ADVERSITY.

Sir William Davenant's Fair Favourite. Something had been amiss

Daughter of Jove, relentless power,
Thou tamer of the human breast,
Whose iron scourge, and torturing hour,
The bad affright, afflict the best!
Bound in thy adamantine chain,
The proud are taught to taste of pain,
And purple tyrants vainly groan,
With pangs unfelt before, unpitied, and alone.
Gray's Hymn to Adversity.
The gods in bounty work up storms about us,
That give mankind occasion to exert
Their hidden strength, and throw out into practice
Virtues that shun the day, and lie conceal'd
In the smooth seasons and the calms of life.

Addison's Cato.

How sudden are the blows of fate! what change,
What revolution, in the state of glory!

Cibber's Cæsar in Egypt.

I will bear it

With all the tender sufferance of a friend,
As calmly as the wounded patient bears
The artist's hand that ministers his cure.

All evils natural are moral goods;
All discipline, indulgence, on the whole.
Young's Night Thoughts

When a great mind falls,

The noble nature of man's gen'rous heart
Doth bear him up against the shame of ruin,
With gentle censure, using but his faults
As modest means to introduce his praise;
For pity, like a dewy twilight, comes
To close th' oppressive splendour of his day,
And they who but admired him in his height
His altered state lament, and love him fall'n.
Joanna Baillie's Basil.
For as when merchants break, o'erthrown
Like ninepins, they strike others down.

Butler's Hudibras.

Tho' losses and crosses
Be lessons right severe,
There's wit there, ye'll get there,

Ye'll find nae other where.

Burns's Epistle to Davie
The brave unfortunate are our best acquaintance;
They show us virtue may be much distress'd,
Otway's Orphan. And give us their example how to suffer.

Deserted at his utmost need,
By those his former bounty fed.
Dryden's Alexander's Feast.
To exult

Ev'n o'er an enemy oppress'd, and heap
Affliction on the afflicted, is the mark,
And the mean triumph of a dastard soul.

Smollett's Regicide.
Affliction is the wholesome soil of virtue:
Where patience, honour, sweet humanity,
Calm fortitude, take root, and strongly flourish.
Mallet and Thomson's Alfred.
Who has not known ill fortunc, never knew
Himself, or his own virtue.

Francis's Eugenia.

In this wild world the fondest and the best,
Are the most tried, most troubled, and distress'd.
Crabbe.

That saddening hour when bad men hotlier press:
But these did shelter him beneath their roof,
When less barbarians would have cheer'd him less,
And fellow countrymen have stood aloof—
In aught that tries the heart, how few withstand
the proof!
Byron's Childe Harold.
Of all the horrid, hideous notes of woe,
Sadder than owl-songs on the midnight blast,
Is that portentous phrase, "I told you so,”
Utter'd by friends, those prophets of the past,
Mallet and Thomson's Alfred. Who, 'stead of saying what you now should do,
Ye good distress'd!
Own they foresaw that you would fall at last,
And solace your slight lapse 'gainst "bonos mores,"
With a long memorandum of old stories.

Ye noble few! who here unbending stand
Beneath life's pressure, yet bear up awhile,
And what your bounded view, which only saw
A little part, deem'd evil, is no more;
The storms of wintry time will quickly pass,
And one unbounded spring encircle all.

Thomson's Seasons.
Affliction is the good man's shining scene;
Prosperity conceals his brightest ray;
As night to stars, woe lustre gives to man.
Young's Night Thoughts.

We bleed, we tremble, we forget, we smile,
The mind turns fool, before the check is dry.
Young's Night Thoughts.

Byron's Don Juan.

I have not quailed to danger's brow
When high and happy-need I now?

Byron's Giaour.
One thought alone he could not-dared not meet.
"Oh how these tidings will Medora greet?"
Then-only then-his clanking hands he raised
And strain'd with rage the chain on which he
gaz'd.
Byron's Corsair
The good are better made by ill:-
As odours crush'd are sweeter still!

Rogers's Jacqueline

For to unfold the anguish of your heart:
Mishaps are master'd by advice discreet,
And counsel mitigates the greatest smart.
Spenser's Fairy Queen.
Know when to speak; for many times it brings
Danger, to give the best advice to kings.

