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And scanty hairs, and shaking hands, and heads
As palsied as their hearts are hard, they council,
Cabal, and put men's lives out, as if life

Were no more than the feelings long extinguish'd
In their accursed bosoms..

Byron's Two Foscari, a. 2, s. 1.

Is far the worst of treasons.

Tyranny
Dost thou deem
The prince who

None rebels except subjects?
Neglects or violates his trust is more
A brigand than the robber chief.

Ibid. a. 2,

They have gone beyond

Even their exorbitance of power; and when
This happens in the most contemn'd and abject
States, stung huraanity will rise to check it."

S. 1.

lbid. a. 5, s. 1.

The people!-There's no people, you well know it,
Else you dare not deal thus by them or me.
There is a populace, perhaps, whose looks

May shame you; but they dare not groan nor curse you,
Save with their hearts and eyes.

Think'st thou there is no tyranny but that

Of blood and chains? The despotism of vice-
The weakness and the wickedness of luxury-
The negligence the apathy-the evils

Of sensual sloth-produce ten thousand tyrants,
Whose delegated cruelty surpasses

The worst acts of one energetic master,
However harsh and hard in his own bearing.

Ibid.

Byron's Sardanapalus, a. 1, s. 2.

With common men

There needs too oft the show of war to keep The substance of sweet peace; and for a king, 'Tis sometimes better to be fear'd than loved.

Ibid.

So spake the fiend, and with necessity,
The tyrant's plea, excus'd his devilish deeds.
Milton's Paradise Lost, b. 4.

Come! by whatever sacred name disguis'd,
Oppression, come! and in thy works rejoice!
See nature's richest plains to putrid fens
Turn'd by thy fury. From their cheerful bounds
See raz'd th' enlivening village, farm, and seat.
First rural toil, by thy rapacious hand

Robb'd of his poor reward, resign'd the plow;
And now he dares not turn the noxious glebe,
'Tis thine entire.

Thomson's Liberty.

Inglorious bondage! humun nature groans,
Beneath a vassalage so vile and cruel,
And its vast body bleeds through every vein.

Blair's Grave.

Hence charter'd boroughs are such public plagues,
And burghers, men immaculate perhaps

In all their private functions, once combined,
Become a loathsome body, only fit

For dissolution, hurtful to the main.

Cowper's Task, b. 4.

'Twas not enough

By subtle fraud to snatch a single life!
Puny impiety! whole kingdoms fell

To sate the lust of power: more horrid still,
The foulest stain and scandal of our nature
Became its boast. One murder made a villain;
Millions a hero. Princes were privileg'd

To kill, and numbers sanctified the crime.

Still monarchs dream

Of universal empire growing up

From universal ruin.

Blast the design

Porteus's Death.

Great God of Hosts! nor let thy creatures fall

Unpitied victims at ambition's shrine !

Ibid.

V.

VICE.

I hate when vice can bolt her arguments,
And virtue has no tongue to check her pride.

Milton's Comus.

Falsehood and fraud grow up in every soil,
The product of all climes.

Addison's Cato.

Ah me! from real happiness we stray,
By vice bewilder'd; vice, which always leads,
However fair at first, to wilds of woe.

Thomson's Agamemnon, a. 2, s. 7.
VIRTUE.

Virtue's a solid rock, whereat being aim'd,
The keenest darts of envy, yet unhurt,
Her marble hero stands, built of such basis,
While they recoil, and wound the shooter's face.

Beaumont's Queen of Corinth.

How strange a riddle virtue is!

They never miss it, who possess it not;
And they who have it, ever find a want!

Lord Rochester's Valentinian.

A settled virtue,

Makes itself a judge; and satisfied within,

Smiles at that common enemy, the world.

Given to make us wretched!
Fatal to all that have thee!

Dryden's Rival Ladies.

Is virtue then

Ah! sad portion!
Shunn'd on earth,

Depress'd and shewn but in severest trials :
Condemn'd to solitude: then shining most,
When black obscurity surrounds! Poor, poor!
But ever beautiful.

Lord Lansdown's Heroic Love.

Then, to be good is to be happy: angels
Are happier than mankind, because they're better.
Guilt is the source of sorrow: 'tis the fiend,
Th' avenging fiend, that follows us behind

With whips and stings. The blest know none of this; But rest in everlasting peace of mind,

And find the height of all their heav'n is goodness. Rowe's Fair Penitent, a. 3, s. 1.

Virtue never is defac'd! unchang'd

By strokes of fate, she triumphs o'er distress,
And every bleeding wound adorns her beauty.

Cibber's Casar in Egypt.

If there's a power above us,

And that there is, all nature cries aloud
Thro' all her works, he must delight in virtue :
And that which he delights in must be happy.
Addison's Cato.

How oft that virtue, which some women boast,
And pride themselves in, is but an empty name,
No real good; in thought alone possess'd.
Safe in the want of charms, the homely dame,
Secure from the seducing arts of man,

Deceives herself, and thinks she's passing chaste;
Wonders how others e'er could fall, yet when
She talks most loud about the noisy nothing,
Look on her face, and there you read her virtue.
Frowde's Philotas.

O virtue! virtue! as thy joys excel,
So are thy woes transcendent; the gross world
Knows not the bliss or misery of either.

Thomson's Agamemnon.

Thou know'st but little, Zaphna,

If thou dost think true virtue is confin'd

To climes or systems; no, it flows spontaneous,
Like life's warm stream throughout the whole creation,
And beats the pulse of ev'ry healthful heart.
Miller's Mahomet.

Be virtuous ends purued by virtuous means,
Nor think th' intention sanctifies the deed:
That maxim publish'd in an impious age
Would loose the wild enthusiast to destroy,
And fix the fierce usurper's bloody title.
Then bigotry might send her slaves to war,
And bid success become the test of truth!
Unpitying massacre might waste the world,
And persecution boast the call of Heav'n.

Dr. Johnson's Irene. .

Virtue in itself commands its happiness,
Of every outward object independent.

Francis's Eugenia.

A virtuous deed should never be delay'd,

The impulse comes from Heav'n, and he who strives A moment to repress it, disobeys

The god within his mind.

All private virtue is the public fund:

Dowe's Sethona.

As that abounds, th' state decays, or thrives:
Each should contribute to the general stock,

And who lends most, is most his country's friend.

Jephson's Braganza.

This is true glory and renown, when God
Looking on the earth, with approbation marks
The just man, and divulges him through Heav'n
To all his angels, who with true applause

Recount his praises.

Milton's Paradise Regained, b. 3.

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