Slanders, sir: for the satirical rogue says here that old men have grey beards, that their faces are wrinkled, their eyes purging thick amber and plum-tree gum, and that they have a plentiful lack of wit, together with most weak hams. THIS HAMLET ii. 2. HIS fault, not to be able to know himself betimes, and not to feel the impuissance, and extreme alteration that age doth naturally bring, both to the body and the mind (which in my opinion is equal if the mind hath but one-half), hath lost the reputation of the most part of the greatest men of the world. I have in my days both seen and familiarly known some men of great authority, whom a man might easily discern, to be strangely fallen from that ancient sufficiency which I know by the reputation they had thereby attained unto in their best years. FLORIO'S Montaigne. UNFOLD thy flocks, and leave them to the fields, RALEIGH. For, as thou urgest justice, be assured Thou shalt have justice, more than thou desirest. MERCHANT OF VENICE iv. I. HO shall put his finger on the work of WHO justice, and say, 'It is there'? Justice is like the Kingdom of God-it is not without us as a fact, it is within us as a great yearning. GEORGE ELIOT. IF mercy be so large, where's justice' place? -Where love despairs, and where God's promise ends. For mercy is the highest reach of wit, A safety unto them that save with it: LORD BROOKE. The rest is silence. HAMLET V. 2. 'HE E was wild, sir,' Johnson said, speaking of Goldsmith to Boswell, with his great, wise benevolence and noble mercifulness of heart, ‘Dr. Goldsmith was wild, sir; but he is so no more.' Ah, if we pity the good and weak man who suffers undeservedly, let us deal very gently with him from whom misery extorts not only tears, but shame; let us think humbly and charitably of the human nature that suffers so sadly and falls so low. THACKERAY. SLEEP, and if life was bitter to thee, pardon, SWINBURNE. |