. 2_. SHAKESPEARE.

'Tis now the very witching time of night,
When churchyards yawn, and Hell itself breathes out
Contagion to this world.
_Hamlet, Act iii. Sc. 2_. SHAKESPEARE.

O wild and wondrous midnight,
There is a might in thee
To make the charmed body
Almost like spirit be.
And give it some faint glimpses
Of immortality!
_Midnight_. J.R. LOWELL.

NOBILITY.

Be noble! and the nobleness that lies
In other men, sleeping, but never dead,
Will rise in majesty to meet thine own.
_Sonnet IV_. J.R. LOWELL.

His nature is too noble for the world:
He would not flatter Neptune for his trident,
Or Jove for 's power to thunder.
_Coriolanus, Act iii. Sc 1_. SHAKESPEARE.

This was the noblest Roman of them all:
All the conspirators save only he
Did that they did in envy of great Caesar;
He only, in a general honest thought
And common good to all, made one of them.
_Julius Caesar, Act v. Sc 5_. SHAKESPEARE.

OPINION.

For most men (till by losing rendered sager)
Will back their own opinions by a wager.
_Beppo_. LORD BYRON.

Some praise at morning what they blame at night,
But always think the last opinion right.
_Essay on Criticism, Pt. II_. A. POPE.

He that complies against his will
Is of his own opinion still.
_Hudibras, Canto III_. S. BUTLER.

OPPORTUNITY.

Who seeks, and will not take when once 'tis offered,
Shall never find it more.
_Antony and Cleopatra, Act ii. Sc. 7_. SHAKESPEARE.

This could but have happened once,
And we missed it, lost it forever.
_Youth and Art_. R. BROWNING.

He that will not when he may,
When he will he shall have nay.
_Quoted in Anatomy of Melancholy_. R. BURTON.

He that would not when he might,
He shall not when he wolda.
_Reliques: The Baffled Knight_. BISHOP T. PERCY.

Urge them while their souls
Are capable of this ambition.
Lest zeal, nor melted by the windy breath
Of soft petitions, pity and remorse,
Cool and congeal again to what it was.
_King John, Act ii. Sc. 2_. SHAKESPEARE.

Turning, for them who pass, the common dust
Of servile opportunity to gold.
_Desultory Stanzas_. W. WORDSWORTH.

ORATORY.

But, spite of all the criticising elves,
Those who would make us feel--must feel themselves.
_The Rosciad_. C. CHURCHILL.

Words that weep and tears that speak.
_The Prophet_. A. COWLEY.

Thence to the famous orators repair,