3 If this fail, The pillar'd firmament is rottenness, And earth's base built on stubble. MILTON—Comus. L. 597. Nam quamvis prope to, quamvis temone sub uno Vertentem sese, frustra sectabere cantum Cum rota posterior curras et in axe secundo. Why, like the hindmost chariot wheels, art curst Still to be near but ne'er to reach the first. PERSIUS-Satires. V. 71. DRYDEN's trans. English, one of the mottoes of the Spectator, Tatler, Guardian. Although strength should fail, the effort will deserve praise. In great enterprises the attempt is enough. PROPERTIUS--Elegiæ. II. 10. 5. Allow me to offer my congratulations on the truly admirable skill you have shown in keeping clear of the mark. Not to have hit once in so many trials, argues the most splendid talents for missing DE QUINCEY_Works. Vol. XIV. P. 161. Ed. 1863, quoting the EMPEROR GALERIUS to a soldier who missed the target many times in succession. [II] battoit les buissons sans prendre les ozillons. He beat the bushes without taking the birds. RABELAIS–Gargantua. Ch. II. How are the mighty fallen! II Samuel. I. 25. 14 Don't let Tinker die. she could get well again if children believed in fairies.) When the first baby laughed for the first time, the laugh broke into a million pieces, and they all went skipping about. That was the beginning of fairies. BARRIE-Peter Pan. 5 6 7 Bright Eyes, Light Eyes! Daughter of a Fay! a day, I had not nursed my little one a month upon my knee, When down among the blue bell banks rose elfins three times three: They griped me by the raven hair, I could not cry for fear, They put a hempen rope around my waist and dragged me here; They made me sit and give thee suck as mortal mothers can, Bright Eyes, Light Eyes! strange and weak and wan! ROBERT BUCHANAN—The Fairy Foster Mother. 17 8 Here's to the men who lose! plann'd No glorious halo crowns their efforts grandContempt is Failure's share! G. L. SCARBOROUGH—To the Vanquished. (See also STORY under CONQUEST) And each forgets, as he strips and runs With a brilliant, fitful pace, Who win in the lifelong race. Forgets that his prime is past, In the glare of the truth at last. Then take me on your knee, mother; And listen, mother of mine. And the harpers they were nine. St. 5. 18 Nothing can be truer than fairy wisdom. It is as true as sunbeams. DOUGLAS JERROLD-Specimens of Jerrold's Wit. Fairy Tales. 19 We have scotch'd the snake, not killed it. Macbeth. Act III. Sc. 2. L. 14. 10 Not all who seem to fail have failed indeed, Not all who fail have therefor worked in vain. There is no failure for the good and brave. Attributed to ARCHBISHOP TRENCH by Prof. CONNINGTON. 11 For he that believeth, bearing in hand, Plougheth in the water, and soweth in the sand. SIR THOMAS WYATT. (See also MASSINGER) Faith builds a bridge across the gulf of Death, What is the end of Fame? 'tis but to fill Whose summit, like all hills, is lost in vapour: YOUNG-Night Thoughts. Night IV. L. 721. For this men write, speak, preach, and heroes kill, FALCON And bards burn what they call their "midnight taper," The falcon and the dove sit there together, To have, when the original is dust, And th’ one of them doth prune the other's A name, a wretched picture, and worse bust. feather. BYRON-Don Juan. Canto I. St. 218. DRAYTON—Noah's Flood. 14 3 I awoke one morning and found myself famous. Say, will the falcon, stooping from above, BYRON—From MOORE's Life of Bryon. Smit with her varying plumage, spare the dove? 15 Admires the jay the insect's gilded wings? Or hears the hawk when Philomela sings? Folly loves the martyrdom of fame. POPE-Essay on Man. Ep. III. L. 53. BYRON-Monody on the Death of Sheridan. L. 68. 4 A falcon, tow'ring in her pride of place, 16 Was by a mousing owl hawk'd at and kill'd. O Fame!-if I e'er took delight in thy praises, Macbeth. Act II. Sc. 4. L. 12. 