POSSESSION. POSTERITY. POTENTATES. 499 POSSESSION. THOSE possessions short-lived are, Born to himself, by no possession led, Herrick. Savage. Roscommon. POSTERITY. HENCE, lastly, spring cares of posterities, For things their kind would everlasting make, Hence is it that old men do plant young trees, The fruit whereof another age shall take.-Davies. Daughter of time, sincere posterity, Always new-born, yet no man knows thy birth, The arbitress of pure sincerity, Yet changeable (like Proteus) on the earth, Sometime in plenty, sometime join'd with dearth. Always to come, yet always present here, Whom all run after, none come after here. Impartial judge of all, save present state, Truth's idioms of the things are past, But still pursuing present things with hate, And more injurious at the first than last, Preserving others while their own do waste: True treasurer of all antiquity, Whom all desire, yet never one could see. From England's Parnassus. POTENTATES. KINGS and mightiest potentates must die.-Shakspere. Each potentate as wary fear, or strength, Phillips. POOR and content is rich, and rich enough; To mortal man great loads allotted be, Be honest poverty thy boasted wealth; Herrick. So shall thy friendships be sincere tho' few; O, blissful poverty! Nature, too partial, to thy lot assigns Havard. Health, freedom, innocence, and downy peace- Many a Prince is worse, O, the poor, Fenton. Pope. Are the poor's almoners, else would die crowds God help the poor, who in lone valleys dwell, Anon. Yet little cares the world, and less 't would know The wearying loom must have them up at morn; Samuel Bamford. POWER. POWER. UNMOV'D with all the glittering pomp of power, Power! 'tis the favourite attribute of gods, 501 Rowe. Martyn. Still she spake on, and still she spake of power, Power fitted to the season; wisdom-bred And throned of wisdom-from all neighbour crown Alliance and allegiance, till thy hand Fail from the sceptre-staff. Love may die and hatred slumber, But the dream of power, once broken, What shall charm the serpent furies, Tennyson. W. E. Aytoun. Were half the power that fills the world with terror, Were half the wealth bestowed on camps and courts, Given to redeem the human mind from error, There were no need of arsenals nor forts. They tell thee in their dreaming school Alas! since time itself began, This subject hath but fooled the hour; Bulwer. OR who would ever care to do brave deed, Due praise, that is the spur of doing well? The noisy praise Of giddy crowds is changeable as winds; Milton. Dryden. The love of praise, howe'er conceal'd by art, For praise that's due, does give no more But, to commend without desert, Requires a mastery of art, That sets a glass on what's amiss, And says what should be, not what is. Long, open panegyric drags at best, Young. Butler. And praise is only praise when well addrest.-Gay. My soul is open to the charms of praise: Whitehead. WE, ignorant of ourselves, Beg often our own harms, which the wise powers Shakspere. Heaven is the magazine wherein God puts And if by prayer Quarles. Incessant, I could hope to change the will Milton. I was not born for courts or state affairs; That work which is begun well, is half done, Pope. Fawnshaw, from the Italian of Guarini. True adoration, what a voice is thine! A soul's companionship with Christ and God, R. Montgomery. Oh! when the heart is full-when bitter thoughts Come crowding up for utterance, And the poor common words of courtesy Are such a very mockery, how much The bursting heart may pour itself in prayer. N. P. Willis. From every place below the skies, To heaven, and find acceptance there. Pierpont. |