We rise in glory, as we sink in pride; No man's tune is unpleasing to himself. -YOUNG. If you have done a good deed, boast not of it. Boast not thyself of to-morrow; for thou knowest. not what a day may bring forth. -"BIBLE-PROVERBS." Let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth; a stranger, and not thine own lips. "BIBLE-PROVERBS." Never sound the trumpet of your own praise. Sink self--don't talk much of yourself. MAN. Can he be fair, that withers at a blast? So young is man, that, broke with care and sorrow, Why braggest thou then, thou worm of five feet long? "My own, my own "-oh! who shall dare To set this seal of claim on earth; -ELIZA COOK. Be taught, vain man, how fleeting all the joys, -BEATTIE. Alexander the Great, seeing Diogenes looking attentively at a large collection of human bones piled one upon another, asked the philosopher, what he was looking for. "I am searching," said Diogenes, "for the bones of your father, and I cannot distinguish them from those of his slaves." Vain man is grandeur given to gay attire? They fear the thief and tremble in the storm:- Behold what deeds of woe the locust can perform! Virtue has raised above the things below; Who, every hope and fear to Heaven resign'd, -BEATTIE. When I survey the wondrous cross -DODDRIDGE. Now hath arisen the star of day, That we throughout his course be freed -H. ALFORD. THE SENIOR WRANGLER. The Senior Wrangler, of a certain year, piping hot from the Senate House at Cambridge, went to the play at Drury-Lane; it so happened, that a certain great personage entered at the same moment, on the other side of the house, but unobserved by the mathematician. The whole house testified their respect by a general rising and clapping of hands. Our astonished academic instantly exclaimed, to the no small amusement of his London friends, "Well, well, this is more than I expected: how is it possible that these good people should so soon have discovered that I am the Senior Wrangler !!" -COLTON. THE CLOCK AND THE DIAL. the day is A Clock, which served for many years to repeat the hours and point out time, happened to fall into conversation with a Dial, which also served, when the sun shone, to tell what was the time of day. It happened to be in a cloudy forenoon, when the sun did not shine. Says the Clock to the Dial, What a mean slavery you undergo! You cannot tell the hour without the sun pleases to inform you; and now the half of past, and you know not what o'clock it is. I can tell the hour at any time, and would not be in such a dependent state as you are in for the world. Night and day are both alike to me. It is just now twelve o'clock. Upon this the sun shone forth from under the cloud, and showed the exact time of the day. It was half an hour past twelve. The Dial then replied to the Clock, You may now perceive that boasting is not good; for you see you are wrong. It is better to be under direction and follow truth, than to be eye to one's self and go wrong; your freedom is only a liberty to err; and what you call slavery in my case, is the only method of being freely in the right. You see that we should all of us keep our stations, and depend upon one another. I depend upon the sun, and you depend upon me; for if I did not serve to regulate your motions, you see you would for ever go wrong." Here, reader, turn your weeping eyes, From Bewick's Select Fables. The hole in which my body lies Would not contain one half my speeches. --LORD BROUGHAM'S EPITAPH FOR HIMSELF. A GRECIAN MASTER AND HIS SLAVE. A master (in Greece) treated with extreme cruelty his slaves who were engaged in planting and otherwise laying out a vineyard for him; until at length one of them, the most misused of all, prophesied that for this his cruelty, he should never drink of its wine. When the first vintage was completed, he bade this slave to fill a goblet for him, which taking in his hand he taunted, him with the failure of his prophecy. The other replied "There's many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip," words which have since become proverbial. As he spake, tidings were brought of a huge wild boar, that was wasting the vineyard. Setting down the untasted cup, and snatching hastily a spear, the master went out to meet the wild boar, and was slain in the encounter.† --DR. TRENCH. HUMILITY. Be humble; learn thyself to scan, Know, pride was never made for man. -JOSEPH SALEH. Accept with patience the offering of truth, believing it to be true; fix your heart on God, and be humbled as though you were dead.‡ -DÂDU. • It is said that this distinguished nobleman once in a playful mood, wrote the said epitaph for himself. + From Proverbs and Lessons. From the Works of H. H. Wilson. |