His promises were, as he then was, mighty; But his performance, as he is now, nothing. King Henry VIII., Act iv. Sc. 2.

SHAKESPEARE.

There buds the promise of celestial worth. The Last Day, Bk. III.

DR. E. YOUNG.

Thy promises are like Adonis' gardens That one day bloomed and fruitful were the next. King Henry VI., Pt. I. Act i. Sc. 6.

QUARREL.

SHAKESPEARE.

O, shame to men! devil with devil damned
Firm concord holds; men only disagree

Of creatures rational.

Paradise Lost, Bk. II.

O we fell out, I know not why,
And kissed again with tears.

The Princess.

MILTON.

A. TENNYSON.

What dire offence from amorous causes springs, What mighty contests rise from trivial things. Rape of the Lock, Canto I.

Beware

A. POPE.

Of entrance to a quarrel; but, being in, Bear 't that the opposèd may beware of thee. Hamlet, Act i. Sc. 3.

SHAKESPEARE.

Those who in quarrels interpose,
Must often wipe a bloody nose.

Fables: The Mastiffs.

But greatly to find quarrel in a straw
When honor 's at the stake.

Hamlet, Act iv. Sc. 4.

J. GAY.

SHAKESPEARE.

In a false quarrel there is no true valor.

Much Ado about Nothing, Act v. Sc. 1. SHAKESPEARE.

I'm armed with more than complete steel,

The justice of my quarrel.

Lust's Dominion, Act iii. Sc. 4.

RAIN.

C. MARLOWE.

The Clouds consign their treasures to the fields; And, softly shaking on the dimpled pool Prelusive drops, let all their moisture flow, In large effusion, o'er the freshened world. The Seasons: Spring.

J. THOMSON.

Drip, drip, the rain comes falling,
Rain in the woods, rain on the sea;
Even the little waves, beaten, come crawling
As if to find shelter here with me.

Waiting in the Rain.

J. H. MORSE.

The rain-drops' showery dance and rhythmic beat, With tinkling of innumerable feet. The Microcosm: Hearing.

And the hooded clouds, like friars,
Tell their beads in drops of rain.

Midnight Mass for the Dying Year.

A. COLES.

H. W. LONGFELLOW.

See where it smokes along the sounding plain,
Blown all aslant, a driving, dashing rain;
Peal upon peal, redoubling all around,
Shakes it again and faster to the ground.
Truth.

W. COWPER.

The thirsty earth soaks up the rain, And drinks and gapes for drink again; The plants suck in the earth, and are With constant drinking fresh and fair. Anacreontiques.

A. COWLEY.

When that I was and a little tiny boy,
With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,.
A foolish thing was but a toy,

For the rain it raineth every day.

Twelfth Night, Act v. Sc. 1.

RAINBOW.

SHAKESPEARE.

Rain, rain, and sun! a rainbow in the sky! Idylls of the King: The Coming of Arthur.

A. TENNYSON.

Mild arch of promise! on the evening sky
Thou shinest fair with many a lovely ray,
Each in the other melting.

The Evening Rainbow.

R. SOUTHEY.

Triumphal arch, that fill'st the sky,
When storms prepare to part;

I ask not proud Philosophy
To teach me what thou art.

To the Rainbow.

T. CAMPBELL.

What skilful limner e'er would choose
To paint the rainbow's varying hues,
Unless to mortal it were given

To dip his brush in dyes of heaven?
Marmion, Canto VI.

SIR W. SCOTT.

Bright pledge of peace and sunshine! the sure tie
Of thy Lord's hand, the object of His eye!
When I behold thee, though my light be dim,
Distinct, and low, I can in thine see Him

Who looks upon thee from His glorious throne,
And minds the covenant between all and One.
The Rainbow.

H. VAUGHAN.

READING.

I had found the secret of a garret room

Piled high with cases in my father's name;

Piled high, packed large,-where, creeping in and out Among the giant fossils of my past,

Like some small nimble mouse between the ribs

Of a mastodon, I nibbled here and there

At this or that box, pulling through the gap,

In heats of terror, haste, victorious joy,
The first book first. And how I felt it beat
Under my pillow, in the morning's dark,
An hour before the sun would let me read!
Aurora Leigh, Bk. I.