'Twas less for the sake of thy high-sounding 5 phrases, My falcon now is sharp, and passing empty; Than to see the bright eyes of the dear one disAnd till she stoop, she must not be full-gorg'd, cover For then she never looks upon her lure. She thought that I was not unworthy to love her. Taming of the Shrew. Act IV. Sc. 1. L. 193. BYRON—Stanzas Written on the Road Between Florence and Pisa. 17 Fame, we may understand, is no sure test of FAME merit, but only a probability of such: it is an A niche in the temple of Fame. accident, not a property of a man. Owes its origin to the establishment of the Pan CARLYLE—Essay. Goethe. theon (1791) as a receptacle for distinguished 18 men. Scarcely two hundred years back can Fame 7 recollect articulately at all; and there she but Were not this desire of fame very strong, the maunders and mumbles. difficulty of obtaining it, and the danger of CARLYLE—Past and Present. Ch. XVII. losing it when obtained, would be sufficient to 19 deter a man from so vain a pursuit. Men the most infamous are fond of fame, ADDISON—The Spectator. No. 255. And those who fear not guilt, yet start at shame. 8 CHURCHILL—The Author. L. 233. And what after all is everlasting fame? Altogether vanity. The aspiring youth that fired the Ephesian dome ANTONINUS—Med. 4. 33. Outlives, in fame, the pious fool that rais'd it. 9 COLLEY CIBBER—Richard III. (Altered.) Ah! who can tell how hard it is to climb Act III. Sc. 1. The steep where Fame's proud temple shines (See also BROWNE) afar! BEATTIE—The Minstrel. St. 1. Je ne dois qu'à moi seul toute ma renommée. 10 Nothing can cover his high fame but Heaven: To myself alone do I owe my fame. CORNEILLE—L'Excuse à Ariste. Non é il mondam romore altro che un fiato BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER—The False One. Di vento, che vien quinci ed or vien quindi, Act II. Sc. 1. L. 169. E muta nome, perchè muta lato. 11 The splendors that belong unto the fame of The best-concerted schemes men lay for fame, earth are but a wind, that in the same direcDie fast away: only themselves die faster. tion lasts not long. La vostra nominanza é color d'erba, Che viene e va; e quei la discolora (See also BURNS under DISAPPOINTMENT) Per cui ell' esce della terra acerba. 12 All your renown is like the summer flower Herostratus lives that burnt the temple of that blooms and dies; because the sunny glow Diana; he is almost lost that built it. which brings it forth, soon slays with parching SIR THOMAS BROWNE-Hydriotaphia. Ch. V. power. (See also CIBBER) DANTE-Purgatoria. XI. 115. 14 If he were To be made honest by an act of parliament I should not alter in my faith of him. BEN JONSON—The Devil Is an Ass. Act IV. Sc. 1. And we shall be made truly wise if we be made content; content, too, not only with what we can understand, but content with what we do not understand—the habit of mind which theologians call-and rightly-faith in God. CHARLES KINGSLEY-Health and Education on Bio-Geology. 3 The only faith that wears well and holds its color in all weathers is that which is woven of conviction and set with the sharp mordant of experience. LOWELL-My Study Windows. Abraham Lincoln. 1864. Thou almost makest me waver in my faith Merchant of Venice. Act IV. Sc. 1. L. 13C. 15 The saddest thing that can befall a soul Is when it loses faith in God and woman. ALEXANDER SMITH-A Life Drama. Sc. 12. 16 Faith is the subtle chain Which binds us to the infinite; the voice Of a deep life within, that will remain Until we crowd it thence. ELIZABETH OAKES SMITH-Atheism in Three Sonnets. Faith. O welcome pure-ey'd Faith, white-handed Hope, Thou hovering angel, girt with golden wings! MILTON—Comus. L. 213. 5 That in such righteousness To them by faith imputed they may find Justification towards God, and peace Of conscience. MILTON—Paradise Lost. Bk. XII. L. 294. Yet I argue not Again Heaven's hand or will, nor bate a jot of right or hope; but still bear up and steer Right onward. MILTON—To Cyriac Skinner. 7 Combien de choses nous servoient hier d'articles de foy, qui nous sont fables aujourd'hui! How many things served us yesterday for articles of faith, which today are fables to us! MONTAIGNE—Essays. Bk. İ. Ch. XXVI. But Faith, fanatic Faith, once wedded fast To some dear falsehood, hugs it to the last. MOORE—Lalla Rookh. The Veiled Prophet of Khorassan. 