Chapter 261 of 399 · 3445 words · ~17 min read

Part ii

. i._

She was good as she was fair, None--none on earth above her! As pure in thought as angels are: To know her was to love her.[455-1]

_Jacqueline. Stanza 1._

The good are better made by ill, As odours crushed are sweeter still.[455-2]

_Jacqueline. Stanza 3._

A guardian angel o'er his life presiding, Doubling his pleasures, and his cares dividing.

_Human Life._

Fireside happiness, to hours of ease Blest with that charm, the certainty to please.

_Human Life._

The soul of music slumbers in the shell Till waked and kindled by the master's spell; And feeling hearts, touch them but rightly, pour A thousand melodies unheard before!

_Human Life._

Then never less alone than when alone.[455-3]

_Human Life._

Those that he loved so long and sees no more, Loved and still loves,--not dead, but gone before,[455-4]-- He gathers round him.

_Human Life._

Mine be a cot beside the hill; A beehive's hum shall soothe my ear; A willowy brook that turns a mill, With many a fall, shall linger near.

_A Wish._

That very law which moulds a tear And bids it trickle from its source,-- That law preserves the earth a sphere, And guides the planets in their course.

_On a Tear._

Go! you may call it madness, folly; You shall not chase my gloom away! There 's such a charm in melancholy I would not if I could be gay.

_To ----._

To vanish in the chinks that Time has made.[456-1]

_Pæstum._

Ward has no heart, they say, but I deny it: He has a heart, and gets his speeches by it.

_Epigram._

FOOTNOTES:

[455-1] See Burns, page 452.

None knew thee but to love thee.--HALLECK: _On the Death of Drake._

[455-2] See Bacon, page 165.

[455-3] See Gibbon, page 430.

Numquam se minus otiosum esse, quam quum otiosus, nec minus solum, quam quum solus esset (He is never less at leisure than when at leisure, nor less alone than when he is alone).--CICERO: _De Officiis, liber iii. c. 1._

[455-4] This is literally from Seneca, _Epistola lxiii. 16._ See Matthew Henry, page 283.

[456-1] See Waller, page 221.

JOHN FERRIAR. 1764-1815.

The princeps copy, clad in blue and gold.

_Illustrations of Sterne. Bibliomania. Line 6._

Now cheaply bought for thrice their weight in gold.

_Illustrations of Sterne. Bibliomania. Line 65._

Torn from their destined page (unworthy meed Of knightly counsel and heroic deed).

_Illustrations of Sterne. Bibliomania. Line 121._

How pure the joy, when first my hands unfold The small, rare volume, black with tarnished gold!

_Illustrations of Sterne. Bibliomania. Line 137._

ANN RADCLIFFE. 1764-1823.

Fate sits on these dark battlements and frowns, And as the portal opens to receive me, A voice in hollow murmurs through the courts Tells of a nameless deed.[456-2]

FOOTNOTES:

[456-2] These lines form the motto to Mrs. Radcliffe's novel, "The Mysteries of Udolpho," and are presumably of her own composition.

ROBERT HALL. 1764-1831.

His [Burke's] imperial fancy has laid all Nature under tribute, and has collected riches from every scene of the creation and every walk of art.

_Apology for the Freedom of the Press._

He [Kippis] might be a very clever man by nature for aught I know, but he laid so many books upon his head that his brains could not move.

_Gregory's Life of Hall._

Call things by their right names. . . . Glass of brandy and water! That is the current but not the appropriate name: ask for a glass of liquid fire and distilled damnation.[457-1]

_Gregory's Life of Hall._

FOOTNOTES:

[457-1] See Tourneur, page 34.

He calls drunkenness an expression identical with ruin.--DIOGENES LAERTIUS: _Pythagoras, vi._

THOMAS MORTON. 1764-1838.

What will Mrs. Grundy say?

_Speed the Plough. Act i. Sc. 1._

Push on,--keep moving.

_A Cure for the Heartache. Act ii. Sc. 1._

Approbation from Sir Hubert Stanley is praise indeed.

_A Cure for the Heartache. Act v. Sc. 2._

SIR JAMES MACKINTOSH. 1765-1832.

Diffused knowledge immortalizes itself.

_Vindiciæ Gallicæ._

The Commons, faithful to their system, remained in a wise and masterly inactivity.

_Vindiciæ Gallicæ._

Disciplined inaction.

_Causes of the Revolution of 1688. Chap. vii._

The frivolous work of polished idleness.

_Dissertation on Ethical Philosophy. Remarks on Thomas Brown._

LADY NAIRNE. 1766-1845.

There 's nae sorrow there, John, There 's neither cauld nor care, John, The day is aye fair, In the land o' the leal.

