KNOW ᎩᎾ the land where the cypress and myrtle Are emblems of deeds that are done in their clime? Where the flowers ever blossom, the beams ever shine: And the voice of the nightingale never is mute; Where the tints of the earth, and the hues of the sky, In colour though varied, in beauty may vie, And the purple of ocean is deepest in dye; Where the virgins are soft as the roses they twine, 'Tis the clime of the East: 'tis the land of the Sun Can he smile on such deeds as his children have done? Are the hearts which they bear, and the tales which they tell AND yet how lovely in thine age of woe, Save where some solitary column mourns Lingering like me, perchance to gaze, and sigh "Alas!" Yet are thy skies as blue, thy crags as wild; And still his honey'd wealth Hymettus yields; There the blithe bee his fragrant fortress builds, Where'er we tread 'tis haunted, holy ground; Yet to the remnants of thy splendour past The parted bosom clings to wonted home, If aught that's kindred cheer the welcome hearth; He that is lonely, hither let him roam, And gaze complacent on congenial earth. Greece is no lightsome iand of social mirth : But he whom sadness sootheth may abide, And scarce regret the region of his birth, When wandering slow by Delphi's sacred side, Or gazing o'er the plains where Greek and Persian died. Childe Harold, Canto II. SUPERSTITION. SUPERSTITION always inspires littleness, Religion grandeur of mind; the superstitious raises beings inferior to himself to deities. LAVATER. Aphorisms. THEY that are against superstition oftentimes run into it of the wrong side. If I wear all colours but black, then I am superstitious in not wearing black.* SELDEN. THE master of superstition is the people, and in all superstition wise men follow fools, and arguments are fitted to practise in a reversed order. BACON. Essays. As it is the chief concern of wise men to retrench the evils of life by the reasonings of philosophy, it is the employment of fools to multiply them by the sentiments of superstition. Spectator. CHURCHYARD. BENEATH those rugged elms, that yew-tree's shade, The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep. The breezy call of incense-breathing morn, For them no more the blazing hearth shall burn, GRAY. Elegy. 'TIs well; 'tis something; we may stand The violet of his native land. 'Tis little; but it looks in truth As if the quiet bones were blest TENNYSON. In Memoriam. * There is sometimes superstition shown in avoiding superstitions, when men think to do best by receding farthest from the superstition that before prevailed. BACON. Essays. A SOLITARY GRAVE. BUT she sleeps well By the sea-shore, whereon she loved to dwell. That isle is now all desolate and bare, Its dwellings down, its tenants pass'd away; None but her own and father's grave is there, And nothing outward tells of human clay; Ye could not know where lies a thing so fair, No stone is there to show, no tongue to say, What was; no dirge, except the hollow seas, Mourns o'er the beauty of the Cyclades. Don Juan, Canto IV. WHEN by a good man's grave I muse alone, Like those of old, on that thrice-hallowed night, Says, pointing upward, that he is not here, That he is risen! ROGERS. Human Life. THERE, through the long, long summer hours, And thick, young herbs and groups of flowers, The oriole should build, and tell His love-tale, close beside my cell; The idle butterfly Should rest him there, and there be heard The housewife bee and humming bird. And what, if cheerful shouts, at noon, Of my low monument ? I would the lovely scene around Might know no sadder sight nor sound. I know, I know I should not see Nor would its brightness shine for me, But if, around my place of sleep, Soft airs, and song, and light, and bloom, And speak of one who cannot share Whose part in all the pomp that fills Is that his grave is green; And deeply would their heart rejoice It is no scandal, nor aspersion, Upon a great and noble person, To say he nat❜rally abhorr'd Th' old-fashion'd trick, To keep his word; In meaner men to do the same; For to be able to forget, Is found more useful to the great, Than gout, or deafness, or bad eyes, To make 'em pass for wond'rous wise. Hudibras, Epistle to his Lady. So ready to give his word to everybody, that he never keeps it. IT SWIFT. Tale of a Tub. WORDS and promises, that yoke Hudibras, Part I., Canto 2. may be proper for all to remember, that they ought not to raise expectations which it is not in their power to satisfy; and |