20 I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. II Timothy. IV. 7. 21 Faith, mighty faith the promise sees And rests on that alone; And says it shall be done. 22 9 Through this dark and stormy night Faith beholds a feeble light Up the blackness streaking; Knowing God's own time is best, In a patient hope I rest For the full day-breaking! WHITTIER—Barclay of Ury. St. 16. 23 If faith produce no works, I see HANNAH MORE—Dan and Jane. 10 For modes of faith let graceless zealots fight; His can't be wrong whose life is in the right. POPE—Essay on Man. Ep. III. L. 305. (See also COWLEY) 11 The enormous faith of many made for one. POPE—Essay on Man. Ep. III. L. 242. 12 Be thou faithful unto death. Revelation. II. 10. Set on your foot, And with a heart new-fir'd I follow you, To do I know not what: but it sufficeth That Brutus leads me on. Julius Caesar. Act II. Sc. 1. L. 331. A bending staff I would not break, WHITTIER—Questions of Life. St. 1. 13 'Tis hers to pluck the amaranthine flower Of Faith, and round the sufferer's temples bind Wreaths that endure affliction's heaviest shower, And do not shrink from sorrow's keenest wind. WORDSWORTH-Weak is the Will of Mon Fame then was cheap, and the first courier sped; And they have kept it since, by being dead. DRYDEN—The Conquest of Granada. Epilogue. 'Tis a petty kind of fame At best, that comes of making violins; And saves no masses, either. Thou wilt go To purgatory none the less. GEORGE ÉLIOT-Stradivarius. L. 85. Where's Cæsar gone now, in command high and able? Or Xerxes the splendid, complete in his table? Or Tully, with powers of eloquence ample? Or Aristotle, of genius the highest example? JACOPONE-De Contemptu Mundi. Trans. by ABRAHAM COLES. 18 Fame is the echo of actions, resounding them to the world, save that the echo repeats only the last part, but fame relates all, and often more than all. FULLER—The Holy and Profane States. Of Fame. 19 7 From kings to cobblers 'tis the same; Gar–Fables. The Squire and his Cur. Pt. II. 8 Der rasche Kampf verewigt einen Mann, Er falle gleich, so preiset ihn das Lied. Rash combat oft immortalizes man. If he should fall, he is renowned in song. GOETHE-Iphigenia auf Tauris. V. 6. 43. Fame has no necessary conjunction with praise: it may exist without the breath of a word: it is a recognition of excellence which must be felt but need not be spoken. Even the envious must feel it: feel it, and hate it in silence. MRS. JAMESON—Memoirs and Essays. Wash ington Alston. Reputation being essentially contemporaneous, is always at the mercy of the Envious and the Ignorant. But Fame, whose very birth is posthumous, and which is only known to exist by the echo of its footsteps through congenial minds, can neither be increased nor diminished by any degree of wilfulness. Mrs. JAMESON-Memoirs and Essays. Wash ington Allston. 20 Miserum est aliorum incumbere famæ. It is a wretched thing to live on the fame of others. JUVENAL--Satires. VIII. 76. The temple of fame stands upon the grave: the flame that burns upon its altars is kindled from the ashes of dead men. HAZLITT- Lectures on the English Poets. Lecture VIII. 21 10 Thou hast a charmed cup, O Fame! A draught that mantles high, Above mortality. FELICIA D. HEMANS-Woman and Fame. "Let us now praise famous men Men of little showing- Greater than their knowing. First line from Ecclesiasticus. XLIV. 1. 22 Fame comes only when deserved, and then is as inevitable as destiny, for it is destiny. LONGFELLOW-Hyperion. Bk. I. Ch. VIII. 23 If that thy fame with ev'ry toy be pos'd, Wisdom picks friends; civility plays the rest; St. 38. Building nests in Fame's great temple, As in spouts the swallows build. LONGFELLOW-Nuremberg. St. 16. 24 12 His fame was great in all the land. Student's Tale. Emma and Eginhard. L. 50. Short is my date, but deathless my renown. HOMER-Iliad. Bk. LX. L. 535. POPE's trans. 25 13 The rest were vulgar deaths unknown to fame. HOMER-Iliad. Bk. XI. L. 394. POPE's trans. Nolo virum facili redimit qui sanguine famam; Hunc volo laudari qui sine morte potest. I do not like the man who squanders life |