_The Land o' the Leal._

Gude nicht, and joy be wi' you a'.

_Gude Nicht, etc._[458-1]

Oh, we 're a' noddin', nid, nid, noddin'; Oh, we 're a' noddin' at our house at hame.

_We 're a' Noddin'._

A penniless lass wi' a lang pedigree.

_The Laird o' Cockpen._

FOOTNOTES:

[458-1] Sir Alexander Boswell composed a version of this song.

ANDREW JACKSON. 1767-1845.

Our Federal Union: it must be preserved.

_Toast given on the Jefferson Birthday Celebration in 1830._

You are uneasy; you never sailed with _me_ before, I see.[458-2]

_Life of Jackson_ (Parton). _Vol. iii. p. 493._

FOOTNOTES:

[458-2] A remark made to an elderly gentleman who was sailing with Jackson down Chesapeake Bay in an old steamboat, and who exhibited a little fear.

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 1767-1848.

Think of your forefathers! Think of your posterity![458-3]

_Speech at Plymouth, Dec. 22, 1802._

In charity to all mankind, bearing no malice or ill-will to any human being, and even compassionating those who hold in bondage their fellow-men, not knowing what they do.[458-4]

_Letter to A. Bronson. July 30, 1838._

This hand, to tyrants ever sworn the foe, For Freedom only deals the deadly blow; Then sheathes in calm repose the vengeful blade, For gentle peace in Freedom's hallowed shade.[459-1]

_Written in an Album, 1842._

This is the last of earth! I am content.

_His Last Words, Feb. 21, 1848._

FOOTNOTES:

[458-3] Et majores vestros et posteros cogitate.--TACITUS: _Agricola, c. 32. 31._

[458-4] With malice towards none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right.--ABRAHAM LINCOLN: _Second Inaugural Address._

[459-1] See Sidney, page 264.

DAVID EVERETT. 1769-1813.

You 'd scarce expect one of my age To speak in public on the stage; And if I chance to fall below Demosthenes or Cicero, Don't view me with a critic's eye, But pass my imperfections by. Large streams from little fountains flow, Tall oaks from little acorns grow.[459-2]

_Lines written for a School Declamation._

FOOTNOTES:

[459-2] The lofty oak from a small acorn grows.--LEWIS DUNCOMBE (1711-1730): _De Minimis Maxima_ (translation).

SYDNEY SMITH. 1769-1845.

It requires a surgical operation to get a joke well into a Scotch understanding.[459-3]

_Lady Holland's Memoir. Vol. i. p. 15._

That knuckle-end of England,--that land of Calvin, oat-cakes, and sulphur.

_Lady Holland's Memoir. Vol. i. p. 17._

No one minds what Jeffrey says: . . . it is not more than a week ago that I heard him speak disrespectfully of the equator.

_Lady Holland's Memoir. Vol. i. p. 17._

We cultivate literature on a little oatmeal.[460-1]

_Lady Holland's Memoir. Vol. i. p. 23._

Truth is its [justice's] handmaid, freedom is its child, peace is its companion, safety walks in its steps, victory follows in its train; it is the brightest emanation from the Gospel; it is the attribute of God.

_Lady Holland's Memoir. Vol. i. p. 29._

It is always right that a man should be able to render a reason for the faith that is within him.

_Lady Holland's Memoir. Vol. i. p. 53._

Avoid shame, but do not seek glory,--nothing so expensive as glory.[460-2]

_Lady Holland's Memoir. Vol. i. p. 88._

Let every man be occupied, and occupied in the highest employment of which his nature is capable, and die with the consciousness that he has done his best.

_Lady Holland's Memoir. Vol. i. p. 130._

Looked as if she had walked straight out of the ark.

_Lady Holland's Memoir. Vol. i. p. 157._

The Smiths never had any arms, and have invariably sealed their letters with their thumbs.

_Lady Holland's Memoir. Vol. i. p. 244._

Not body enough to cover his mind decently with; his intellect is improperly exposed.

_Lady Holland's Memoir. Vol. i. p. 258._

He has spent all his life in letting down empty buckets into empty wells; and he is frittering away his age in trying to draw them up again.[460-3]

_Lady Holland's Memoir. Vol. i. p. 259._

You find people ready enough to do the Samaritan, without the oil and twopence.

_Lady Holland's Memoir. Vol. i. p. 261._

Ah, you flavour everything; you are the vanilla of society.

_Lady Holland's Memoir. Vol. i. p. 262._

My living in Yorkshire was so far out of the way, that it was actually twelve miles from a lemon.