Herrick.
Direct not him, whose way himself will choose;
"Tis breath thou lack'st, and that breath wilt thou
lose.
Shaks. Richard II.

Let him be so,
For counsel still is folly's deadly foe.

Shaks. London Prodigal.
I pray thee, cease thy counsel.
Which falls into mine ears as profitless
As water in a sieve.

Love all, trust a few,

Shaks. Hamlet.

I shall the effect of this good lesson keep
As watchman to my heart.

Shaks. Hamlet.

'Tis all men's office to speak patience
To those that wring under the load of sorrow;
But no man's virtue, nor sufficiency,
To be so moral, when he shall endure
The like himself. Therefore give me no counsel:
My griefs cry louder than advertisement.

Shaks. Much ado.
Men

Can counsel and speak comfort to that grief
Which they themselves not feel; but, tasting it,
Their counsel turns to passion, which before
Would give preceptial medicine to rage,
Fetter strong madness in a silken thread,
Charm ache with air, and agony with words.

Shaks. Much ado. A wretched soul, bruised with adversity,
We bid be quiet, when we hear it cry;
But were we burdened with like weight of pain,
As much, or more, we should ourselves complain.
Shaks. Much ado.
What could I more?

Do wrong to none; be able for thine enemy
Rather in power than use; and keep thy friend
Under thine own life's key: be check'd for silence,
But never tax'd for speech.

Beware

Shaks. All's well. I warn'd thee, I admonish'd thee, foretold
The danger, and the lurking enemy
That lay in wait; beyond this had been force,
And force upon free will hath here no place.
Milton's Paradise Lost.
Learn to dissemble wrongs, to smile at injuries,
And suffer crimes thou want'st the power to
punish:

Of entrance to a quarrel; but being in,
Bear it that the opposer may beware of thee.
Shaks. Hamlet.
Give every man thine ear but few thy voice:
Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judg.
Shaks. Hamlet.

ment.
Neither a borrower nor a lender be:
For loan oft loses both itself and friend;
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
Shaks. Hamlet.
Love thyself last; cherish those hearts that hate

Be easy, affable, familiar, friendly:
Scarch, and know all mankind's mysterious ways;
But trust the secret of thy soul to none:
This is the way,

This only, to be safe in such a world as this is
Rowe's Ulysses.

Saints,

And cool-soul'd hermits, mortify'd with care,
And bent by age and palsies, whine out maxims,
Which their brisk youth had blushed at.

Hill's Henry V

Aye free, off han', your story tell
When wi' a bosom crony;
But still keep something to yoursel
Ye scarcely tell to onv.

ADIEU-AFFECTION - AGE.

15

Affections injur'd

By tyranny, or rigour of compulsion,
Like tempest-threatened trees, unfirmly rooted,
Ne'er spring to timely growth.

John Ford's Broken Heart
O! there is one affection which no stain

Of earth can ever darken;—when two find,
The softer and the manlier, that a chain
Of kindred taste has fastened mind to mind,
"Tis an attraction from all sense refined;
The good can only know it; 'tis not blind,
As love is unto baseness; its desire
Is but with hands entwined to lift our being higher
Percival's Poems

Ah! could you look into my heart,
And watch your image there!
You would own the sunny loveliness
Affection makes it wear.

But this shall be a token thou hast been
A friend to him who pluck'd these lovely flowers,
And sent them as a tribute to a friend,
And a remembrance of the few kind hours
Which lightened on the darkness of my path.

On the door you will not enter,

I have gazed too long-adicu!

Hope withdraws her peradventure-
Death is near me-and not you.

Percival.

(See FAREWELL.)

AFFECTION.

Miss Barrett.

What war so cruel, or what siege so sore,
As that which strong affections do apply
Against the fort of reason, evermore
To bring the soul into captivity!

Mrs. Osgood

AGE.

The careful cold hath nipt my rugged rind,
And in my face deep furrows eld hath plight;
My head besprent with hoary frost I find,
And by mine eye the crow his claw doth wright:
Delight is laid abed, and pleasure past;
No sun now shines, clouds have all overcast.
Spenser's Shepherd's Calendar.
These old fellows have

Their ingratitude in them hereditary:

Their blood is cak'd, 'tis cold, it seldom flows;
'Tis lack of kindly warmth, they are not kind
And nature, as it grows again toward earth,
Is fashion'd for the journey-dull and heavy.
Shaks. Timon.

