LAW. LAWGIVER, if thy aim is good, Make thy laws known, and understood.* MONODY ON JOHN KEATS. He lived and loved! He was a power "A fading flower! a falling shower! A breaking wave !" which now is broken.† Can greatness die, and be unborn? It cannot, thou in scorn repliest : He perish'd in his "scorn of scorn," And lowest deem'd, of all was highest. * I know a young lady who, when four years of age, could not learn her letters. Often chided, and at last severely, she burst into tears. Her mother wept too, and without suspecting the cause of the evil, wrote an alphabet in large letters, which the child mastered in a week. But when she returned to school, she still could not learn. It was then discovered that she was born short-sighted; and it is affecting now to hear her say, that whenever she had been chided, she believed she was in fault. How many victims of our conservators of ignorance have gone to the scaffold with a similar perplexing conviction on their minds, and hearing, even in death, the death-chaplain (ignorantly, but not therefore innocently,) advocate the murderous cause! † See Shelley's Adonais. MONODY ON JOHN KEATS. A vapour quench'd his visions grand : 183 TO A LADY, WHO COMPLAINED THAT SHE COULD NOT DECYPHER MY SIGNATURE, AND THAT I HAD ADDRESSED HER AS A "CEMENT MANUFACTURER," WHEREAS SHE WAS MOVING IN THE FIRST CIRCLES OF SOCIETY. I'M sorry that my ill-scrawl'd name Defeated my intent; And that I styled so grand a dame, "A maker of cement." Forgive me, Madam! I confess, A grievous fault was mine: * Hyperion, A Fragment. TO WED, OR NOT TO WED. THOMAS. I'm tired of single life; I'll live alone no more; I'll wed a loved and loving wife; My sire did so before: How brightly, then, my fire will blaze ! WILLIAM. Bless'd is the mated bird; And where she, brooding, cowers, Melodies of the heart are heard, Amid the hawthorn-flowers. Though richest wines, their sweetness fled, Grow dull, and acrid too; I say not, "Thomas, do not wed!" For God says, "Thomas, do!" NOT FOR NOUGHT. Do and suffer nought in vain : Let no trifle trifling be: If the salt of life is pain, Let ev'n wrongs bring good to thee; Good to others, few or many; Good to all, or good to any. If men curse thee, plant their lies Where, for truth, they best may grow; Let the railers make thee wise, Preaching peace, where'er thou go: If the nation-feeding corn Bid thy cares thy comforts double; See the Rivers! how they run Strong in gloom, and strong in light! Like the never-wearied sun, Through the day, and through the night, Each along his path of duty, Turning coldness into beauty! THOMAS HOBBES IN 1651. THE labour that but stirs the earth Imparts to worthless matter worth. ADAM SMITH 1766. WEALTH is not only coin or gold, But beef, cloth, brandy, rye; And all that can be bought or sold Is property. TURGOT IN 1774. THE right to buy is the right to sell, |