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. Affecta tion cleaves to her even in sickness and pain; she dies in a high-head and coloured ribbons. La Bruyère.

The maid whom now you court in vain,
Will quickly run in quest of man. Horace.

COQUETTE-Deserts of the.

I do confess thou'rt young and fair,

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

That breath could move, had power to move

thee;

But I can let thee now alone, As worthy to be loved by none.

I do confess thou'rt sweet, but find
Thee such an unthrift of thy sweets;
Thy favours are but like the wind,
That kisseth everything it meets.

And since thou canst with more than one,
Thou'rt worthy to be loved by none.

The morning rose that untouch'd stands,
Arm'd with its briers, how sweet it smiles!
But pluck'd and strain'd by ruder hands,
Its sweet no longer with it dwells;

But scent and beauty both are gone,
And leaves fall from it, one by one.

Such fate ere long will thee betide,

When thou hast handled been awhile, Like faded flowers-be thrown aside, And I shall sigh, when some will smile, To see thy love for every one Hath brought thee to be loved by none.

Herrick.

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.

Corruption is a tree, whose branches are
Of an unmeasurable length: they spread
Ev'rywhere; and the dew that drops from
thence

Hath infected some chairs, and stools of
authority.
Beaumont and Fletcher.

CORRUPTION-of a State.

Unless corruption first deject the pride
And guardian vigour of the free-born soul,
All crude attempts of violence are vain;
For, firm within, and while at heart untouch'd,
Ne'er yet by force was freedom overcome.
But soon as independence stoops the head,
To vice enslaved, and vice-created wants,
Then to some foul corrupting hand, whose

waste

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. Dickens.

COUNTERACTION.

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 mirth's best nursery!
May pure contents

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
Are half so lovely as my father's fields,
Where large increase has bless'd the fruitful
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 inheritance,

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.

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

Wordsworth.

COUNTRY-Praises of the.
Perpetual spring our happy climate sees:
Twice breed the cattle, and twice bear the
trees;

And summer suns recede by slow degrees.
Our land is from the rage of tigers freed,
Nor nourishes the lion's angry seed;
Nor poisonous aconite is here produced,
Or grows unknown, or is, when known, refused:
Nor in so vast a length our serpents glide,
Úr raised on such a spiry volume ride. Dryden.

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

the town. Some miles up the turnpike road he went, and then away to the right, through the ash-woods of Trebooze, up by the rill which drips from pool to pool, over the ledges of grey slate, deep bedded in dark sedge, and broad bright burdock leaves and tall angelica, and ell-broad rings and tufts of king, and crown, and lady-fern, and all the semi-tropic luxuriance of the fat western soil, and steam

ing western woods; out into the boggy moor at the glen head, all fragrant with the goldtipped gale, where the turf is enamelled with the hectic marsh violet, and the pink pimpernel, and the pale yellow leaf-stars of the butterwort, and the blue bells and green threads of the ivy-leaved campanula; out upon the steep down above, and away over the broad cattle-pastures; and then to pause a moment, and look far and wide over land and sea. was "a day of God." The earth lay like one great emerald, ringed and roofed with sapphire; blue sea, blue mountain, blue sky overhead. Kingsley.

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. 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 society, a more enlarged feeling, and expands 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; the first can be known but by men united into 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.

Courage, by keeping the senses quiet and the understanding clear, puts us in a condition to receive true intelligence, to make computations upon danger, and pronounce rightly upon that which threatens us.

Innocence of life, consciousness of worth, and great expectations, are the best foundations of courage.

These ingredients make a richer cordial than youth can prepare. They warm the heart at eighty, and seldom fail in operation.

Elmes.

COURAGE.

particular friends, that he has no more time to follow their advice. Sidney Smith. COURAGE-Nobility of.

Make thy demands to those that own thy power!

Know, I am still beyond thee: and though fortune

Has stripp'd me of this train, this pomp of greatness,

This outside of a king, yet still my soul,
Fix'd high, and of herself alone dependent,
Is ever free and loyal! and even now,

Courage consists not in blindly overlooking danger, but in seeing it, and conquering it.

COURAGE-Deeds of.

Richter.

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

COURAGE-Perseverance of

Rowe.

If

God has given thee, thou sayest, an abidingplace in the midst of pestilential swamps. thou hast courage to banish by persevering toil the putrid waters, the swamps will change into fertile and beautiful fields, the deadly fever will depart, and thou wilt rejoice as a strong man in thy health. But, moreover, the curtain of vapours which was ever around thee will be rent asunder, and night after night thy eye will be gladdened and taught Carlyle. by the glory of the stars.

COURAGE-Personal.

I do not think a braver gentleman,
More active-valiant, or more valiant-young,
More daring, or more bold, is now alive,
To grace this latter age with noble deeds.
Shakspeare.
COURAGE-Promptness in.

Be great in act, as you have been in thought;
Be stirring at the time; be fire with fire;
Threaten the threatener, and outface the
brow

Of bragging horror; so shall inferior eyes,
That borrow their behaviours from the great,
Grow great by your example, and put on
The dauntless spirit of resolution.
COURAGE-Qualities of.

Ibid.