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LIFE

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Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Nov 18, 1880

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 6, No. 43.

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LIFE.

[Life itself is a curiosity, but here is a literary curiosity which a lady is said to have been a year in arranging. The whole reads almost as if it had been written at one time and by one author.]
WHY all this toil for triumphs of an hour? [Young.]
Life's a short summer—man is but a flower; [Dr. Johnson.]
By turns we catch the fatal breath and die— [Pope.]
The cradle and the tomb, alas! so nigh. [Prior.]
To be is better far than not to be, [Sewell.]
Though all man's life may seem a tragedy; [Spencer.]
But light cares speak when mighty griefs are dumb— [Daniel.]
The bottom is but shallow whence they come. [Sir Walter Raleigh.]
Your fate is but the common fate of all; [Longfellow.]
Unmingled joys here no man befall. [Southwell.]
Nature to each allots his proper sphere. [Congreve.]
Fortune makes folly her peculiar care; [Churchill.]
Custom does often reason overrule. [Rochester.]
And throws a cruel sunshine on a fool. [Armstrong.]
Live well—how long or short commit to Heaven. [Milton.]
They who forgive most, shall be most forgiven. [Bailey.]
Sin may be clasped so close we cannot see its face— [French.]
Vile intercourse where virtue has no place, [Somerville.]
Then keep each passion down, however dear, [Thompson.]
Thou pendulum betwixt a smile and tear; [Byron.]
Her sensual snares let faithless pleasures lay, [Smollet.]
With craft and skill to ruin and betray. [Crabbe.]
Soar not too high to fall, but stoop to rise; [Massinger.]
We masters grow of all that we despise. [Crowley.]
Oh! then renounce that impious self-esteem; [Beattie.]
Riches have wings and grandeur is a dream. [Cowper.]
Think not ambition wise because 'tis brave— [Sir Walter Davenant.]
The paths of glory lead but to the grave. [Gray.]
What is ambition? 'Tis a glorious cheat, [Williss.]
Only destructive to the brave and great. [Addison.]
What's all the gaudy glitter of a crown? [Dryden.]
The way to bliss lies not on beds of down. [Francis Quarles.]
How long we live not years but actions tell; [Watkins.]
The man lives twice who lives the first life well. [Herrick.]
Make then while yet we may, your God your friend; [Wm. Mason.]
Whom Christians worship, yet not comprehend. [Hill.]
The trust that's given, guard, and to yourself be just. [Dana.]
For live we how we may yet die we must. [Shakespeare.]