Chapter MYRTLE to NATURE of Index by Grocott's Quotations - Alpha

MYRTLE to NATURE

MYRTLE.—The myrtle, (ensign of supreme command,
Consigned to Venus by Melissa’s hand,)
In myrtle shades oft sings the happy swain,
In myrtle shades despairing ghosts complain.
The myrtle crowns the happy lovers’ heads,
The unhappy lovers’ graves the myrtle spreads.—
Soon must this sprig, as you shall fix its doom,
Adorn Philander’s head, or grace his tomb.

Dr. Johnson.—Written at the request of a gentleman to whom a lady had given a sprig of myrtle.

[Punch, in his principal illustration, wherein Lord Palmerston stands prominent, usually places a sprig of myrtle in his mouth, as the “ensign,” it is presumed, “of supreme command.”]

NAME.—Good name in man and woman, dear my lord,
Is the immediate jewel of their souls:
Who steals my purse steals trash; ’tis something, nothing;
’Twas mine, ’tis his, and has been slave to thousands;
But he that filches from me my good name,
Robs me of that which not enriches him,
And makes me poor indeed.

Shakespeare.—Othello, Act III. Scene 3.

My name is Norval: on the Grampian hills
My father feeds his flocks; a frugal swain,
Whose constant cares were to increase his store,
And keep his only son, myself, at home.
For I had heard of battles, and I long’d
To follow to the field some warlike lord;
And Heav’n soon granted what my sire deny’d.

Home.—Douglas, Act II. Scene 1.

Auf.—What is thy name?
Cor.—A name unmusical to Volscian’s ears,
And harsh in sound to thine.

Shakespeare.—Coriolanus, Act IV. Scene 5.

NATIONS.—When nations are to perish in their sins,
’Tis in the church the leprosy begins;
The priest, whose office is, with zeal sincere,
To watch the fountain, and preserve it clear,
Carelessly nods and sleeps upon the brink,
While others poison what the flock must drink.

Cowper.—Expostulation, Line 95.

NATURE.—And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit-tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself upon the earth, and it was so.

Genesis, Chap. 1. Verse 11.

For whatsoever she produces (I am not speaking only of animals, but even of those things which have sprung from the earth in such a manner as to rest on their own roots) she designed it to be perfect in its respective kind.

Yonge’s Cicero.—Tusculan Disp. Book V. Div. 13.

Wise nature by variety does please,
Clothes differing passions in a differing dress.

Dryden.—Translation of Boileau’s Poetry, Canto III. Tragedy.

Where order in variety we see,
And where, though all things differ, all agree.

Pope.—Windsor Forest, Line 15.

Heaven to mankind impartial we confess,
If all are equal in their happiness;
But mutual wants this happiness increase,
All nature’s difference keeps all nature’s peace.

Pope.—Essay on Man, Epi. IV. Line 53.