E. B. BROWNING.

Come, and take choice of all my library,
And so beguile thy sorrow.

Titus Andronicus, Act iv. Sc. 1.

SHAKESPEARE.

He furnished me

From mine own library with volumes that
I prize above my dukedom.

Tempest, Act i. Sc. 2.

SHAKESPEARE.

There studious let me sit,

And hold high converse with the mighty dead;
Sages of ancient time, as gods revered,

As gods beneficent, who blest mankind

With arts, with arms, and humanized a world. The Seasons: Winter.

J. THOMSON.

POLONIUS.-What do you read, my lord?
HAMLET.-Words, words, words.

Hamlet, Act ii. Sc. 2.

SHAKESPEARE.

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

Simon Lee.

W. WORDSWORTH.

And choose an author as you choose a friend. Essay on Translated Verse.

EARL OF ROSCOMMON.

When the last reader reads no more.

The Last Reader.

REASONS.

O. W. HOLMES.

All was false and hollow; though his tongue Dropped manna, and could make the worse appear The better reason, to perplex and dash

Maturest counsels; for his thoughts were low;

To vice industrious, but to nobler deeds

Timorous and slothful: yet he pleased the ear,
And with persuasive accent thus began.

Paradise Lost, Bk. II.

MILTON.

Give you a reason on compulsion! if reasons were as plentiful as blackberries, I would give no man a reason upon compulsion. I.

King Henry IV., Pt. I. Act ii. Sc. 4.

SHAKESPEARE.

Good reasons must, of force, give place to better. Julius Cæsar, Act iv. Sc. 3.

SHAKESPEARE.

Whatever sceptic could inquire for,
For every why he had a wherefore.

Hudibras, Pt. I.

I was promised on a time

To have reason for my rhyme;
From that time unto this season,
I received nor rhyme nor reason.

Lines on his Promised Pension.

REGRET.

For who, alas! has lived,

Nor in the watches of the night recalled

S. BUTLER.

E. SPENSER.

Words he has wished unsaid and deeds undone? Reflections.

Thou wilt lament

S. ROGERS.

Hereafter, when the evil shall be done
And shall admit no cure.
HOMER.

Iliad, Bk. IX.

Trans. of BRYANT.

The man who seeks one thing in life, and but one,
May hope to achieve it before life be done;

But he who seeks all things, wherever he goes,

Only reaps from the hopes which around him he sows A harvest of barren regrets.

Lucile, Pt. I. Canto II. LORD LYTTON (Owen Meredith).

O lost days of delight, that are wasted in doubting and waiting!

O lost hours and days in which we might have been happy! Tales of a Wayside Inn: The Theologian's Tale.

H. W. LONGFELLOW.

Calmly he looked on either Life, and here

Saw nothing to regret, or there to fear:
From Nature's temp'rate feast rose satisfied,

Thanked Heaven that he had lived, and that he died.
Epitaph X.

RELIGION.

A. POPE.

God is not dumb, that he should speak no more;
If thou hast wanderings in the wilderness
And find'st not Sinai, 't is thy soul is poor.
Bibliotres.

J. R. LOWELL.

Religion, if in heavenly truths attired, Needs only to be seen to be admired. Expostulation.

W. COWPER.

In religion,

What damnèd error, but some sober brow
Will bless it and approve it with a text.

Merchant of Venice, Act iii. Sc. 2.

SHAKESPEARE.

I think while zealots fast and frown,

And fight for two or seven,
That there are fifty roads to town,
And rather more to Heaven.

Chant of Brazen Head.

W. M. PRAED.

Religion stands on tiptoe in our land,
Ready to pass to the American strand.

The Church Militant.

G. HERBERT.

A Christian is the highest type of man. Night Thoughts, Night IV.

DR. E. YOUNG.

Remote from man, with God he passed the days, Praver all his business, all his pleasure praise. The Hermit.

T. PARNELL.