_Lady Holland's Memoir. Vol. i. p. 262._

As the French say, there are three sexes,--men, women, and clergymen.[461-1]

_Lady Holland's Memoir. Vol. i. p. 262._

To take Macaulay out of literature and society and put him in the House of Commons, is like taking the chief physician out of London during a pestilence.

_Lady Holland's Memoir. Vol. i. p. 265._

Daniel Webster struck me much like a steam-engine in trousers.

_Lady Holland's Memoir. Vol. i. p. 267._

"Heat, ma'am!" I said; "it was so dreadful here, that I found there was nothing left for it but to take off my flesh and sit in my bones."

_Lady Holland's Memoir. Vol. i. p. 267._

Macaulay is like a book in breeches. . . . He has occasional flashes of silence, that make his conversation perfectly delightful.

_Lady Holland's Memoir. Vol. i. p. 363._

Serenely full, the epicure would say, Fate cannot harm me,--I have dined to-day.[461-2]

_Recipe for Salad. P. 374._

Thank God for tea! What would the world do without tea?--how did it exist? I am glad I was not born before tea.

_Recipe for Salad. P. 383._

If you choose to represent the various parts in life by holes upon a table, of different shapes,--some circular, some triangular, some square, some oblong,--and the persons acting these parts by bits of wood of similar shapes, we shall generally find that the triangular person has got into the square hole, the oblong into the triangular, and a square person has squeezed himself into the round hole. The officer and the office, the doer and the thing done, seldom fit so exactly that we can say they were almost made for each other.[461-3]

_Sketches of Moral Philosophy._

The schoolboy whips his taxed top; the beardless youth manages his taxed horse with a taxed bridle on a taxed road; and the dying Englishman, pouring his medicine, which has paid seven per cent, into a spoon that has paid fifteen per cent, flings himself back upon his chintz bed which has paid twenty-two per cent, and expires in the arms of an apothecary who has paid a license of a hundred pounds for the privilege of putting him to death.

_Review of Seybert's Annals of the United States, 1820._

In the four quarters of the globe, who reads an American book, or goes to an American play, or looks at an American picture or statue?

_Review of Seybert's Annals of the United States, 1820._

Magnificent spectacle of human happiness.

_America. Edinburgh Review, July, 1824._

In the midst of this sublime and terrible storm [at Sidmouth], Dame Partington, who lived upon the beach, was seen at the door of her house with mop and pattens, trundling her mop, squeezing out the sea-water, and vigorously pushing away the Atlantic Ocean. The Atlantic was roused; Mrs. Partington's spirit was up. But I need not tell you that the contest was unequal; the Atlantic Ocean beat Mrs. Partington.

_Speech at Taunton, 1813._

Men who prefer any load of infamy, however great, to any pressure of taxation, however light.

_On American Debts._

FOOTNOTES:

[459-3] See Walpole, page 389.

[460-1] Mr. Smith, with reference to the "Edinburgh Review," says: "The motto I proposed for the 'Review' was 'Tenui musam meditamur avena;' but this was too near the truth to be admitted; so we took our present grave motto from Publius Syrus, of whom none of us had, I am sure, read a single line."

[460-2] A favorite motto, which through life Mr. Smith inculcated on his family.

[460-3] See Cowper, page 419.

[461-1] Lord Wharncliffe says, "The well-known sentence, almost a proverb, that 'this world consists of men, women, and Herveys,' was originally Lady Montagu's."--_Montagu Letters, vol. i. p. 64._

[461-2] See Dryden, p. 273.

[461-3] The right man to fill the right place.--LAYARD: _Speech, Jan. 15, 1855._

J. HOOKHAM FRERE. 1769-1846.

And don't confound the language of the nation With long-tailed words in _osity_ and _ation_.

_The Monks and the Giants. Canto i. Line 6._

A sudden thought strikes me,--let us swear an eternal friendship.[462-1]

_The Rovers. Act i. Sc. 1._

FOOTNOTES:

[462-1] See Otway, page 280.

My fair one, let us swear an eternal friendship.--MOLIÈRE: _Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, act iv. sc. 1._

DUKE OF WELLINGTON. 1769-1852.

Nothing except a battle lost can be half so melancholy as a battle won.

_Despatch, 1815._

It is very true that I have said that I considered Napoleon's presence in the field equal to forty thousand men in the balance. This is a very loose way of talking; but the idea is a very different one from that of his presence at a battle being equal to a reinforcement of forty thousand men.

