Page:Sarah Sheppard - L. E. L.pdf/61

 something different from the general style of former quotations:-

Vanity! guiding power, 'tis thine to rule Statesman and vestryman—the knave or fool. The Macedonian crossed Hydaspes wave, Fierce as the storm, and gloomy as the grave. Urged by the thought, what would Athenians say, When next they gathered on a market-day? And the same spirit that induced his toil, Leads on the cook to stew, to roast, to boil: Whether the spice be mixed, the flag unfurled, Each deems his task the glory of the world."

Who has not experienced the truth of the following remark from the page of experience?—

What mockeries are our most firm resolves! To will is ours, but not to execute. We map our future like some unknown coast, And say, ‘There is an harbour, here a rock; The one we will attain, the other shun;' And we do neither. Some chance gale springs up, And bears us far o'er some unfathomed sea. Our efforts all are vain; at length we yield To winds and waves that laugh at man's control."

And again:—

Ah! there are memories that will not vanish; Thoughts of the past we have no power to banish; To show the heart how powerless mere will, For we may suffer, and yet struggle still. It is not at our choice that we forget, That is a power no science teaches yet; The heart may be a dark and closed-up tomb, But memory stands a ghost amid the gloom."

The next extract embodies in few words the essence of Bishop Butler's argument for a future life:—

If I could doubt the heaven in which I hope, The doubt would vanish, gazing upon life,