AFFLICTION. AGE (OLD). 5 Affliction is enamour'd of thy parts, Romeo and Juliet. Act III. Sc. 3. m. n. 0. Henceforth I'll bear Affliction till it do cry out itself, Enough, Enough, and die. b. King Lear. Act IV. Sc. 6. Thou art a soul in bliss ; but I am bound Upon a wheel of fire ; that mine own tears Do scald like molten lead. c. King Lear. Act IV. Sc. 7. Affliction is not sent in vain From that good God who chastens whom he loves. d. SOUTHEY- Madoc. Pt. III. Line 74. With silence only as their benediction, God's angels come The soul sits dumb ! e. WHITTIER— To my friend on the death of his sister. Affliction is the good man's shining scene ; Prosperity conceals his brightest ray ; As night to stars, woe lustre gives to man. f. YOUNG— Night Thoughts. Night IX. Line 406. 1. Age shakes Athena's tower, but spares gray Marathon. BYRON—Childe Harold. Canto II. St. 88. Just as old age is creeping on apace, And clouds come o'er the sunset of our day, They kindly leave us, though not quite alone, But in good company-the gout or stone. BYRON- Don Juan. Canto III. St. 59. My days are in the yellow leaf ; The flowers and fruits of love are gone; The worm, the canker, and the grief Are mine alone ! BYRON-On my Thirty-sixth Year. Dark and despairing, my sight I may seal, But man cannot cover what God would reveal : 'Tis the sunset of life gives me mystical lore, And coming events cast their shadows before. P. CAMPBELL-Lochiel's Warning. Line 53. As I approve of a youth that has something of the old man in him, so I am no less pleased with an old man that has something of the youth. 9. CICERO. James G. CLARKE—Leona. produce, But autumn makes them ripe and fit for use: So age a mature mellowness doth set On the green promises of youthful heat. Sir JOHN DENHAM -- Cato Major. Pt. IV. Boys must not have th'ambitious care of men, Nor men the weak anxieties of age. t. WENTWORTH DILLON (Earl of Roscommon)-Trans. Horace. Of the Art of Poetry. Line 212. We do not count a man's years, until he has nothing else to count. EMERSON-Society and Solitude. Old Age. Old age is courteous-no one more : For time after time he knocks at the door, But nobody says, “Walk in, sir, pray!" Yet turns he not from the door away, But lifts the latch, and enters with speed, And then they cry, “A cool one, indeed." GOETHE- Old Age. Alike all ages : dames of ancient days Have led their children through the mirthful maze, And the gay grandsire, skill'd in gestic lore, Has frisked beneath the burden of threescore. GOLDSMITH - The Traveller. Line 251. O blest retirement! friend to life's declineHow blest is he who crowns, in shades like these, A youth of labour with an age of ease ! GOLDSMITH - The Deserted Village. Line 97. AGE (OLD.) Backward, flow backward, O tide of the years ! I am so weary of toil and of tears, Toil without recompense, tears all in vain-Take them, and give me my childhood again! g. ELIZABETH AKERS- Rock Me to Sleep. Weak withering age no rigid law forbids With frugal nectar, smooth and slow with balm The sapless habit daily to bedew, And give the hesitating wheels of life Glibblier to play. h. JOHN ARMSTRONG— On Preserving Health. Bk. II. Line 486 Men of age object too much, consult too long, adventure too little, repent too soon, and seldom drive business home to the full period, but content themselves with a mediocrity of success. i BACON-Essay XLII. Of Youth and Age. Old age comes on apace to ravage all the clime. j. BEATTIE- The Minstrel. Bk. I. St. 25. To resist with success, the frigidity of old age, one must combine the body, the mind, and the heart ; to keep these in parallel vigor, one must exercise, study and love. k. BONSTETTEN-- In Abel Stevens' Madame de Stael. Ch. XXVI. No chronic tortures racked his aged limb, For luxury and sloth had nourished none for him. 2 BRYANT- The Old Man's Funeral. u. Slow-consuming age. Withered and shaken, b. HOOD- Ballad. m. so may'st thou live till like ripe fruit thou drop mature. Line 535. Se Life's year begins and closes ; Days, though short'ning, still can shine ; What though youth gave love and roses, Age still leaves us friends and wine. MOORE-Spring and Autumn. Thyself no more deceive, thy youth hath fled. PETRARCH — To Laura in Death. Sonnet LXXXII. Why will you break the Sabbath of my days? Now sick alike of Envy and of Praise. p. POPE-First Book of Horace. Ep. 1. Line 3. c. n. 0. e. Through the sequester'd vale of rural life, The venerable patriarch guileless held The tenor of his way. 9 PORTEUS-Death. Line 109. Superfluous lags the veteran on the stage, Wishes. Line 308. Age is opportunity no less Than youth itself , though