THE quality of mercy is not strain'd; Though justice be thy plea, consider this- Wilt thou draw near the nature of the gods? Shakspere. The greatest attribute of heaven is mercy, He's a bad surgeon, that, for pity, spares Randolph. O Mercy, heavenly bond, sweet attribute! And braves the storms beneath; soon as thy smiles William Somerville. Hate shuts her soul when dove-eyed Mercy pleads. Charles Sprague. Heaven oft in mercy smites, even when the blow Severest is. Joanna Baillie. 430 MERIT. MERRIMENT. MERIT. "WHO chooseth me, shall get as much as he deserves." Without the stamp of merit? Let none presume O, that estates, degrees, and offices, Were not derived corruptly! and that clear honour Shakspere. Beauties in vain their pretty eyes may roll; Pope. Let high birth triumph! What can be more great? Nothing-but merit in a low estate. Young. MERRIMENT-MIRTH. WHICH, when I saw rehearsed, I must confess, Lively and gossiping, Shakspere. Cowper. Stored with the treasures of the tattling world, But then her face, So lovely, yet so arch-so full of mirth, It haunts me still, though many a year has fled, It is like mockery of the silent night Rogers. L. E. L. METAPHYSIC. METEOR. MIGHT. METAPHYSIC. THE mathematics, and the metaphysics, 431 Fall to them as you find your stomach serves you. The Metaphysic's but a puppet motion Shakspere. That goes with screws, the notion of a notion; METEOR. Butler. THEN flaming meteors, hung in air, were seen, If thou had'st dubbed thy star a meteor, Prior. Gone-like a meteor, that o'erhead Suddenly shines, and ere we've said Moore. MIGHT. WHAT SO strong But wanting rest will also want of might?-Spenser. Quoth she, great grief will not be told, And can more easily be thought than said; Wherefore should not strength and might Spenser. Milton. 432 MILDNESS. MILITIA. MIMIC. MILDNESS. IN war, was never lion's rage so fierce; Shakspere. As the leaf doth beautify the tree, Thos. Lodge. The same majestic mildness held its place, His probity and mildness shows Dryden. Addison. MILITIA. UNNUMBERED spirits round thee fly, Pope. As when the trumpet sounds, the o'erloaded state Discharges all her poor and profligate; Crimes of all kinds dishonour'd weapons wield, Young. MIMIC. IN reason's absence mimic fancy wakes Wild work produces oft, and most in dreams. The busy head with mimic art runs o'er Milton. Swift. Who would with care some happy fiction frame, ALL things received do such proportion take, And narrow webs on narrow frames are weaved. Then what vast body must we make the mind, Wherein are men, beasts, trees, towns, seas, and lands; And yet each thing a proper place doth find, His sweetest mind, Sir John Davies. "Twixt mildness tempered and low courtesy, Could leave as soon to be as not be kind; Churlish despite ne'er looked from his calm eye, Much less commanded in his gentle heart, To baser men fair looks he would impart; Nor could he cloak ill thoughts in complimental art. Phineas Fletcher. Our better mind Is as a Sunday garment, then put on When we have nought to do, but at our work The hand of time alone disarms The immortal mind superior to its fate, Crowe. Broome. Akenside. The mind doth shape itself to its own wants, Joanna Baillie. Hard task, vain hope, to analyze the mind, But in the words of reason deeply weighed, Wordsworth. |