WEBSTER.

* * * * *

GENTILITY.

  Nor stand so much on your gentility,
  Which is an airy, and mere borrow’d thing,
  From dead men’s dust and bones; and none of yours,
  Except you make, or hold it.

BEN JONSON.

* * * * *

HEAVEN.

  Heav’n is a great way off, and I shall be
  Ten thousand years in travel, yet ’twere happy
  If I may find a lodging there at last,
  Though my poor soul get thither upon crutches.

SHIRLEY.

* * * * *

COURT FAVOUR.

  Dazzled with the height of place,
    While our hopes our wits beguile,
  No man marks the narrow space
    Between a prison and a smile. 
  Then since fortune’s favours fade,
    You that in her arms do sleep,
  Learn to swim and not to wade,
    For the hearts of kings are deep. 
  But if greatness be so blind,
    As to trust in tow’rs of air,
  Let it be with goodness joyn’d,
    That at least the fall be fair.

LORD BACON.

* * * * *

HONESTY.

  An honest soul is like a ship at sea,
  That sleeps at anchor upon the occasion’s calm;
  But when it rages, and the wind blows high,
  She cuts her way with skill and majesty.

BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER.

* * * * *

SOLITUDE.

  O sweet woods, the delight of solitariness! 
  O how much do I like your solitariness! 
  Here nor reason is hid, vailed in innocence,
  Nor envy’s snaky eye, finds any harbour here. 
  Nor flatterer’s venomous insinuations. 
  Nor coming humourist’s puddled opinions,
  Nor courteous ruin of proffer’d usury,
  Nor time prattled away, cradle of ignorance,
  Nor causeless duty, nor cumber of arrogance,
  Nor trifling titles of vanity dazzleth us,
  Nor golden manacles stand for a paradise. 
  Here wrong’s name is unheard; slander a monster is,
  Keep thy sprite from abuse, here no abuse doth haunt,
  What man grafts in a tree dissimulation.

SIR P. SIDNEY’S Arcadia.

* * * * *

DISCIPLINE.

  Each state must have its policies: 
  Kingdoms have edicts, cities have their charters. 
  Ev’n the wild outlaw, in his forest walk,
  Keeps yet some touch of civil discipline. 
  For not since Adam wore his verdant apron,
  Hath man with man in social union dwelt,
  But laws were made to draw that union closer.