

I PRAY thee, peace! I will be flesh and blood;
For there was never yet philosopher
That could endure the toothache patiently,
However they have writ the style of gods,
And made a pish at chance and sufferance.

Shakespeare.

Alas! had reason ever yet the power
To talk down grief, or bid the tortured wretch
Not feel his anguish? 'tis impossible!

Whitehead.

Philosophy and Reason! Oh, how vain
Their lessons to the feelings! They but teach
To hide them deeper, and to show a calm
Unruffled surface to the idle gaze.-Miss Bogart.

2707. PHILOSOPHY. Province of

PHILOSOPHY consists not

In airy schemes, or idle speculations :
The rule and conduct of all social life

Is her great province. Not in lonely cells
Obscure she lurks, but holds her heavenly light
To senates and to kings, to guide their councils,
And teach them to reform and bless mankind.
Thomson.

2708. PHILOSOPHY. Sweetness of

How charming is divine philosophy!
Not harsh and crabbed, as dull fools suppose,
But musical as is Apollo's lute,

And a perpetual feast of nectar'd sweets,
Where no crude surfeit reigns.—Milton.

2709. PHILOSOPHY. The Stoic

IN lazy apathy let Stoics boast

Their virtue fix'd; 'tis fixèd as in frost,
Contracted all, retiring to the breast;

But strength of mind is exercise, not rest.—Pope.

Such was the rigid Zeno's plan
To form his philosophic man;

Such were the modes he taught mankind

To weed the garden of the mind:

They tore away some weeds, 'tis true,

But all the flowers were ravish'd too. -Moore.

2710. PHILOSOPHY. Toils of

PHILOSOPHY

Did much, refining and exalting man :
But could not nurse a single plant that bore
True happiness. From age to age she toil'd;
Shed from her eyes the mist that dimm'd them still,
Look'd forth on man; explored the wild and tame,
The savage and polite, the sea and land,
And starry heavens; and then retired far back
To meditation's silent shady seat;

And there sat pale, and thoughtfully, and weigh'd,
With wary, most exact, and scrupulous care,
Man's nature, passions, hopes, propensities,
Relations, and pursuits, in reason's scale;

And search'd and weigh'd, and weigh'd and search'd again,

And many a fair and goodly volume wrote,
That seem'd well worded too, wherein were found
Uncountable receipts, pretending each,

If carefully attended to, to cure
Mankind of folly; to root out the briars,

And thorns, and weeds that choked the growth of joy :

And showing, too, in plain and decent phrase,