Heaven (that hath placed this island to give law
To balance Europe, and her states to awe,)
In this conjunction doth on Britain smile,
The greatest leader, and the greatest isle!
Whether this portion of the world were rent,
By the rude ocean, from the continent,
Or thus created; it was sure designed
To be the sacred refuge of mankind.
To My Lord Protector.

E. WALLER.

This England never did, nor never shall,
Lie at the proud foot of a conqueror.

King John, Act v. Sc. 7.

A land of settled government,

A land of just and old renown,

SHAKESPEARE.

Where freedom broadens slowly down,
From precedent to precedent:

Where faction seldom gathers head;
But, by degrees to fulness wrought,
The strength of some diffusive thought
Hath time and space to work and spread.
The Land of Lands.

A. TENNYSON.

Broad-based upon her people's will,
And compassed by the inviolate sea.

To the Queen.

SCOTLAND.

O Caledonia! stern and wild,
Meet nurse for a poetic child!

A. TENNYSON.

Land of brown heath and shaggy wood,
Land of the mountain and the flood,
Land of my sires! what mortal hand
Can e'er untie the filial band,

That knits me to thy rugged strand!
Lay of the Last Minstrel, Canto VI.

SIR W. SCOTT.

Hear, Land o' Cakes and brither Scots Frae Maiden Kirk to Johnny Groat's. On Capt. Grose's Peregrinations Thro' Scotland.

HOLLAND.

R. BURNS.

As when the sea breaks o'er its bounds,
And overflows the level grounds,
Those banks and dams that like a screen
Did keep it out, now keep it in.
Hudibras.

S. BUTLER.

Methinks her patient sons before me stand,
Where the broad Ocean leans against the land,
And, sedulous to stop the coming tide,
Lift the tall rampire's artificial pride.
Onward methinks, and diligently slow,
The firm connected bulwark seems to grow,
Spreads its long arms amidst the watery roar,
Scoops out an empire, and usurps the shore.
While the pent Ocean, rising o'er the pile,
Sees an amphibious world beneath him smile;
The slow canal, the yellow-blossomed vale,
The willow-tufted bank, the gliding sail,
The crowded mart, the cultivated plain,
A new creation rescued from his reign.
The Traveller.

ITALY.

Italia! O Italia! thou who hast

O. GOLDSMITH.

The fatal gift of beauty, which became

A funeral dower of present woes and past,

On thy sweet brow is sorrow ploughed by shame, And annals graved in characters of flame. Childe Harold, Canto IV.

Italy, my Italy!

LORD BYRON,

Queen Mary's saying serves for me
(When fortune's malice

Lost her Calais):

Open my heart, and you will see
Graved inside of it, "Italy."

De Gustibus.

COURAGE.

R. BROWNING.

Courage, the highest gift, that scorns to bend

To mean devices for a sordid end.

Courage-an independent spark from Heaven's bright throne,

By which the soul stands raised, triumphant, high, alone. Great in itself, not praises of the crowd,

Above all vice, it stoops not to be proud.

Courage, the mighty attribute of powers above,

By which those great in war, are great in love.
The spring of all brave acts is seated here,

As falsehoods draw their sordid birth from fear.
Love and a Bottle: Dedication.

G. FARQUHAR.

Out of this nettle, danger, we pluck this flower, safety. King Henry IV., Pt. I. Act ii. Sc. 2. SHAKESPEARE.

Write on your doors the saying wise and old,

Be bold! be bold!" and everywhere-"Be bold; Be not too bold!" Yet better the excess

Than the defect; better the more than less;
Better like Hector in the field to die,
Than like a perfumed Paris turn and fly.
Morituri Salutamus.

H. W. LONGFELLOW.

MACBETH. If we should fail,

LADY MACBETH.

We fail!

But screw your courage to the sticking place,

And we 'll not fail.

Macbeth, Act i. Sc. 7.

SHAKESPEARE.

What man dare, I dare⚫
Approach thou like the rugged Russian bear,
The armed rhinoceros, or the Hyrcan tiger;
Take any shape but that, and my firm nerves
Shall never tremble.

Macbeth, Act iii. Sc. 4.

SHAKESPEARE.

"Brave boys," he said, "be not dismayed,
For the loss of one commander,

For God will be our king this day,
And I'll be general under."

