“Simple thoughts are what arise naturally; what the occasion or the subject suggests unsought; and what, when once suggested, are easily apprehended by all.  Refinement in writing, expresses a less natural and [less] obvious train of thought.”—­Blair’s Rhet., p. 184.

“Where the story of an epic poem is founded on truth, no circumstances must be added, but such as connect naturally with what are known to be true:  history may be supplied, but it must not be contradicted.”—­See Kames’s El. of Crit., ii, 280.

“Others, I am told, pretend to have been once his friends.  Surely they are their enemies, who say so; for nothing can be more odious than to treat a friend as they have treated him.  But of this I cannot persuade myself, when I consider the constant and eternal aversion of all bad writers to a good one.”—­Cleland, in Defence of Pope.

   “From side to side, he struts, he smiles, he prates,
    And seems to wonder what’s become of Yates.”—­Churchill.

    “Alas! what sorrows gloom’d that parting day,
    That call’d them from their native walks away!”—­Goldsmith.

LESSON III.—­PARSING.

“It is involved in the nature of man, that he cannot be indifferent to an event that concerns him or any of his connexions:  if it be fortunate, it gives him joy; if unfortunate, it gives him sorrow.”—­Kames’s El. of Crit., i, 62.

“I knew a man who had relinquished the sea for a country life:  in the corner of his garden he reared an artificial mount with a level summit, resembling most accurately a quarter-deck, not only in shape, but in size; and here he generally walked.”—­Ib., p. 328.

“I mean, when we are angry with our Maker.  For against whom else is it that our displeasure is pointed, when we murmur at the distribution of things here, either because our own condition is less agreeable than we would have it, or because that of others is more prosperous than we imagine they deserve?”—­Archbishop Seeker.

“Things cannot charge into the soul, or force us upon any opinions about them; they stand aloof and are quiet.  It is our fancy that makes them operate and gall us; it is we that rate them, and give them their bulk and value.”—­Collier’s Antoninus, p. 212.

“What is your opinion of truth, good-nature, and sobriety?  Do any of these virtues stand in need of a good word; or are they the worse for a bad one?  I hope a diamond will shine ne’er the less for a man’s silence about the worth of it.”—­Ib., p. 49.

“Those words which were formerly current and proper, have now become obsolete and barbarous.  Alas! this is not all:  fame tarnishes in time too; and men grow out of fashion, as well as languages.”—­Ib., p. 55.

   “O Luxury! thou curs’d by Heaven’s decree,
    How ill exchang’d are things like these for thee.”—­Goldsmith.