Treasury of Wisdom, Wit and Humor, Odd Comparisons and Proverbs: Authors ...

(OLD,) DUTIES OF.

Age should fly concourse, cover in retreat
Defects of judgment, and the will subdue;
Walk thoughtful on the silent, solemn shore
Of that vast ocean it must sail so soon.

(OLD,) EFFECTS of.

Young.

Age bears away with it all things, even Virgil. the powers of the mind.

The careful cold hath nipt my rugged rind, And in my face deep furrows eld hath plight;

My head bespren with hoary frost I find,
And by mine eye the crow his claw doth
bright;

Delight is laid abed, and pleasure past;
No sun now shines, clouds have all over-
cast.
Spenser.
Youth changes its tastes by the warmth
of its blood; age retains its tastes by habit.
La Rochefoucauld.
In growing old we become more foolish-
and more wise.
Ibid.

(OLD,) FORGETFULNESS OF.

Those wise old men, those plodding, grave state pedants,

Forget the course of youth.

(OLD,) HYPOCRISY OF.

Though old, he still retained
His manly sense and energy of mind.
Virtuous and wise he was, but not severe ;
He still remembered that he once was
young;

His easy presence check'd no decent joy;
Thomson. Him even the dissolute admir'd; for he
A graceful looseness, when he pleas'd put on
And laughing, could instruct.

When men grow virtuous in their old age, they are merely making a sacrifice to God of the Devil's leavings. (OLD,) INFIRMITY OF.

Swift.

Yet Time, who changes all, had altered him
In soul and aspect as in age; years steal
Fire from the mind as vigor from the limb;
And life's enchanted cup but sparkles near
the brim.
Byron.

(OLD,) INGRAtitude of.

These old fellows have

Their ingratitude in them hereditary;
Their blood is caked, 'tis cold, it seldom

flows;

"Tis lack of kindly warmth, they are not

kind,

And nature, as it grows toward earth,
Is fashion'd for the journey - dull and
heary.
Shakespeare.

(OLD VISERY OF.

That ends this strange, eventful history,

AMBITION.

Nature that framed us of four elements, Is second childishness, and mere oblivion; | Warring within our breasts for regimen, Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans every- Doth teach us all to have aspiring minds; thing. Shakespeare. Our souls, whose faculties can comprehend

The wondrous architecture of the world, And measure every wandering planet's course,

Still climbing after knowledge infinite,
And always moving as the restless spheres,
Will us to wear ourselves, and never rest
Until we reach the ripest fruit of all,
That perfect bliss and sole felicity,
The sweet fruition of a heavenly crown.
Marlowe.

ACTIVITY OF Soul.

ASPIRATION of. Ambition is an idol, on whose wings Great minds are carried only to extreme; To be sublimely great or to be nothing. Southey. Moderation cannot claim the merit of opposing and overcoming ambition; they are never found together. Moderation is the languor and sloth of the soul: ambition its activity and heat. La Rochefoucauld. CURSE OF.

O cursed ambition, thou devouring bird, How dost thou from the field of honesty Pick every grain of profit or delight, And mock the reaper's toil!

What is ambition, but desire of greatness?

And what is greatness, but extent of power? No blown ambition doth our arms incite.

Thriftless.

Phillips.

Raging. much, the raging thirst of fame ex- Thriftless ambition, that will ravin up ceeds The generous warmth that prompts to worthy deeds.

Rank.

Gifford.

Thine own life's means.

Thwarted.

Shakespeare.

The Gaul insatiate, burning with the pangs
Of wild ambition thwarted. Richardson.
Treacherous.

I yielded up my fond, believing heart
For the charms of treacherous ambition.
Smollett.
Turbulent.

Where lust and turbulent ambition reign,
Death took swift vengeance.

Tyrannical.

Painted deceit, tyrannical ambition,
Chase these far from you.

Uncontroll'd.

Young.

Bowring.

Uncontroll'd ambition grasps at once,
Dominion absolute, and boundless wealth.
Hannah More.

Uncurbed.

Uncurbed ambition, unresisting sloth,
And base dependence, are the fiends ac-
curst.
Mason.

Vain.

ambition, idly vain; Revenge and malice swell her train.

As heretofore: because ambition was self-
will'd.
Senseless.

Penrose.

Byron.

Vast.
Your vast ambition leaves no fame for me.
Dryden.
Vaulting.
Vaulting ambition which o'erleaps itself.
Shakespeare.

Smart.

Slippery.

Vile.
Ah, vile ambition, how dost thou deceive!
Drayton.

Ambition, sky-aspiring, led him on.

Wakeful.
Within his breast, as in a palace lie,
Wakeful ambition, leagued with hasty
pride.
P. Fletcher.
White-rob'd.

Strong-wing'd ambition from her eagle To cringe for votes and coax the fickle crowd. White-rob'd ambition leads, ignobly proud,

EVIL OF.

What's all the gaudy glitter of a crown? What but the glaring meteor of ambition, That leads the wretch benighted in his errors,

NECESSITY OF.

Ambition is a spirit in the world

That causes all the ebbs and flows of nations, Keeps mankind sweet by action; without that,

Points to the gulf and shines upon destruc- The world would be a filthy, settled mud.

tion.

EVILS OF.

Brooke.

Ambition is to the mind what the cap is to the falcon; it blinds us first, and then compels us to tower, by reason of our blindness. But, alas! when we are at the summit of a vain ambition, we are also at the depth of real misery. We are placed where time cannot improve, but must impair us; where chance and change cannot befriend, but may betray us; in short, in attaining all we wish, and gaining all we want, we have only reached a pinnacle where we have nothing to hope and everything to fear. Colton.

But the match made, the farce is at an end;
And all the hireling equipage of virtues,
Faith, honor, justice, gratitude and friend-
ship,
Denham. Discharg'd at once.

Ambition is like love, impatient, Both of delays and rivals.

ANGRATITUDE OF.

SELFISHNESS OF.

Jeffreys.

Those that were up themselves, kept others low;

Those that were low themselves, held others hard;

He suffered them to ryse or greater grow; But every one did strive his fellow down to throw. Spenser.

A SHADOW.

Dreams, indeed, are ambition; for the very substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream. And I hold ambition of so airy and light a quality, that it is but a shadow's shadow. Shakespeare.

Boeken