O let us have him; for his silver hairs
Spenser's Fairy Queen. Will purchase us a good opinion,

And buy men's voices to commend our deeds;
It shall be said,—his judgment rul'd our hands;
Our youths, and wildness shall no wit appear,
But all be bury'd in his gravity.

Shaks. Julius Cæsar.
Youth no less becomes

The light and careless livery that it wears,
Than settled age his sables and his weeds,
Importing health, and graveness.

Shaks. Hamlet
Though I look old, yet I am strong and lusty:
For in my youth I never did apply
Hot and rebellious liquors in my blood.

Shaks. As you like u
I know thee not, old man fall to thy prayers,
How ill white hairs become a fool and jester

Shaks. Henry IV.

AGE.

Shaks. Lear.

Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon;
With spectacles on nose, and pouch on side;
His youthful hose well sav'd, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,
Turning again towards childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound.

Of no distemper, of no blast he died,

But fell like autumn fruit that mellowed long,
Even wonder'd at because he dropped no sooner;
Fate seem'd to wind him up for fourscore years,
Yet freshly ran he on ten winters more,
Till, like a clock worn out with eating time,
The wheels of weary life at last stood still.
Lee's Edipus

Learn to live well, or fairly make your will;
You've play'd, and lov'd, and ate, and drank your
fill,

Walk sober off before a sprightlier age
Comes tittering on, and shoves you from the stage:
Leave such to trifle with more grace and ease,
Whom folly pleases, and whose follies please.

Pope.

This heart, by age and grief congeal'd,
Is no more sensible of love's endearments,
Than are our barren rocks to morn's sweet dew,
That calmly trickles down their rugged checks.
Miller's Mahomet.
Shaks. As you like it. His mien is lofty, his demeanour great,
Last scene of all,
Nor sprightly folly wantons in his air,
Nor dull serenity becalms his eyes,
Such had I trusted once as soon as seen,
But cautious age suspects the flattering form,
And only credits what experience tells.

That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness, and mere oblivion;
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans every thing.
Shaks. As you like it.

Behold where age's wretched victim lies,
See his head trembling, and his half clos'd eyes,
Frequent for breath his panting bosom heaves;
To broken sleep his remnant sense he gives,
And only by his pains, awaking, finds he lives.

Dr. Johnson's Irene. The still returning tale, and lingering jest, Perplex the fawning niece, and pamper'd guest, While growing hopes scarce awe the gath'ring

sneer,

Prior's Solomon. And scarce a legacy can bribe to hear.

These are the effects of doting age,
Vain doubts, and idle cares, and over caution.
Dryden's Sebastian.
Thirst of power and of riches now bear sway,
The passion and infirmity of age.

Frowde's Philotas.
Age sits with decent grace upon his visage,
And worthily becomes his silver locks;
He wears the marks of many years well spent,
Of virtue, truth well tried, and wise experience.
Rowe's Jane Shore.
Those wise old men, those plodding grave state
pedants,

Forget the course of youth; their crooked
dence,

pru

To baseness verging still, forgets to take
Into their fine-spun schemes the generous heart,
That through the cobweb system bursting, lays
The labours waste.

Dr. Johnson's Vanity of Human Wishes.
Though old, he still retained

His manly sense, and energy of mind.
Virtuous and wise he was, but not severe;
He still remember'd that he once was young:
His easy presence check'd no decent joy,
Him even the dissolute admir'd; for he
A graceful looseness, when he pleas'd, put on,
And laughing could instruct.

Armstrong's Art of preserving Health.
Fresh hopes are hourly sown
In furrow'd brows: To gentle life's descent,
We shut our eyes, and think it is a plain:
We take fair days in winter, for the spring;
And turn our blessings into bane.

Young's Night Thoughts.
O my coevals! remnants of ourselves!
Poor human ruins tottering o'er the grave!
Shall we, shall aged men, like aged trees,
Thomson's Tancred and Sigismunda. Strike deeper their vile root, and closer cling,