=Nightingale.=

The nightingale, if she should sing by day, When every goose is cackling, would be thought No better a musician than the wren.  How many things by season season’d are To their right praise, and true perfection! 1259 SHAKS.:  M. of Venice, Act v., Sc. 1.

O Nightingale, that on yon bloomy spray Warblest at eve, when all the woods are still, Thou with fresh hope the lover’s heart dost fill. 1260 MILTON:  Sonnet 1.

=Nobility.=

Noble by birth, yet nobler by great deeds. 1261 LONGFELLOW:  Tales of a Wayside Inn.  Emma and Eginhard.

For he who is honest is noble,
Whatever his fortunes or birth.
1262
ALICE CARY:  Nobility.

=North.=

Ask where’s the north? at York, ’t is on the Tweed; In Scotland, at the Orcades; and there, At Greenland, Zembla, or the Lord knows where. 1263 POPE:  Essay on Man, Epis. ii., Line 222.

=November.=

Next was November; he full gross and fat
As fed with lard, and that right well might seem;
For he had been a-fatting hogs of late,
That yet his brows with sweat did reek and steam.
1264
SPENSER:  Faerie Queene, Bk. vii., Canto vii., St. 40.

In rattling showers dark November’s rain,
From every stormy cloud, descends amain.
1265
RUSKIN:  The Months.

=Numbers.=

As yet a child, nor yet a fool to fame,
I lisp’d in numbers, for the numbers came.
1266
POPE:  Prologue to the Satires, Line 127.

==O.==

=Oak.=

Those green-robed senators of mighty woods, Tall oaks, branch-charmed by the earnest stars, Dream, and so dream all night without a stir. 1267 KEATS:  Hyperion, Bk. i.

A song to the oak, the brave old oak,
Who hath ruled in the greenwood long!
1268
HENRY F. CHORLEY:  The Brave Old Oak.

=Oars.=

The oars were silver,
Which to the tune of flutes kept stroke, and made
The water which they beat to follow faster,
As amorous of their strokes.
1269
SHAKS.:  Ant. and Cleo., Act ii., Sc. 2.

=Oaths.=

’T is not the many oaths that make the truth; But the plain single vow, that is vow’d true. 1270 SHAKS.:  All ’s Well, Act iv., Sc. 2.

Oaths were not purpos’d, more than law,
To keep the good and just in awe,
But to confine the bad and sinful,
Like moral cattle, in a pinfold.
1271
BUTLER:  Hudibras, Pt. ii., Canto ii., Line 197.

=Obedience.=

Let them obey that know not how to rule. 1272 SHAKS.:  2 Henry VI., Act v., Sc. 1.

Obedience is the Christian’s crown. 1273 SCHILLER:  Fight with the Dragon, St. 24.

=Observation.=

For he is but a bastard to the time
That doth not smack of observation.
1274
SHAKS.:  King John, Act i., Sc. 1.