=Way.=

Like one that had been led astray
Through the heav’n’s wide, pathless way.
2034
MILTON:  Il Penseroso, Line 65.

=Weakness.=

If weakness may excuse,
What murderer, what traitor, parricide,
Incestuous, sacrilegious, but may plead it? 
All wickedness is weakness; that plea, therefore,
With God or man will gain thee no remission.
2035
MILTON:  Sam.  Agonistes, Line 831.

=Wealth.=

If thou art rich, thou art poor;
For, like an ass, whose back with ingots bows,
Thou bearest thy heavy riches but a journey,
And death unloads thee.
2036
SHAKS.:  M. for M., Act iii., Sc. 1.

To purchase heaven, has gold the power? 
Can gold remove the mortal hour? 
In life, can love be bought with gold? 
Are friendship’s pleasures to be sold?
2037
DR. JOHNSON:  To a Friend.

=Weeds.=

Have hung
My dank and dropping weeds
To the stern god of sea.
2038
MILTON:  Tr. of Horace, Bk. i., Ode 5.

=Welcome.=

So, you are very welcome to our house. 
It must appear in other ways than words,
Therefore, I scant this breathing courtesy.
2039
SHAKS.:  M. of Venice, Act v., Sc. 1.

A hundred thousand welcomes:  I could weep, And I could laugh; I am light and heavy:  Welcome. 2040 SHAKS.:  Coriolanus, Act ii., Sc. 1.

=Wheel.=

I wandered by the brookside,
  I wandered by the mill;
I could not hear the brook flow,
  The noisy wheel was still.
2041
RICHARD MONCKTON MILNES:  The Brookside.

=Wickedness.=

There is a method in man’s wickedness,—­
It grows up by degrees.
2042
BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER:  A King and No King, Act v., Sc. 4.

=Widows.=

May widows wed as often as they can,
And ever for the better change their man;
And some devouring plague pursue their lives,
Who will not well be govern’d by their wives.
2043
DRYDEN:  Wife of Bath, Line 543.

=Wife.=

She is mine own: 
And I as rich in having such a jewel,
As twenty seas, if all their sands were pearl,
The water nectar, and the rocks pure gold.
2044
SHAKS.:  Two Gent. of V., Act ii., Sc. 4.

We’ll leave a proof, by that which we will do, Wives may be merry, and yet honest too. 2045 SHAKS.:  Mer.  W. of W., Act iv., Sc. 2.

The wife, where danger or dishonor lurks,
Safest and seemliest by her husband stays,
Who guards her, or with her the worst endures.
2046
MILTON:  Par.  Lost, Bk. ix., Line 267.

She is a bonnie wee thing,
This sweet wee wife o’ mine.
2047
BURNS:  My Wife’s a Winsome Wee Thing.

The world well tried—­the sweetest thing in life Is the unclouded welcome of a wife. 2048 N.P.  WILLIS:  Lady Jane, Canto ii., St. 11.