When we shall hear

The rain and wind beat dark December.

CYMBELINE iii. 3.

THE

HERE had been very little visiting; and though Miss Browning said that the absence of the temptations of society was very agreeable to cultivated minds, after the dissipations of the previous autumn, when there were parties every week to welcome Mr. Preston, yet Miss Phoebe let out in confidence that she and her sister had fallen into the habit of going to bed at nine o'clock, for they found cribbage night after night, from five o'clock till ten, rather too much of a good thing.

MRS. GASKELL.

Now winter nights enlarge
The number of their hours,

And clouds their storms discharge
Upon the airy towers.

Let now the chimneys blaze,
And cups o'erflow with wine;
Let well-tuned words amaze
With harmony divine.

CAMPION.

Every lane's end, every shop, church, session, hanging, yields a careful man work.

WINTER'S TALE, iv. 4.

Do you know, after all, the meaning of this word vulgar? It is only common; nothing that is common, except wickedness, can deserve to be spoken of with contempt. When you have lived to my years, you will be disposed to agree with me in thanking God that nothing really worth having or caring about in this world is uncommon.

WALTER SCOTT.

LONG have I loved what I behold,

The night that calms, the day that cheers;
The common growth of mother earth

e-her tears, her mirth,

Suffices me

Her humblest mirth and tears.

Z

Ꮓ

353

WORDSWORTH.

The Prince of Darkness is a gentleman.

KING LEAR iii. 4.

AN honest gentleman, and a courteous, and a

kind, and a handsome, and, I warrant, a

virtuous.

ROMEO AND JULIET ii. 5.

HE above the rest

In shape and gesture proudly eminent
Stood like a tow'r; his form had not yet lost
All her original brightness, nor appear'd
Less than archangel ruin'd, and th' excess
Of glory obscur'd: as when the sun new ris'n
Looks through the horizontal misty air
Shorn of his beams, or from behind the moon
In dim eclipse disastrous twilight sheds
On half the nations, and with fear of change
Perplexes monarchs. Darken'd so, yet shone
Above them all th' archangel; but his face
Deep scars of thunder had intrencht, and care
Sat on his faded cheek.

MILTON.

'Tis not my profit that does lead mine honour ;

Mine honour, it.

ANT. AND CLEOP. ii. 7.

I

HOLD

every man a debtor to his profession;

from the which as men of course do seek to receive countenance and profit, so ought they of duty to endeavour themselves by way of amends to be a help and ornament thereunto.

BACON.

O, FOR my sake do you with Fortune chide,
The guilty goddess of my harmful deeds,
That did not better for my life provide

Than public means which public manners breeds.
Thence comes it that my name receives a brand,
And almost thence my nature is subdued

To what it works in, like the dyer's hand :
Pity me then, and wish I were renewed.

SONN. CXI.

Off, off, you lendings!

KING LEAR iii. 4.

AS I stood in the Mosque of St. Sophia, and

looked upon these Four-and-Twenty Tailors, sewing and embroidering that rich Cloth, which the Sultan sends yearly for the Caaba of Mecca, I thought within myself: How many other Unholies has your Covering Art made holy, besides this Arabian Whinstone?

CARLYLE.

Go, tell the Court, it glows

And shines like rotten wood;
Go, tell the Church, it shows

What's good, and doth no good:
If Church and Court reply,

Then give them both the lie.

RALEIGH.