From the Battle of the Boyne.

Old Ballad.

By how much unexpected, by so much
We must awake endeavor for defence,
For courage mounteth with occasion.

King John, Act ii. Sc. 1.

SHAKESPEARE.

Blow, wind! come, wrack!
At least we 'll die with harness on our back.

Macbeth, Act v. Sc. 5.

SHAKESPEARE.

Danger knows full well

That Cæsar is more dangerous than he.
We are two lions littered in one day,
And I the elder and more terrible.

Julius Cæsar, Act ii. Sc. 2.

SHAKESPEARE.

No common object to your sight displays,
But what with pleasure Heaven itself surveys,
A brave man struggling in the storms of fate,

And greatly falling with a falling state.

While Cato gives his little senate laws,

What bosom beats not in his country's cause?

Who hears him groan, and does not wish to bleed?
Who sees him act, but envies every deed?
Prologue to Mr. Addison's Cato.

A. POPE.

Dar'st thou, Cassius, now

Leap in with me into this angry flood,
And swim to yonder point ?—Üpon the word,
Accoutred as I was, I plunged in,

And bade him follow.

Julius Cæsar, Act i. Sc. 2.

SHAKESPEARE.

"You fool! I tell you no one means you harm." “So much the better," Juan said, “for them.” Don Juan.

The intent and not the deed

LORD BYRON.

Is in our power; and therefore who dares greatly
Does greatly.
Barbarossa.

J. BROWN.

False Wizard, avaunt! I have marshalled my clan, Their swords are a thousand, their bosoms are one! They are true to the last of their blood and their breath, And like reapers descend to the harvest of death. Lochiel's Warning.

COURTESY.

T. CAMPBELL.

How sweet and gracious, even in common speech, Is that fine sense which men call Courtesy ! Wholesome as air and genial as the light, Welcome in every clime as breath of flowers, It transmutes aliens into trusting friends, And gives its owner passport round the globe. Courtesy.

J. T. FIELDS.

In thy discourse, if thou desire to please; All such is courteous, useful, new, or wittie : Usefulness comes by labor, wit by ease; Courtesie grows in court; news in the citie. The Church Porch.

I am the very pink of courtesy.

Romeo and Juliet, Act ii. Sc. 4.

G. HERBERT.

SHAKESPEARE.

The kindest man,

The best-conditioned and unwearied spirit
In doing courtesies.

Merchant of Venice, Act iii. Sc. 2.

SHAKESPEARE.

Would you both please and be instructed too,
Watch well the rage of shining, to subdue ;
Hear every man upon his favorite theme,
And ever be more knowing than you seem.

B. STILLINGFLEET.

COWARDICE.

What is danger

More than the weakness of our apprehensions?
A poor cold part o' th' blood.

Who takes it hold of?

Cowards and wicked livers: valiant minds
Were made the masters of it.
Chances.

BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER.

Alike reserved to blame, or to commend,
A timorous foe, and a suspicious friend;
Dreading even fools, by flatteries besieged,
And so obliging that he ne'er obliged.
Satires: Prologue.

Cowards are cruel, but the brave
Love mercy, and delight to save.

Fables, Pt. I. Fable Ï.

When desp'rate ills demand a speedy cure, Distrust is cowardice, and prudence folly. Irene, Act iv. Sc. 1.

A. POPE.

J. GAY.

DR. S. JOHNSON.

He

That kills himself to avoid misery, fears it,
And, at the best, shows but a bastard valor.
This life's a fort committed to my trust,
Which I must not yield up, till it be forced :
Nor will I. He's not valiant that dares die,
But he that boldly bears calamity.

Maid of Honor, Act iv. Sc. 1.

Thou slave, thou wretch, thou coward!
Thou little valiant, great in villany!

P. MASSINGER.

Thou ever strong upon the stronger side!

Thou Fortune's champion, that dost never fight
But when her humorous ladyship is by

To teach thee safety!

King John, Act iii. Sc. 1.

SHAKESPEARE.

For he who fights and runs away
May live to fight another day;
But he who is in battle slain

Can never rise and fight again.

The Art of Poetry on a New Plan.

O. GOLDSMITH.

Cowards die many times before their deaths;
The valiant never taste of death but once.