LOVE. The Master, Love, A more ideal artist he than all. TENNYSON. Love first learn'd in a ladye's eye, But with the motion of all elements, Courses as swift as thought in every power, SHAKESPEARE. Love is the purification of the heart from self; it strengthens and ennobles the character, gives a higher motive and a nobler aim to every action of life, and makes both man and woman strong, noble, and courageous; and the power to love truly and devotedly is the noblest gift with which a human being can be endowed; but it is a sacred fire that must not be burnt to idols. MISS JEWSBURY. ITS POWER IN DIVERSE MINDES. Wonder it is to see in diverse mindes How diversly Love doth his pageaunts play, And shewes his powre in variable kindes : The baser wit, whose ydle thoughts alway Are wont to cleave unto the lowly clay, It stirreth up to sensuall desire, And in lewd slouth to wast his carelesse day; But in brave sprite it kindles goodly fire, That to all high desert and honour doth aspire. Spenser. WOMAN NOT LOVED FOR HER UNDERSTANDING. We love a girl for very different things than understanding. We love her for her beauty, her youth, her mirth, her confidingness, her character, with its faults, caprices, and God knows what other inexpressible charms; but we do not love her understanding. Her mind we esteem (if it is brilliant), and it may greatly elevate her in our opinion; nay more, it may enchain us when we already love. But her understanding is not that which awakens and inflames our passions. Goethe. NO BREATH, NO BEING, BUT IN THE BELOVED. To his eye There was but one belovèd face on earth, And that was shining on him; he had lool:'d Upon it till it could not pass away; He had no breath, no being, but in hers; Byron. SOVERAINE POWRE OF LOVE. Ye gentle ladies! in whose soveraine powre Love hath the glory of his kingdom left, And th' hearts of men, as your eternall dowre, In yron chaines of liberty bereft, Deliver'd hath unto your hands by gift, Be well aware how ye the same doe use, That pride doe not to tyranny you lift; Least if men you of cruelty accuse, He from you take that chiefdome which ye doe abuse. Spenser. LOVE PUREST IN AFTER LIFE. They err, who deem love's brightest hour in blooming youth has flown: Its purest, tenderest, holiest power in afterlife is known, When passions, chasten'd and subdued, to riper years are given, And earth and earthly things are view'd in light that breaks from heaven. Bernard Barton. DISSEMBLED LOVE. I cannot love; to counterfeit is base, LOVE, A MYSTERIOUS POWER. Love's not the effect of reason, or of will. Few feel that passion's force because they choose it, And fewer yet, when it becomes their duty. Eliz. Haywood. THE PRAYER OF EARTHLY LOVE. UNSEEN she pray'd With all the still, small whispers of the night, The dark leaves thrill'd with prayer--the tearful prayer Of woman's quenchless yet repentant love:-"Father of spirits, hear! Look on the inmost soul to Thee reveal'd, Look on the fountain of the burning tear, Before thy sight in solitude unseal'd! Hear, Father! hear and aid! If I have loved too well, if I have shed, In my vain fondness, o'er a mortal head Gifts, in thy shrine, my God, more fitly laid; "If I have sought to live But in one light, and made a mortal eye The lonely star of my idolatry; Thou, that art Love, oh! pity and forgive! "Chasten'd and school'd at last, No more my struggling spirit burns; But fix'd on Thee, from that vain worship turns! What have I said? the deep dream is not past. "Yet hear! If still I love, Oh still too fondly-if for ever seen An earthly image comes my soul between, And thy calm glory, Father, throned above; "If still a voice is near, (Even while I strive these wanderings to control.) An earthly voice, disquieting my soul With its deep music, too intensely dear; "O Father, draw to Thee My lost affections back; the dreaming eye Clear from the mist, sustain the heart that dies; Give the worn soul once more its pinions free. "I must love on, O God! This bosom must love on! but let thy breath Touch and make pure the flame that knows not death, Bearing it up to heaven-Love's own abode !" Mrs. Hemans. A LOVER'S MORNING GREETING. The morning is breaking, The bright dews are shaking At dawn's rosy flush: From bank and from tree! Then, every sense filling The hand that's outpouring, To Him that gives all. THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVE. O happy persecution, I embrace thee rose. Love, bred on earth, is often nursed in hell; By rote it reads woe ere it learn to spell. Middleton. TRUE LOVE NOT TO BE SLIGHTED. Blunt not his love; Nor lose the good advantage of his grace, By seeming cold, or careless of his will. Shakespeare. GLADDENS MORTAL LIFE. Love comes divinely, gladdening mortal life, As sunrise dawns upon the gaze of one Bewilder'd in some outland waste, and lost. Thomas Woolner. LOVE'S FANTASIES. He that truly loves, Burns out the day in idle fantasies ; Unto the closing day, then tears begin The early lark is waken'd from her bed, content. CASTLES IN THE AIR. A palace lifting to eternal summer at noon We'd sit beneath the arching vines, and wonder Why earth, could be unhappy, while the heaven Still left us youth and love; we'd have no friends That were not lovers; no ambition, save To think how poorly eloquence of words heavens We'd guess what star should be our home when love Becomes immortal; while the perfumed light |