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AMBITION - EMULATION - GLORY.

And each affection failing, leaves the heart
Loosed from life's charm, and willing to depart.

17. An old, old man, with beard as white as snow.

18. The eye dims, and the heart gets old and slow; The lithe limb stiffens, and the sun-hued locks Thin themselves off, or whitely wither.

CRABBE.

SPENSER.

BAILEY'S Festus.

19. Why grieve that Time has brought so soon
The sober age of manhood on?
As idly should I weep at noon

To see the blush of morning gone.

20. The visions of my youth are past, Too bright, too beautiful to last.

W. C. BRYANT.

W. C. BRYANT.

20. Fled are the charms that graced that ivory brow; Where smiled a dimple, gapes a wrinkle now.

ROBERT TREAT PAINE.

AMBITION-EMULATION — GLORY.

1. Why then doth flesh, a bubble-glass of breath,
Hunt after honour and advancement vain,
And rear a trophy for devouring death,
With so great labour and long-lasting pain—
As if life's days for ever should remain?

SPENSER'S Ruins of Time.

2. Vaulting ambition overleaps itself.

3. Seeking the bubble Reputation

Even in the cannon's mouth.

SHAKSPEARE.

SHAKSPEARE.

4. "Tis like a circle in the water,

5.

Which never ceaseth to enlarge itself,

Till, by wide spreading, it disperse to nought.

Who trod the ways of glory,

SHAKSPEARE.

And sounded all the depths and shoals of fame.

SHAKSPEARE.

6. The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power,
And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave,
Await alike th' inevitable hour,

The path of glory leads but to the grave!

7. What various wants on power attend!
Ambition never gains its end.
Who hath not heard the rich complain
Of surfeit and corporeal pain?

GRAY'S Elegy.

And, barr'd from every use of wealth,
Envy the ploughman's strength and health?

GAY'S Fables.

8. Who never felt the impatient throb, The longing of a heart that pants And reaches after distant good?

9. The fiery soul abhorr'd in Catiline,
In Decius charms, in Curtius is divine:
The same ambition can destroy or save,
And make a patriot, as it makes a knave.

COWPER.

POPE'S Essay on Man.

10. Oh sons of earth! attempt ye still to rise

By mountains piled on mountains to the skies?
Heaven still with laughter the vain toil surveys,
And buries madmen in the heaps they raise.

POPE'S Essay on Man.

11. Thus the fond moth around the taper plays,

And sports and flutters near the treacherous blaze;

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AMBITION - EMULATION - GLORY.

Ravish'd with joy, he wings his eager flight,

Nor dreams of ruin in so clear a light:

He tempts his fate, and courts a glorious doom,
A bright destruction and a shining tomb.

TICKELL.

12. So much the raging thirst for fame exceeds
The generous warmth which prompts to worthy deeds,
That none confess fair Virtue's genuine power,
Or woo her to their breasts without a dower.

GIFFORD'S Juvenal.

13. But glory's glory; and if you would find What that is ask the pig who sees the wind.

BYRON'S Don Juan.

14. Longings sublime and aspirations high.

BYRON'S Don Juan.

15. What millions died, that Cæsar might be great!

16. Press on! for it is godlike to unloose

17.

The spirit, and forget yourself in thought;
Bending a pinion for the deeper sky,
And, in the very fetters of your flesh,
Mating with the pure essences of heaven.

CAMPBELL.

N. P. WILLIS.

Ambition is the germ,

THOMAS DUNN ENGLISH.

From which all growth of nobleness proceeds.

18. In some, ambition is the chief concern;

For this they languish and for this they burn;
For this they smile, for this alone they sigh;
For this they live, for this would freely die.

19. And man, the image of his God, is found,
Just for an empty name, an airy sound,
Spending the short remainder of his life
In brutal conflict, and in deadly strife :-
For 't is a strife, disguise it as you may,
Keen as the warrior's in the battle day.

J. T. WATSON.

J. T. WATSON.

ANCESTRY-NOBILITY-TITLES, &c.

1. True is, that whilome that good poet said,
That gentle mind by gentle deed is known,
For man by nothing is so well bewray'd
As by his manners, in which plain is shown
Of what degree and what race he is grown.

SPENSER'S Fairy Queen.

2. Titles of honour add not to his worth, Who is an honour to his title.

3. Man is a name of honour for a king; Additions take away from each chief thing.

4. A fool indeed has great need of a title;
It teaches men to call him Count and Duke,
And to forget his proper name of fool.

5. Titles, the servile courtier's lean reward,

Sometimes the pay of virtue, but more oft

FORD.

CHAPMAN.

CROWN.

The hire which greatness gives to slaves and sycophants.

ROWE.

6.

With their authors in oblivion sunk

Vain titles lie; the servile badges oft

Of mean submission, not the meed of worth.

THOMSON.

7.

Whoe'er amidst the sons

Of reason, valour, liberty, and virtue,
Displays distinguish'd merit, is a noble

Of nature's own creating.

8. Should vice expect to 'scape rebuke,

Because its owner is a duke?

THOMSON.

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ANCESTRY - NOBILITY - TITLES, &c.

9. "Tis from high life high characters are drawn;
A saint in crape is twice a saint in lawn;
A judge is just, a chancellor juster still;

10.

A gown-man, learn'd; a bishop what you will;
Wise, if a minister; but if a king,

More wise, more learn'd, more just, more everything.

Many a Prince is worse,

Who, proud of pedigree, is poor of purse.

POPE.

POPE'S Moral Essays.

11. How poor are all hereditary honours,
Those poor possessions from another's deeds,
Unless our own just virtues form our title,
And give a sanction to our fond assumptions!

12. Boast not these titles of your ancestors,

SHIRLEY.

Brave youths; they're their possessions, not your own:
When

your own virtues equall'd have their names,

"T will be but fair to lean upon their fames,
For they are strong supporters; but, till then
The greatest are but growing gentlemen.

13. Superior worth your rank requires;

For that, mankind reveres your sires;
If you degenerate from your race,
Their merit heightens your disgrace.

14. He stands for fame on his forefathers' feet, By heraldry proved valiant or discreet!

15. E'en to the dullest peasant standing by, Who fasten'd still on him a wandering eye, He seem'd the master spirit of the land.

16. Even to the delicacy of their hands

BEN JONSON.

GAY's Fables.

YOUNG.

JOANNA BAILLIE.

There was resemblance, such as true blood wears.
BYRON'S Don Juan.