Despair makes a despicable figure, and is descended from a mean original. It is the offspring of fear, laziness, and impatience. It argues a defect of spirit and resolution, and oftentimes of honesty too. After all, the exercise of this passion is so troublesome, that nothing but dint of evidence and demonstration should force it upon us. I would not despair unless I knew the irrevocable decree was passed; saw my misfortune recorded in the book of fate, and signed and sealed by necessity. Jeremy Collier. DESPAIR-Horrors of. Which way shall I fly Infinite wrath, and infinite despair? DESPAIR-The Last Relief of. DESPAIR. DEVOTION. Then farewell youth, and all the joys that DESPOTS-Government of. dwell than thou canst bear? Before high Heaven cleanse thy breast; Go, sin no more, and thou'lt find rest, But never in despair. Has thy love of man grown chary? Has thy trust in him grown wary? Hast thou coldly turn'd a deafen'd ear to sin's Now, by our lady, sheriff, 'tis hard reckoning, repentant prayer? Think that none can enter heaven Who has not others' sins forgiven, And saved them from despair. DESPAIR-Yielding to. Clements. That I, with every odds of birth and barony, The great antique heart: how like a child's in its simplicity, like a man's in its earnest solemnity and depth! Heaven lies over him wheresoever he goes or stands on the earth; making all the earth a mystic temple to him, the earth's business all a kind of worship. Glimpses of bright creatures flash in the common sunlight; angels yet hover, doing God's messages among men that rainbow was set in the clouds by the hand of God! Wonder, miracle, encompass the man; he lives in an element of miracle; heaven's splendour over his head, hell's darkness under his feet; a great law of duty, high as these two infinitudes, dwarfing all else, annihilating all else it was a reality, and it is one: the garment only of it is dead; the essence of it lives through all times and all eternity! From any stroke of fate or human wrongs, Private devotions and secret offices of religion are like the refreshing of a garden with the distilling and petty drops of water-pot; but, addressed from the temple, are like rain from heaven. Jeremy Taylor. Carlyle. DEVOTION-Comparison between Private and Public. 1 Those verdant hills now bathed in morning dews, Replete with life, and love, and joy. Its crowds DIFFICULTY-a Moral Instructor. Difficulty is a severe instructor, set over us by the supreme ordinance of a parental guardian and legislator, who knows us better than we know ourselves; and He loves us better too. He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves, and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper. This amicable conflict with difficulty obliges us to an intimate acquaintance with our object, and compels us to consider it in all its relations. It will not suffer us to be superficial. Burke. DIFFICULTY-Overcoming. Accustom yourself to master and overcome things of difficulty: for if you observe, the left hand for want of practice is insignificant, and not adapted to general business; yet it holds the bridle better than the right, from constant use. DIFFICULTY-a Stimulus. Pliny. What is difficulty! Only a word indicating the degree of strength requisite for accomplish A 1 DIFFICULTY. ing particular objects; a mere notice of the necessity for exertion; a bugbear to children and fools; only a mere stimulus to men. Samuel Warren. DIFFICULTY-Trials in. It is difficulties which give birth to miracles. It is not every calamity that is a curse; and early adversity is often a blessing. Perhaps Madame de Maintenon would never have mounted a throne had not her cradle been rocked in a prison. Surmounted obstacles not only teach, but hearten us in our future struggles; for virtue must be learnt, though, unfortunately, some of the vices come as it were by inspiration. The austerities of our northern climate are thought to be the cause of our abundant comforts, as our wintry nights and our stormy seas have given us a race of seamen perhaps unequalled, and certainly not surpassed, by any in the world. DIGNITY-Characteristics of. Sharpe. Who makes quick use of the moment, is a genius of prudence. Lavater. DILIGENCE-Evil of the Want of. Take a heretic, a rebel, a person that hath an ill cause to manage; what he is deficient in the strength of his cause, he makes up with diligence; while he that hath right on his side, is cold, indiligent, lazy, inactive, trusting that the goodness of his cause will not fail to prevail without assistance. So wrong prevails, while evil persons are zealous, and the good Jeremy Taylor. remiss. We have always thought that the one English custom which raises us immeasurably above all other races and types of humanity, is that of sitting over our wine after dinner. In what other portion of the twenty-four hours have we either time or inclination for mere talk? And is not the faculty of talk that which denotes the superiority of man over brutes? To talk, therefore, a certain part of the day must be devoted. Other nations mix their talk up with their business, and the consequence is, that neither talk nor business is done well. We, on the contrary, work while we are at it, and have all our talk out just at that very portion of our lives when it is physically, intellectually, and morally, most beneficial to us. The pleasant talk promotes digestion, and prevents the mind from dwelling on the grinding of the digestive mill that is going on within us. The satisfaction and repose which follow a full meal tend to check a disposition to splenetic argument or too much zeal in supporting an opinion; while the freedom and abandon of the intercourse which is thus kept up is eminently conducive to feelings of general benevolence. It is not, perhaps, too much to say that our "glorious constitution" (not only as individuals, but as a body politic) is owing to the habit which the British Lion observes, of sitting over his wine after dinner. DINNER-A Good. Jordan. DISCIPLINE. DISCIPLINE (Moral)-Results of. The law of habit when enlisted on the side of righteousness, not only strengthens and makes sure our resistance to vice, but facilitates the most arduous performances of virtue. The man whose thoughts, with the purposes and doings to which they lead, are at the bidding of conscience, will, by frequent repetition, at length describe the same track almost spontaneously, even as in physical education, | things, laboriously learnt at the first, come to be done at last without the feeling of an effort. And so, in moral education, every new achievement of principle smooths the way to future achievements of the same kind; and the precious fruit or purchase of each moral virtue is to set us on higher and firmer vantage-ground for the conquests of principle in all time coming. He who resolutely bids away the suggestions of avarice, when they come into conflict with the incumbent generosity; or the suggestions of voluptuousness, when they come into conflict with the incumbent self-denial; or the suggestions of anger, when they come into conflict with the incumbent act of magnanimity and forbearance will at length obtain, not a respite only, but a final deliverance from their intrusion. DISCOVERY. From pole to pole the fatal arrow bears, DISCONTENT-Public. broken; The golden streams of commerce are withheld, Great discontents there are, and many murmurs, To call in money; those who have none, mark DISCONTENT-Universality of. DISCORD-Characteristics of. Conscience, the longer it has made way over the obstacles of selfishness and passion, the less will it give way to these adverse forces, themselves weakened by the repeated defeats which they have sustained in the warfare of moral discipline: or, in other words, the oftener that conscience makes good the supremacy which she claims, the greater would be the work of violence, and less the strength for its accomplishment, to cast her down from that station of practical guidance and command, which of right belongs to her. It is just, because, in virtue of the law of suggestion, those trains of thought and feeling, which connect her first biddings with their final execution, are the less exposed at every new instance to be disturbed, and the more likely to be repeated over again, that every good principle is more strengthened by its exercise, and every good affection is more strengthened by its indulgence, than before. The acts of virtue ripen into habits; and the goodly and per- DISCORD-Sourness of. manent result is, the formation or establishment of a virtuous character. Chalmers. DISCONTENT-Evils of. For not the ceaseless change of shifted place Niccholes. Discord, a sleepless hag, who never dies, supplied, Poor crackling joints, and wither'd parchment As if old drums, worn out with martial din, skin. How sour sweet music is, DISCOVERY-Historical Notices of. At the head of the list stands that of Sir Isaac Newton, one of the greatest minds of ancient or modern times, and the bare mention of which is connected with the most sublime of sciences. That ardent but humble |