_Mem. by the Duke,_[463-1] _Sept. 18, 1836._

Circumstances over which I have no control.[463-2]

I never saw so many shocking bad hats in my life.[463-3]

_Upon seeing the first Reformed Parliament._

There is no mistake; there has been no mistake; and there shall be no mistake.[463-4]

_Letter to Mr. Huskisson._

FOOTNOTES:

[463-1] STANHOPE: _Conversations with the Duke of Wellington, p. 81._

[463-2] This phrase was first used by the Duke of Wellington in a letter, about 1839 or 1840.--SALA: _Echoes of the Week, in London Illustrated News, Aug. 23, 1884._ Greville, _Mem., ch. ii._ (1823), gives an earlier instance.

[463-3] Sir William Fraser, in "Words on Wellington" (1889), p. 12, says this phrase originated with the Duke. Captain Gronow, in his "Recollections," says it originated with the Duke of York, second son of George III., about 1817.

[463-4] This gave rise to the slang expression, "And no mistake."--_Words on Wellington, p. 122._

JOHN TOBIN. 1770-1804.

The man that lays his hand upon a woman, Save in the way of kindness, is a wretch Whom 't were gross flattery to name a coward.

_The Honeymoon. Act ii. Sc. 1._

She 's adorned Amply that in her husband's eye looks lovely,-- The truest mirror that an honest wife Can see her beauty in.

_The Honeymoon. Act iii. Sc. 4._

GEORGE CANNING. 1770-1827.

Story! God bless you! I have none to tell, sir.

_The Friend of Humanity and the Knife-Grinder._

I give thee sixpence! I will see thee damned first.

_The Friend of Humanity and the Knife-Grinder._

So down thy hill, romantic Ashbourn, glides The Derby dilly, carrying _three_ INSIDES.

_The Loves of the Triangles. Line 178._

And finds, with keen, discriminating sight, Black 's not so black,--nor white so _very_ white.

_New Morality._

Give me the avowed, the erect, the manly foe, Bold I can meet,--perhaps may turn his blow! But of all plagues, good Heaven, thy wrath can send, Save, save, oh save me from the _candid friend_![464-1]

_New Morality._

I called the New World into existence to redress the balance of the Old.

_The King's Message, Dec. 12, 1826._

No, here 's to the pilot that weathered the storm!

_The Pilot that weathered the Storm._

FOOTNOTES:

[464-1] "Defend me from my friends; I can defend myself from my enemies." The French _Ana_ assign to Maréchal Villars this aphorism when taking leave of Louis XIV.

WILLIAM ROBERT SPENCER. 1770-1834.

Too late I stayed,--forgive the crime! Unheeded flew the hours; How noiseless falls the foot of time[464-2] That only treads on flowers.

_Lines to Lady A. Hamilton._

FOOTNOTES:

[464-2] See Shakespeare, page 74.

JOSEPH HOPKINSON. 1770-1842.

Hail, Columbia! happy land! Hail, ye heroes! heaven-born band! Who fought and bled in Freedom's cause, Who fought and bled in Freedom's cause, And when the storm of war was gone, Enjoyed the peace your valor won. Let independence be our boast, Ever mindful what it cost; Ever grateful for the prize, Let its altar reach the skies!

_Hail, Columbia!_

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH.[465-1] 1770-1850.

Oh, be wiser thou! Instructed that true knowledge leads to love.

_Lines left upon a Seat in a Yew-tree._

And homeless near a thousand homes I stood, And near a thousand tables pined and wanted food.

_Guilt and Sorrow. Stanza 41._

## Action is transitory,--a step, a blow;

The motion of a muscle, this way or that.

_The Borderers. Act iii._

Three sleepless nights I passed in sounding on, Through words and things, a dim and perilous way.[465-2]

_The Borderers. Act iv. Sc. 2._

A simple child That lightly draws its breath, And feels its life in every limb, What should it know of death?

_We are Seven._

O Reader! Had you in your mind Such stores as silent thought can bring, O gentle Reader! you would find A tale in everything.

_Simon Lee._

I 've heard of hearts unkind, kind deeds With coldness still returning; Alas! the gratitude of men Hath oftener left me mourning.

_Simon Lee._

In that sweet mood when pleasant thoughts Bring sad thoughts to the mind.

_Lines written in Early Spring._

And 't is my faith, that every flower Enjoys the air it breathes.

_Lines written in Early Spring._

Nor less I deem that there are Powers Which of themselves our minds impress; That we can feed this mind of ours In a wise passiveness.

_Expostulation and Reply._

Up! up! my friend, and quit your books, Or surely you 'll grow double! Up! up! my friend, and clear your looks! Why all this toil and trouble?

_The Tables Turned._

Come forth into the light of things, Let Nature be your teacher.

_The Tables Turned._

One impulse from a vernal wood May teach you more of man, Of moral evil and of good, Than all the sages can.

_The Tables Turned._

The bane of all that dread the Devil.

_The Idiot Boy._

Sensations sweet, Felt in the blood, and felt along the heart.