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EXTRACTS

FROM.

ENGLISH LITERATURE.

BY

JOHN ROLFE.

BODI

LONDON:

CHAPMAN AND HALL, 193, PICCADILLY.

1867.

2.70. f. 81.

LONDON:

BRADBURY, EVANS, AND CO., PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS.

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THE Compiler of the following pages thinks it due to state the reason of their being submitted to the reader.

The Extracts consist of a selection from a commonplace book, in which the Compiler has been accustomed to note any passages which in the course of his reading he considered worthy of remembrance.

In classifying these, an interest sprang up in comparing the various turns of thought of different minds on the same subject. Most passages will therefore be found to have some connection with the others under the same title: where attention is especially called, one of the passages has been placed as a note.

From the above remarks, the reader will perceive that the Extracts are not confined to any particular

class, but simply what has pleased the Compiler in his limited extent of English reading; in fact, an Olla Podrida, in which the Compiler trusts that each reader may find some morsel among the general medley to suit his own taste, and that whoever takes up this little collection will find means to wile away an idle hour, perhaps not idly spent, and not without some benefit or pleasure.

SELECTIONS.

20

UNFADING BEAUTY.

HE that loves a rosy cheek,
Or a coral lip admires,
Or from starlight eyes doth seek
Fuel to maintain his fires;
As old time makes these decay,
So his flames must waste away.

But a smooth and stedfast mind,
Gentle thoughts and calm desires,
Hearts with equal love combined,
Kindle never-dying fires.
Where these are not, I despise,
Lovely cheeks, or lips, or eyes.

BEAUTY, that's only skin deep,

Must fade like the gowans in May :
But inwardly rooted will keep

For ever without a decay.

Nor age nor the changes of life,

CAREW.

Can quench the fair fire of love,
If virtue's engrain'd in the wife,

And the husband has sense to approve.

ALLEN RAMSAY. Gentle Shepherd.

B

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