DELAY.

Of all our losses, those delay doth cause

Are most and heaviest. By it we oft lose
The richest treasures-knowledge, wealth, and power,
And oft, alas! the never-dying soul !—

Like Felix, we intend to hear the call
Of God and duty at some future time;
At some "convenient season," which to us
May never come!—And thus we madly waste
Probation, forfeit heaven, and heedless sink
To endless death.

Be wise to-day, 'tis madness to defer;
Next day the fatal precedent will plead;
Thus on till wisdom is pushed out of life.

Shun delays, they breed remorse;
Take thy time, while time is lent thee;
Creeping snails have weakest force;
Fly their fault, lest thou repent thee;
Good is best when soonest wrought,
Lingering labors come to nought.—
Hoist up sail while gale doth last,
Tide and wind wait no man's pleasure;
Seek not time, when time is past,

Sober speed is wisdom's leisure;

After-wit is dearly bought;

Edwards.

Young.

Let thy fore-wit guide thy thought. Robert Southwell.

Procrastination is the thief of time:

Year after year it steals till all are fled
And to the mercies of a moment, leaves
The vast concerns of an eternal scene.

Young.

DESIGNS.

Honest designs

Justly resemble our devotions,

Which we must pay, and wait for the reward.

Howard.

DETRACTION.

To be traduced by ignorant tongues,

Is the rough brake that virtue must go through.

DIGNITY.

True dignity is never gained by place,

And never lost when honors are withdrawn.

Shakspeare,

Massinger.

DISAPPOINTMENT.

The best enjoyment is half disappointment

To what we mean, or would have in this world.

DISCONTENT.

Sour discontent that quarrels with our fate,
May give fresh smart, but not the old abate;
The uneasy passion's disingenuous wit,

The ill reveals, but hides the benefit.

Bailey.

Sir R. Blackmore.

DOUBT.

A mind in doubt,

Is as the tide swelled to its utmost height,
That makes a still-stand, running neither way.

Shakspeare.

Our doubts are traitors,

And make us lose the good we oft might win,

By fearing to attempt.

Beware of doubt-faith is the subtle chain

That binds us to the infinite.

Shakspeare.

E. O. Smith.

DRESS.

Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,
But not expressed in fancy; rich, not gaudy;
For the apparel oft proclaims the man.

DRUNKENNESS.

Oh, that men should put an enemy in

Shakspeare.

Their mouths, to steal away their brains! that we

Should with joy, pleasance, and applause,

Transform ourselves to beasts!

E.

EDUCATION.

'Tis education forms the tender mind;

Shakspeare.

Just as the twig is bent, the tree 's inclined.

Pope.

EGOTISM.

'Tis with our judgments, as our watches; none Are just alike, yet each believes his own.

Pope.

To observations which ourselves we make,

We grow more partial for the observer's sake.

Pope.

ELOQUENCE.

Power above powers! O, heavenly eloquence!
That with the strong rein of commanding words,
Dost manage, guide, and master the high eminence
Of men's affections!

Daniel.

ENERGY.

The wise and active conquer difficulties,
By daring to attempt them; sloth and folly
Shiver and shrink at sights of toil and hazard,
And make the impossibility they fear.

ENMITY.

Scorn no man's love, though of a mean degree;
Much less make any one thine enemy.

ENTHUSIASM.

No wild enthusiast ever yet could rest,

Till half mankind were, like himself, possessed.

Rowe.

Herbert.

Cowper.

ENVY.

Base envy withers at another's joy,
And hates the excellence it cannot reach.

Base rivals, who true wit and merit hate,
Caballing still against it with the great,
Maliciously aspire to gain renown,
By standing up, and pulling others down.

Thomson.

Dryden.

Envy is but the smoke of low estate,
Ascending still against the fortunate.

Brooke.

Fools may our scorn, not envy raise,

For envy is a kind of praise.

Gay.

Envy will merit, as its shade, pursue,

But, like a shadow, proves the substance true.

Pope.

ERROR.

Errors like straws upon the surface flow;

He who would search for pearls, must dive below.
Addison.

For he that once has missed the one right way,
The further he doth go, the further he doth stray.

More proselytes and converts use to accrue
To false persuasions than the right and true;
For error and mistakes are infinite,

While truth has but one way which is the right.

Spenser.

Butler.

ESTEEM.

For all true love is founded on esteem. Buckingham.

EXAMPLE.

Our lives,

By acts exemplary, not only win

Ourselves good names, but do to others give

Matter for virtuous deeds, by which we live.

Worth makes the man; the want of it the fellow.

Virtue and genuine graces, in themselves

Speak what no words can utter.

Pope.

Shakspeare.