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!

Which way I flee is hell,-myself am hell,
And in the lowest deep, a lower deep,
Still threat'ning to devour me, opens wide;
To which the hell I suffer seems a heav'n.
Is there no place

Left for repentance, none for pardon left!
Milton.

DESPAIR-never to be Indulged.
Though plunged in ills and exercised in care,
Yet never let the noble mind despair:
When press'd by dangers and beset by foes,
The gods their timely succour interpose;
And when our virtue sinks o'erwhelmed with
grief,

By unforeseen expedients bring relief.
DESPAIR-Life in.
There is a very life in our despair.
DESPAIR-Madness of.

Philips. Byron.

Whither shall I fly?
Where hide me and my miseries together?
O Belvidera! I'm the wretched'st creature
E'er crawled on earth; now, if thou hast virtue,
Take me into thy arms, and speak the words
of peace

To my divided soul, that wars within me,
And raises every sense to my confusion.
By heaven! I'm tottering on the very brink
Of ruin, and thou art all the hold I've left.
Do thou at least with charitable goodness
Assist me in the pangs of my afflictions.
Couldst thou but think how I've spent this night,
Dark and alone, no pillow to my head,
Rest in my eyes, nor quiet in my heart,
Thou wouldst not, Belvidera, sure thou wouldst
not

Talk to me thus, but, like a pitying angel,
Spreading thy wings, come settle on my breast,
And hatch warm comforts there, ere sorrow
freeze it.
Otway.

DESPAIR-The Last Relief of.
My life's a load, encumber'd with the charge,
I long to set the imprison'd soul at large.
For I, the most forlorn of human kind,
Nor help can hope, nor remedy can find;
But doom'd to drag my loathful life in care,
For my reward must end it in despair.
Fire, water, air, and earth, and force of fates
That governs all, and Heaven that all creates;
Nor art, nor nature's hand, can ease my greaf;
Nothing but death, the wretch's last relief.

DESPAIR.

DEVOTION.

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?

Despots govern by terror. They know, that he who fears God fears nothing else; and therefore they eradicate from the mind, through their Voltaire, their Helvetius, and the rest of that infamous gang, that only sort of fear which generates true courage. Burke.

DESTRUCTION-Easiness of the Way

to.

That I, with every odds of birth and barony,
Should be detainèd here for the casual death
Of a wild forester, whose utmost having
Is but the brazen buckle of the belt,
In which he sticks his hedge-knife. Beaumont.
DETERMINATION-Settled.

Muse not that I thus suddenly proceed;
For what I will, I will, and there an end.
DEVOTION-Practical.
Shakspeare.

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! Carlyle.

DEVOTION-Comparison between Private and Public.

Private devotions and secret offices of religion are like the refreshing of a garden with the distilling and petty drops of a water-pot; but, addressed from the temple, are like rain from heaven. Jeremy Taylor.

Those verdant hills now bathed in morning dews,
Whose every drop outvies Golconda's gem.
Lo! one hangs glittering on yon blade of grass;
Spurn not that lucid trembler, but admire
Its glorious hues, and trace them to their source;
The nice arrangements of its particles.
Draw nigh;-through microscopic lens inspect
That single drop's profound elaborateness-
Most delicate, and wonderfully wrought.
Is it a work of chance? It is a world
Replete with life, and love, and joy. Its crowds
Dart swift from verge to verge (their ocean
depths)

How nervous and minute each supple fin ! What made that film-like hinge on which it plays?

What hand, what eye, save God's could fashion

It is as hard to come, as for a camel
To thread the postern of a needle's eye.
Shakspeare.

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. Pliny.

DIFFICULTY-a Stimulus.

What is difficulty? Only a word indicating the degree of strength requisite for accomplish

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.

Sharpe.

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 remiss. Jeremy Taylor.

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. Jerdan.