Oracles from the Poets: A Fanciful Diversion for the Drawing Room
General
Oracles from the Poets: A Fanciful Diversion for the Drawing Room
Amusements; Fortune-telling; Quotations, English
WHAT IS THE CHARACTER OF HIM WHO LOVES YOU?
1. Of manners gentle, of affections mild,
In wit a man, simplicity a child.
POPE.
2. He has a shrewd wit, I can tell you;
and he's a man good enough; he's one of the
soundest judgments, and a proper man of person.
_Troilus and Cressida._
3. Love, fame, and glory, with alternate sway
Thrill his warm heart, and with electric ray
Illume his eye; yet still a shade of care,
Like a light cloud that floats in summer air,
Will shed at times a transitory gloom,
But shadow not one grace of manly bloom.
MRS. K. WARE.
4. He wounds no breast with jeer and jest, yet bears no honey'd
tongue,
He's social with the gray-hair'd one, and merry with the young.
ELIZA COOK.
5. A shallow brain behind a serious mask,
An oracle within an empty cask;
He says but little, and that little said
Owes all its weight, like loaded dice, to lead.
COWPER--_Conversation._
6. Fearless he is, and scorning all disguise;
What he dares do, or think, though men may start,
He speaks with mild, yet unaverted eyes.
SHELLEY.
7. A lofty spirit his, and somewhat proud;
Little gallant, and has a sort of cloud
Hanging forever on his cold address.
LEIGH HUNT--_Rimini._
8. He writes brave verses, speaks brave words,
Swears brave oaths, and breaks them as bravely
_As You Like It._
9. In truth he is a strange and wayward wight,
Fond of each gentle and each dreadful scene;
In darkness and in storm he finds delight,
Nor less than when on ocean's wave serene
The southern sun displays his dazzling sheen.
BEATTIE--_Minstrel._
10. There is in him so much man, so much goodness,
So much of honor, and of all things else
Which make our being excellent, that from his store
He can enough lend others.
MASSINGER.
11. He draweth out the staple of his verbosity finer than the staple
of his argument.
_Love's Labour Lost._
12. His words are strong, but not with anger fraught,
A lore benignant he hath lived and taught;
To draw mankind to heaven by gentleness
And good example is his business.
CHAUCER.
13. The monarch-mind, the mystery of commanding,
The god-like power, the art Napoleon
Of winning, fettering, moulding, wielding, banding
The hearts of millions, till they move as one.
HALLECK.
14. Devout, yet cheerful; pious, not austere;
To others lenient, to himself severe.
DR. HARVEY.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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