CONVICTION. CONVICTION-Cavillers against. The perverseness of men's dispositions, and the limited faculties we possess, whilst in our present state, will ever raise cavillers against the most clear conviction; but let us shut our ears against their writings, contenting ourselves with the study of the New Testament, and relying upon the assurances the Gospel offers; convinced that this line of conduct cannot injure us, but is likely to lead us to peace and happiness. Wakefield. COQUETTE-Character of the. A coquette is one that is never to be persuaded out of the passion she has to please, nor out of a good opinion of her own beauty: time and years she regards as things that only wrinkle and decay other women; forgets that age is written in the face, and that the same dress which became her when she was young, now only makes her look the older. Affectation cleaves to her even in sickness and pain; she dies in a high-head and coloured ribbons. La Bruyère. I do confess thou'rt sweet, but find Of all detestable things this is the most odious:-Friend may censure friend, foe may vent his spleen, but let it never be done under the cover of anonymous writing. It is indeed a sneaking world, a cowardly world, for it kills more from behind a shelter than it dare attack in the open plain: but what dear ties have either been sundered or loosened by this fiend of mischief; what hopes of love blighted, what deeds of charity delayed, what virtues, the most exalting and dignifying to human nature, sullied, by this foul invisible spirit! Friendships over which time could exercise no control, which distance or poverty could not shake or alter, have been for ever chilled by suspicion, or completely destroyed by anonymous malice. Neither shall they be wholly guiltless who believe these secret calumniators of a man's character. Truth, be it remembered, requires no covert, no alteration of garb, for how possibly can it assume a lovelier one than its own? Burn, then, these unauthorized epistles; look for the signature before you glance at the matter; and thus this enemy of truth and plain dealing (for such is the anonymous correspondent) will be foiled in his attempt to pervert innocence, and your own bosom will still have the satisfaction of thinking well of those friends and neighbours whom this demon of mischief would destroy. Kemp. CORRUPTION-Results of. I have seen corruption boil and bubble, Till it o'errun the stew. Shakspeare. CORRUPTION-Spread of. And since thou canst with more than one, Corruption is a tree, whose branches are The morning rose that untouch'd stands, But scent and beauty both are gone, Such fate ere long will thee betide, Of an unmeasurable length: they spread thence Hath infected some chairs, and stools of CORRUPTION-of a State. Unless corruption first deject the pride waste CORRUPTION Their craving lusts with fatal bounty feeds, At length corruption, like a general flood, The short'ning winter day is near a close; The miry beasts retreating frae the pleugh; The black'ning trains o' craws to their repose; The toil-worn cotter frae his labour goes, | This night his weekly moil is at an end, Collects his spades, his mattocks, and his hoes, Hoping the morn in ease and rest to spend, And weary, o'er the moor, his course does hameward bend. At length his lonely cot appears in view, To meet their dad, wi' flichterin noise an' His wee bit ingle, blinkin bonnily, | His clean hearth-stane, his thriftie wifie's A cannie errant to a neebor town: Their eldest hope, their Jenny, woman grown, In youthfu' bloom, love sparkling in her ee, Comes hame, perhaps, to show a braw new gown, Or deposit her sair-won penny-fee, COUNTENANCE COUNSEL-Good. Fle fro the prease, and dwell with sooth fastnesse, Suffise unto thy good though it be small, And trouth thee shall deliver, it is no drede. That thee is sent receive in buxomesse, COUNSEL-Taking. Whoever is wise, is apt to suspect and be diffident of himself, and upon that account is willing to "hearken unto counsel;" whereas the foolish man, being in proportion to his folly full of himself, and swallowed up in conceit, will seldom take any counsel but his own, and for that very reason, because it is his own. Balguy. COUNSELS. Good counsels observed, are chains to grace, which, neglected, prove halters to strange undutiful children. COUNTENANCE-Change in. I said, the years with change advance, If I make dark my countenance Fuller. I shut my life from happier chance. Tennyson. To help her parents dear, if they in hardship COUNTENANCE-Definitions of the. be. COUNTENANCE. COUNTENANCE-Irradiations of the. That chastened brightness only gathered by those who tread the path of sympathy and love. Bulwer Lytton. COUNTENANCE-the Reflex of Mind. Yea, this man's brow, like to a tragic leaf, Foretells the nature of a tragic volume. Shakspeare. COUNTENANCE-Unsophisticated. Alas! how few of nature's faces there are to gladden us with their beauty! The cares, and sorrows, and hungerings of the world change them as they change hearts; and it is only when those passions sleep, and have lost their hold for ever, that the troubled clouds pass off, and leave heaven's surface clear. It is a common thing for the countenances of the dead, even in that fixed and rigid state, to subside into the long-forgotten expression of sleepless infancy, and settle into the very look of early life; so calm, so peaceful do they grow again, that those who knew them in their happy childhood, kneel by the coffin's side in awe, and see the angel even upon earth. COUNTERACTION. Dickens. One fire burns out another's burning, One pain