Choice Thoughts; Or, Selections from Nearly One Hundred and Fifty Different Authors, for Use of High Schools for Reading, Recitation, and Analysis (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1878 Excerpt: ... These are the wings of angels, I exclaimed, Spread in their mystic beauty o'er the-world. Be ceaseless thanks to God that, in His love, He gives such glimpses of the world above, That we, poor pilgrims, on this darkling sphere, Beyond its shadows may our hopes uprear. Thomas Cole, England, 1697--. 62. Exertion Essential. By ceaseless action all that is subsists. Constant rotation of the unwearied wheel That Nature rides upon, maintains her health, Her beauty, her fertility. She dreads An instant's pause, and lives but while she moves: Its own revolvency upholds the world. "Winds from all quarters agitate the air. And fit the limpid element for use, Else noxious, oceans, rivers, lakes, and streams, All feel the freshening impulse, and are cleansed By restless undulation. E'en the oak Thrives by the rude concussion of the storm: He seems indeed indignant, and to feel The impression of the blast with proud disdain, Frowning, as if in his unconscious arm He held the thunder; but the monarch owes His firm stability to what he scorns, More fixed below, the more disturbed above. The law, by which all creatures else are bound, Binds man, the lord of all. Vm. Cowper, England, 1731-1800. 63. Truth. Truth is eternal, but her effluence, With endless change, is fitted to the hour; Her mirror is turned forward, to reflect The promise of the future, not the past. He who would win the name of truly great Must understand his own age and the next, And make the present ready to fulfill Its prophecy, and with the future merge Gently and peacefully, as wave with wave. The future works out great men's destinies; The present is enough for common souls, Who, never looking forward, are indeed Mere clay wherein the footprints of their age Are petrified for ever; better those Who lea...