2.

'T is in books the chief

BUTLER.

Of all perfections, to be plain and brief.

3. 'T were well with most, if books, that could engage
Their childhood, pleas'd them at a riper age;
The man approving what had charm'd the boy,
Would die at last in comfort, peace and joy;
And not with curses on his art, who stole

The gem of truth from his unguarded soul.

COWPER.

4. What is it but a map of busy life,

Its fluctuations and its vast concerns?

COWPER.

5. Books should to one of these four ends conduce, For wisdom, piety, delight, or use.

DENHAM.

6. The printed part, tho' far too large, is less

Than that which, yet unprinted, waits the press.

From the Spanish.

7. The Past but lives in words: a thousand ages
Were blank, if books had not evok'd their ghosts,
And kept the pale, unbodied shades to warn us
From fleshless lips.

BULWER'S Cromwell.

8. 'T is pleasant, sure, to see one's name in print; A book 's a book, altho' there's nothing in 't.

BYRON'S' English Bards and Scotch Reviews.

9. Turn to the press-its teeming sheets survey,
Big with the wonders of each passing day;
Births, deaths, and weddings, forgeries, fires and wrecks,
Harangues and hailstones, brawls and broken necks.

CHARLES SPRAGUE'S Curiosity.

10. 'T was heaven to lounge upon a couch, said Gray, And read new novels through a rainy day.

CHARLES SPRAGUE'S Curiosity.

96

BOOKS-NEWSPAPER-PRESS.

:

11. Trade hardly deems the busy day begun,
Till his keen eye along the sheet has run;
The blooming daughter throws her needle by,
And reads her schoolmate's marriage with a sigh;
While the grave mother puts her glasses on,
And gives a tear to some old crone that 's gone.
The preacher, too, his Sunday theme lays down,
To know what last new folly fills the town;
Lively or sad, life's meanest, mightiest things,

The fate of fighting cocks, or fighting kings.

CHARLES SPRAGUE'S Curiosity.

12. See tomes on tomes, of fancy and of power,

To cheer man's heaviest, warm his holiest hour.

CHARLES SPRAGUE'S Curiosity.

13. Turn back the tide of ages to its head,

And hoard the wisdom of the honour'd dead.

CHARLES SPRAGUE'S Curiosity.

14. Newspaper! who has never felt the pleasure that it brings? It always tells us of so many strange and wondrous things! It makes us weep at tales of wo - it fills our hearts with

mirth

It tells us of the price of stock - how much produce is worth

And when, and where, and how, and why, strange things occur on earth.

Has war's loud clarion call'd to arms? - has lightning struck a tree?

Has Jenkins broke his leg? - or has there been a storm at sea?

Has the sea-serpent shown his head? -a comet's tail been

seen?

Or has some heiress with her groom run off to Gretna

Green?

All this, and many wonders more, you from this sheet may

glean.

J. T. WATSON. BRAVERY - COURAGE - FORTITUDE.

1. In war, was never lion's rage so fierce;

In peace, was never gentle lamb more mild.

4. His valour, shown upon our crests to-day,
Hath taught us how to cherish such high deeds,
Even in the bosom of our adversary.

SHAKSPEARE.

5. But screw your courage to the sticking place, And we'll not fail.

SHAKSPEARE.

6. What though the field be lost?

All is not lost; the ungovernable will,
And study of revenge, immortal hate,
And courage never to submit or yield,

And what is else not to be overcome.

MILTON'S Paradise Lost.

7. Let fortune empty all her quiver on me,
I have a soul that, like an ample shield,
Can take in all, and verge enough for more.

8. For, as we see the eclipsed sun

By mortals is more gazed upon,
Than when, adorn'd with all his light,
He shines in serene sky most bright,

So valour, in a low estate,

Is more admir'd and wonder'd at.

DRYDEN.

BUTLER'S Hudibras.

98

BRAVERY - COURAGE – FORTITUDE.

9. He that is valiant, and dares fight,

Though drubb'd, can lose no honour by 't.

BUTLER'S Hudibras.

10. 'T is not now who's stout and bold?
But who bears hunger best, and cold?
And he's approv'd the most deserving,
Who longest can hold out at starving.

11. How sleep the brave, who sink to rest With all their country's honour blest!

12.

BUTLER'S Hudibras.

COLLINS.

To a mind resolv'd and wise,
There is an impotence in misery,
Which makes me smile, while all its shafts are in me.

YOUNG's Revenge.

13. True fortitude is seen in great exploits
That justice warrants, and that wisdom guides;
All else is tow'ring frenzy and distraction.

ADDISON'S Cato.

14. The wise and active conquer difficulties,
By daring to attempt them; sloth and folly
Shiver and sink at sights of toil and hazard,
And make the impossibility they fear.

15. The brave man is not he who feels no fear;
For that were stupid and irrational;
But he whose noble soul its fear subdues,
And bravely dares the danger nature shrinks from.

16. Unaw'd by power, and unappall'd by fear.

17. Let angry ocean to the sky

In proud disdain his billows roll;
Let thunder to his threats reply-
Fear is a stranger to my soul.

ROWE.

JOANNA BAILLIE.

GOLDSMITH.

Совв.

18. What heart in either grim array

Throbs to the charge with wilder beat ?
What ear so loves the trumpet's bray,
That bids contending thousands meet?

MRS. HOLFORD.

19. Fate made me what I am-may make me nothing,-
But either that or nothing must I be;
I will not live degraded.

BYRON'S Sardanapalus.

20. His breast with wounds unnumber'd riven, His back to earth, his face to heaven.

21. As bold as Daniel in the lions' den.

22.

23.

BYRON'S Giaour. BYRON'S Don Juan.

-The truly brave,
When they behold the brave oppress'd with odds,
Are touch'd with a desire to shield or save.

BYRON'S Don Juan.

It must have been

A fearful pang that wrung a groan from him.

BYRON'S Two Foscari.

24. And the repress'd convulsion of the high

And princely brow of his old father, which
Broke forth in silent shudderings, tho' rarely,
Or in some clammy drops, soon wiped away

In stern serenity.

BYRON'S Two Foscari.

25.

-And the poor wretch mov'd me
More by his silence, than a thousand outcries
Could have effected.

BYRON'S Two Foscari.

26. His blade is bared; in him there is an air
As deep, but far too tranquil for despair;
A something of indifference, more than then
Becomes the bravest, if they feel for men.

BYRON'S Lara.