PIECES IN POETRY.

CHAPTER I.

SELECT SENTENCES AND PARAGRAPHS.

SECTION I.

Improvement of time.

DEFER not till to-morrow to be wise;

To-morrow's sun to thee may never rise.

Moral culture.

If good we plant not, vice will fill the place;
And rankest weeds the richest soils deface.

Indulge the true

In that best art,

The noblest art.

ambition to excel

the art of living well.

Life a state of trial.

In its true light, this transient life regard :
This is a state of trial, not reward.

Happiness domestic.

For genuine happiness we need not roam;
'Tis doubtless found with little, and at home.

Virtue and vice progressive.

The human heart ne'er knows a state of rest:
Bad leads to worse, and better tends to best.

Humility.

Be humble; learn thyself to scan:

Know, pride was never made for man.

Contentment is happiness.

Could wealth our happiness augment?

What can she give beyond content?

Virtue altogether lovely.

Virtue is amiable, mild, serene:

Without, all beauty; and all peace within.

Self-partiality.

The faults of our neighbours with freedom we blame, But tax not ourselves, though we practise the same.

Candour and forgiveness.

How noble 'tis to own a fault!

How gen'rous and divine to forgive it!

Troubles from ourselves.

'Tis to ourselves, indeed, we chiefly owe The multitude of poignant griefs we feel.

Resignation.

Nor love thy life, nor hate; but what thou liv'st,
Live well; how long or short, permit to Heav'n.

SECTION II.

Integrity.

THE man of pure and simple heart,
Through life disdains a double part.
He never needs the screen of lies,
His inward bosom to disguise.

Best use of riches.

When wealth to virtuous hands is giv❜n,

It blesses like the dews of Heav'n :

Like Heav'n it hears the orphans' cries;

And wipes the tears from widows' eyes.

Choice of friends.

Who friendship with a knave has made,
Is judg'd a partner in the trade.

'Tis thus, that on the choice of friends,
Our good or evil name depends.

Christian morality.

'Tis our part,

As Christians, to forget the wrongs we feel;
To pardon trespasses; our very foes
To love and cherish; to do good to all;
Live peaceably; and be, in all our acts,

Wise as the serpent, gentle as the dove.

Hope in affliction.

Shall we pine,

And be dishearten'd with a day of grief,

When the same hand which brought affliction on,

Retains its pow'r, and can, with equal ease,

Remove it?

Folly of envy.

Can you discern another's mind?

Why is't you envy? Envy's blind.

Tell Envy, when she would annoy,
That thousands want what you enjoy.

The wish.

I sigh not for beauty, nor languish for wealth;

But grant me, kind Providence! virtue and health:

Then, richer than kings, and more happy than they,

My days shall pass sweetly and swiftly away.

Censoriousness reproved.

In other men we faults can spy,

And blame the mote that dims their eye;

Each little speck and blemish find,

To our own stronger errors blind.-
Ere we remark another's sin,

Let our own conscience look within.

Self-command.

Ungovern'd wrath, and fell resentment fly:
They rend the soul, as tempests rend the sky.
Shun peevish humours; they corrode the breast,
And cloud the brow; are childish at the best.
Learn to control your tongue, that restless thing!
Of mischief oft and shame the fatal spring.

Inscription on a sun-dial.

Mark well my shade, and seriously attend
The silent lesson of a common friend:
Since time and life speed hastily away,

And no one can recall the former day,

Improve each fleeting hour before 'tis past;

And know, each fleeting hour may be thy last.

SECTION III.

Source of true happiness.

THE happiness of human kind,

Consists in rectitude of mind,

A will subdu'd to reason's sway,

And passions practis'd to obey;
An open and a gen'rous heart,
Refin'd from selfishness and art;

Patience which mocks at fortune's pow'r,
And wisdom neither sad nor sour.

Love to God produces love to man.

Let gratitude in acts of goodness flow;
Our love to God, in love to man below.
Be this our joy,-to calm the troubled breast,
Support the weak, and succour the distrest;
Direct the wand'rer, dry the widow's tear;

The orphan guard, the sinking spirits cheer.
Though small our pow'r to act, though mean our skill,
God sees the heart; he judges by the will.

Men mutually helpful.

Nature expects mankind should share

The duties of the public care.

Who's born to sloth? To some we find
The ploughshare's annual toil assign❜d.

Some at the sounding anvil glow;
Some the swift-sliding shuttle throw:
Some, studious of the wind and tide,
From pole to pole, our commerce guide:
While some, with genius more refin❜d,
With head and tongue assist mankind.
Thus, aiming at one common end,
Each proves to all a needful friend.