in another dress And as the evening twilight fades away. The sky is filled with stars, invisible by day. d. LONGFELLOW-Morituri Salutamus. Line 284. And the bright faces of my young compan. ions Are wrinkled like my own, or are no more. LONGFELLOW - Spanish Student. Act III. Sc. 3. How far the gulf-stream of our youth may flow Into the arctic regions of our lives, Where little else than life itself survives. f. LONGFELLOW-Morituri Salutamus. Line 250. The course of my long life hath' reached at last, In fragile bark o'er a tempestuous sea, The common harbor, where must rendered be, Account of all the actions of the past. g. LONGFELLOW-- Old Age. The sunshine fails, the shadows grow more dreary, And I am near to fall, infirm and weary. h. LONGFELLOW-Canzone. Whatever poet, orator, or sage may say of it, old age is still old age. i. LONGFELLOW-Morituri Salutamus. Line 264. Age is not all decay ; it is the ripening, the swelling, of the fresh life within, that withers and bursts the husk. j. GEORGE MacDONALD— The Marquis of Lossie. Ch. XL. Set is the sun of my years ; And over a few poor ashes, I sit in my darkness and tears. k. GERALD MASSEY-A Wail. The ages roll Forward ; and forward with them, draw my soul Into time's infinite sea. And to be glad, or sad, I care no more : But to have done, and to have been, before I cease to do and be. OWEN MEREDITH-The Wanderer. Bk. IV. A Confession and Apology. St. 9. Begin to patch up thine old body for heaven Henry IV. Pt. II. Act II. Sc. 4. aa. AGE (OLD). AGONY. 7 n. Give me a staff of honor for mine age, His silver hairs c. Julius Cæsar. Act II. Sc. 1. Men shut their doors against a setting sun. d. Timon of Athens. Act I. Sc. 2. Minates, hours, days, weeks, months, and years, Pass'd over to the end they were created, Would bring white hairs unto a quiet grave. Ah, what a life were this! Henry VI. Pt. III. Act II. Sc. 5. My way of life Is fallen into the sear, the yellow leaf : And that which should accompany old age, As honor, love, obedience, troops of friends, I must not look to have ; but, in their stead, Curses not loud, but deep, mouth-honor, breath, Which the poor heart would fain deny, and dare not. f. Macbeth. Act V. Sc. 3. O father Abbot, An old man, broken with the storms of State, Is come to lay his weary bones among ye; Give him a little earth for charity. 9. Henry VIII. Act IV. Sc. 2. O, heavens, If you do love old men, if your sweet sway Allow obedience, if you yourselves are old, Make it your cause. ኢ h. King Lear. Act II. Sc. 4. Pray, do not mock me : I am a very foolish fond old man, Fourscore and upward ; and, to deal plainly, I fear I am not in my perfect mind. i. King Lear. Act IV. Sc. 7. Some smack of age in you, some relish of the saltness of time. j. King Henry IV. Pt. II. Act I. Sc. 2. Superfluity comes sooner by white hairs, but competency lives longer. k. Merchant of Venice. Act I. Sc. 2. The wrinkles which thy glass will truly show, Of mouthed graves will give thee memory, Thou by thy dial's shady stealth maiest know, Time's thievish progress to eternity. 1. Sonnet LXXII. 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 ; Nor did not with un bashful forehead woo The means of weakness and debility; Therefore my age is as a lusty winter, Frosty, but kindly. As You Like It. Act II. Sc. 3 Though now this grained face of mine be hid What should we speak of When we are old as you ? When we shall hear The rain and wind beat dark December. Cymbeline. Act III. Sc. 3. Sc. 5. You are old ; Nature in you stands on the very verge Of her contine. 9. King Lear. Act II. Sc. 4. You see me here, you gods, a poor old man, As full of grief as age ; wretched in both. King Lear. Act II. Sc. 4. Every man desires to live long ; but no man would be old. SWIFT— Thoughts on Various Subjects, Moral and Diverting. Age, too, shines out, and garrulous recounts the feats of youth, t. Thomson -- The Seasons. Autumn. Line 1229. O good gray head which all men knew, TENNYSON - On the Death of the Duke of Wellington. St. 4. A happy youth, and their old age Is beautiful and free. WORDSWORTH-The Fountain. WORDSWORTH -- To a Young Lady. WORDSWORTH - The Fountain. St. 9. Line 111. t'. X. What else remains for me? Youth, hope, and love; To build a new life on a ruined life. 0. LONGFELLOW-Masque of Pandora. Pt. VÜI. In the Garden. a. AMBITION. All ambitions, upward tending, Like plants in mines, which never saw the Sun. ROBERT BROWNING-Paracelus. My hour at last is come; Yet not ingloriously or passively I die, but first will do some valiant deed, Of which mankind shall hear in after time. b. BRYANT's Homer's Iliad. Bk. XXII. Line 375. No man is born without ambitious worldly desires. CARLYLE- Essays. Schiller. Thy danger chiefly lies in acting well; No crime's so great as daring to excel. d. CHURCHILL— Epistle to Hogarth. Line 51. The noblest spirit is most strongly attracted by the love of glory. CICERO. I had a soul above buttons. f. GEORGE COLEMAN, JR. - Sylvester Daggerwood, or New Hay at the Old. Market. Sc. 1. Wit, seeking truth, from cause to cause as cends, And never rests till it the first attain; Will, seeking good, finds many middle ends; But never stays till it the last do gain. the Soul. Pt. I. Line 190. e. 8. The lover of letters loves power too. i. EMERSON- Clubs. u. Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven. MILTON- Paradise Lost. Bk. I. Line 263. But what will not ambition and revenge Descend to? who aspires must down as lov As high he soard ; obnoxious first or last To basest things. MILTON- Paradise Lost. Bk. IX. Line 168. Here may we reign secure, and in my choice To reign is worth ambition, though in hell. t. MILTON - Paradise Lost. Bk. I. Line 261. If at great things thou would'st arrive, Get riches first, get wealth, and treasure heap, Not difficult, if thou hearken to me; Riches are mine, fortune is in my hand, They whom I favor thrive in wealth amain, While virtue, valor, wisdom, sit in want. MILTON— Paradise Regained. Bk. II. Line 426. Such joy ambition finds. MILTON--Paradise Lost. Bk. IV. Line 92 Onward, onward may we press Through the path of duty ; Virtue is true happiness, Excellence true beauty ; Minds are of supernal birth, Let us make a heaven of earth. JAMES MONTGOMERY-- Aspirations of Youth. St. 3. Wert thou all that I wish thee, great, glorious and free, First flower of the earth, and first gem of the sea. MOORE- Remember Thee. From servants hasting to be gods. y. POLLOK - Course of Time. Bk. II. Just and Unjust Rulers. But see how oft ambition's aims are cross'd, And chiefs contend 'till all the prize is lost! POPE-Rape of the Lock. Canto V. Line 108. U. All may have, If they dare try, a glorious life or grave. j. HERPERT— The Temple. The Church-Porch. My name is Norval ; on the Grampian hills My father feeds his flocks; a frugal swain, Whose constant cares were to increase his store, And keep his only son, myself, at home. k. John HOME- Douglas. Act II. Sc. 1. Studious to please, yet not asham'd to fail. 1. SAM'L JOHNSON--- Prologue to the Tragedy of Irene, I see, but cannot reach, the height That lies forever in the light. LONGFELLOW-Christus. The Golden Legend. Pt. II. A Village Church. Most people would succeed in small things if they were not troubled with great ambitions. LONGFELLOW-Drift-Wood. Table-Talk. . m. n. 2. AMBITION. AMBITION. 9 m. Ill-weav'd ambition, how much art thou shrunk ! When that this body did contain a spirit, A kingdom for it was too small a bound ; But now, two paces of the vilest earth Is room enough. j. Henry IV. Pt. I. Act. V. Sc. 4. It were all one That I should love a bright particular star, And think to wed it, he is so above me. k. All's Well That Ends Well. Act. I. Sc. 1. Mark but my fall, and that that ruin'd me. Cromwell, I charge thee, fling away ambi tion, By that, sin, fell the angels ; how can man then, The image of his Maker, hope to win by it? Love thyself last ; cherish those hearts that hate thee; The noble Brutus Julius Cæsar. Act. III. Sc. 2. to, That sweet aspect of princes, and their ruin, More pangs and fears than war or women have. n. Henry VIII. Act. III. Sc. 2. The very substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream. 'Tis a common proof, p. Julius Cæsar. Act II. Sc. 1. Virtue is chok'd with foul ambition. 9. Henry VI. Pt. II. Act III. Sc. 1. How many a rustic Milton has pass'd by, Stilling the speechless longings of his heart, In unre remitting drudgery and care! How many a vulgar Cato has compelled His energies, no longer tameless then, To mould a pin, or fabricate a nail ! SHELLEY— Queen Mab. Pt. V. St. 9. I was born to other things. TENNYSON- In Memoriam. Pt. CXIX. Be always displeased at what thou art, if thou desire to attain to what thou art not; for where thou hast pleased thyself, there thon abidest. d. QUARLES – Emblems. Bk. IV. Emblem 3. To the Perfect wouldst thou go ;- Space. Ambition is no cure for love. f. SCOTT-- Lay of the Last Minstrel. Canto I. St. 27. Ambition's debt is paid. 9. Julius Cæsar. Act. III. Sc. 1. I am not covetous for gold ; I have no spur i. Macbeth. Act. I. Sc. 7. e. 8. How like a mounting devil in the heart, Rules the unreined ambition. t. WILLIS— Parrhasius. Mad ambition trumpeteth to all. Yale College in 1827. |