VIRTUE.

  The world in all doth but two nations bear,
  The good, the bad, and these mixed everywhere.
The Loyal Scot.  A. MARVELL.

What nothing earthly gives or can destroy,—­
The soul’s calm sunshine, and the heartfelt joy,
Is Virtue’s prize.
Essay on Man, Epistle IV.  A. POPE.

Virtue, not rolling suns, the mind matures,
That life is long, which answers life’s great end. 
The time that bears no fruit, deserves no name.
Night Thoughts, Night V.  DR. E. YOUNG.

                 Good, the more
  Communicated, more abundant grows.
Paradise Lost, Bk.  V.  MILTON.

Her virtue and the conscience of her worth,
That would be wooed, and not unsought be won.
Paradise Lost, Bk.  VIII.  MILTON.

Know then this truth (enough for man to know),
“Virtue alone is happiness below.”
Essay on Man, Epistle IV.  A. POPE.

  For blessings ever wait on virtuous deeds;
  And though a late, a sure reward succeeds.
The Mourning Bride, Act v.  Sc. 12.  W. CONGREVE.

  That virtue only makes our bliss below,
  And all our knowledge is, ourselves to know.
Essay on Man, Epistle IV.  A. POPE.

Pygmies are pygmies still, though perched on Alps;
And pyramids are pyramids in vales. 
Each man makes his own stature, builds himself: 
Virtue alone outbuilds the Pyramids;
Her monuments shall last when Egypt’s fall.
Night Thoughts, Night VI.  DR. E. YOUNG.

                 Abashed the devil stood,
  And felt how awful goodness is, and saw
  Virtue in her shape how lovely.
Paradise Lost, Bk.  IV.  MILTON.

So dear to heaven is saintly chastity,
That, when a soul is found sincerely so,
A thousand liveried angels lacky her,
Driving far off each thing of sin and guilt.
Comus.  MILTON.

  Adieu, dear, amiable youth! 
    Your heart can ne’er be wanting! 
  May prudence, fortitude, and truth
    Erect your brow undaunting!

  In ploughman phrase, “God send you speed,”
    Still daily to grow wiser;
  And may you better reck the rede,
    Than ever did the adviser!
Epistle to a Young Friend.  R. BURNS.

  Though lone the way as that already trod,
  Cling to thine own integrity and God!
To One Deceived.  H.T.  TUCKERMAN.

  Virtue she finds too painful to endeavor,
  Content to dwell in decencies forever.
Moral Essays, Epistle II.  A. POPE.

  Keep virtue’s simple path before your eyes,
  Nor think from evil good can ever rise.
Tancred, Act v.  Sc. 8.  J. THOMSON.

  Count that day lost whose low descending sun
  Views from thy hand no worthy action done.
Staniford’s Art of Reading.  ANONYMOUS.

  This above all.—­to thine own self be true;
  And it must follow, as the night the day,
  Thou canst not then be false to any man.
Hamlet, Act i.  Sc. 3.  SHAKESPEARE.