is lessen'd by another's anguish; Turn giddy, and be holp by backward turning; One desperate grief cures with another's languish. Shakspeare. COUNTRY-Delights of the. Blest silent groves! O may ye be For ever pitch their tents Upon these downs, these meads, these rocks, these mountains, And peace still slumber by these purling fountains. Raleigh. COUNTRY-Fields in the. Not all the sights your boasted garden yields plain, And we with joy behold the swelling grain! Whose heavy ears, toward the earth reclined, Wave, nod, and tremble to the whisking wind. Mrs. Leapor. COUNTRY-Happiness of the. Ah! Prince! hadst thou but known the joys which dwell With humble fortunes, thou wouldst curse thy royalty. Had fate allotted to us some obscure village, Where, with life's necessaries bless'd alone, COUNTRY. We might have pass'd in peace our happy days, Free from the cares which crowns and empires bring; No wicked statesmen would with impious arts Have striven to wrest from us our small in heritance, Or stir the simple hinds to noisy faction. Rowe. COUNTRY-Influence of the. There is a something in the pleasures of the country that reaches much beyond the gratification of the eye-a something that invigorates the mind, that erects its hopes, that allays its perturbations, that mellows its affections; and it will generally be found, that our happiest schemes, and wisest resolutions, are formed under the mild influence of a country scene, and the soft obscurities of rural retirement. Roberts. COUNTRY-Joys of the. And steal myself from life by slow decays; And see the country, far diffused around, shower Of mingled blossoms: where the raptured eye Hurries from joy to joy. Thomson. COUNTRY-Love of. Whatever strengthens our local attachments, is favourable both to individual and national character. Our home, our birth-place, our native land, think for awhile what the virtues are which arise out of the feelings connected with these words, and if you have any intellectual eyes, you will then perceive the connection between topography and patriotism. Show me a man who cares no more for one place than another, and I will show you in that same person one who loves nothing but himself. Beware of those who are homeless by choice; you have no hold on a human being whose affections are without a taproot. The laws recognize this truth in the privileges they As a light COURAGE. the town. Some miles up the turnpike road he COUNTRY AND HOME-Love of. It The affections which bind a man to the place of his birth are essential in his nature, and follow the same law as that which governs every innate feeling. They are implanted in his bosom along with life, and are modified by every circumstance which he encounters from the beginning to the end of his existence. Bowles. The sentiment which, in the breast of any one man, is an instinctive fondness for the spot where he drew his early breath, becomes, by the progress of mankind and the formation of into the noble passion of patriotism. The love of country, the love of the village where we were born, of the field which we first pressed with our tender footsteps, of the hillock which we first climbed, are the same affection, only the latter belongs to each of us separately; And pliant harebell swinging in the breeze i On some grey rock-its birth-place-so had I society, a more enlarged feeling, and expands Wanton'd, fast rooted in the ancient tower A happier fortune, than to wither there. COUNTRY-Praises of the. Wordsworth. Perpetual spring our happy climate sees: trees; And summer suns recede by slow degrees. Sunny spots of greenery. COUNTRY-Walk in the. Coleridge. For it befell in that pleasant summer time, "small birds sing and shaughs are green," that Thurnall started, one bright Sunday eve, to see a sick child at an upland farm, some miles from masses. It is founded upon every advantage which a nation is supposed to possess, and is increased by every improvement which it is supposed to receive. Chenevix. COURAGE-Characteristics of. Courage is a sort of armour to the mind, and keeps an unwelcome impression from driving too deep into perception. He that stands bold and strong, is not so easily pushed down. However, when the enemy strikes hard, and a man has a great deal to grapple with, something will be felt in spite of all the bravery imaginable. To bear pain decently is a good sign of inward strength, and an undoubted proof of a great mind. COURAGE (Moral) - Necessity of. A great deal of talent is lost in the world for the want of a little courage. Every day sends to their graves a number of obscure men, who have only remained in obscurity because their timidity has prevented them from making a first effort; and who, if they could have been induced to begin, would in all probability have gone great lengths in the career of fame. The fact is, that to do anything in this world worth doing, we must not stand back shivering and thinking of the cold and danger, but jump in and scramble through as well as we can. It will not do to be perpetually calculating risks and adjusting nice chances; it did very well before the Flood, when a man could consult his friends upon an intended publication for a hundred and fifty years, and then live to see its success afterwards; but at present a man waits, and doubts, and consults his brother and his particular friends, till one fine day he finds that he is sixty years of age; that he has lost so much time in consulting his first cousins and I do not think a braver gentleman, Be great in act, as you have been in thought; Of bragging horror; so shall inferior eyes, Ibid. |