Life and Literature Part 31

414

RURAL LIFE.

The fact that the following verses are heard to-day proves their "convenience," to say the least, for they were written by William Livingston in 1747:----

Mine be the pleasure of a rural life, From noise remote, and ignorant of strife, Far from the painted belle and white-gloved beau, The lawless masquerade, and midnight show, From lapdogs, courtiers, garters, stars, Fops, fiddlers, tyrants, emperors, and czars!

--_Christian Advocate_

415

THE COUNTRY.

A breath of unadulterated air, The glimpse of a green pasture, how they cheer The citizen, and brace his languid frame.

Even in the stifling bosom of the town; A garden, in which nothing thrives, has charms That soothe the rich possessor.

And are these not all proofs that man immured In cities, still retains his inborn inextinguishable Thirst of rural scenes, compensating his loss By supplemental shifts the best he may?

416

LOVE OF COUNTRY.

Breathes there the man, with soul so dead, Who never to himself hath said, "This is my own--my Native Land!"

Whose heart hath ne'er within him burned As home his footsteps he hath turned From wandering on a foreign strand?

If such there breathe, go--mark him well; For him no minstrel raptures swell; High though his t.i.tles, proud his name, Boundless his wealth as wish can claim-- Despite those t.i.tles, power and pelf, The wretch, concentred all in self, Living, shall forfeit fair renown, And, doubly dying, shall go down To the vile dust from whence he sprung, Unwept, unhonored, and unsung.

--_Sir Walter Scott._

417

The wise men of Greece were asked which was the best governed country.

Clemenese replied, "the people who have more respect for the laws than the orators."

418

He who loves not his country, can love nothing.

419

A great deal of talent is lost to the world for the want of courage.

--_S. Smith._

420

Life is not so short but that there is always time enough for courtesy.

--_Emerson._

421

The courtesy with which I receive a stranger, and the civility I show him, form the background on which he paints my portrait.

422

Courtesy on one side, never lasts long.

423

Men dream in courtship, but in wedlock wake.

--_Pope._

424

_Courtship and Marriage._--"Their courtship was carried on in poetry."

Alas! many a pair have courted in poetry, and after marriage lived in prose.

--_Foster._

425

Courtship may be said to consist of a number of quiet attentions, not so pointed as to alarm, nor so vague as not to be understood.

--_Sterne._

426

_Covetousness._--A young man once picked up a sovereign lying in the road. Ever afterward, in walking along, he kept his eye fixed steadily upon the ground in hopes to find another. And in the course of a long life he did pick up, at different times, a goodly number of coins, gold and silver. But all these years, while he was looking for them, he saw not that the heavens were bright above him, and nature beautiful around.

He never once allowed his eye to look up from the mud and filth in which he sought his treasure; and when he died--a rich old man--he only knew this fair earth as a dirty road to pick up money as you walk along. Thus you see the desire of having is the sin of covetousness.

--_Dr. Jeffrey._

427

The coward only threatens when he is secure.