The Power of Wisdom.

Ne'er can the wise grow old, in whom there dwells
A soul sustained with light of heaven's own day:
Great gain to men is forethought such as theirs.

SOPHOCLES, Fragments, 1. 688.

The wisdom which aims at something nobler and more lasting than the kingdom of this world, may now and then find that the kingdom of this world will also fall into its lap. How much longer and more widely has Aristotle reigned than Alexander! with how much more power and glory Luther than Charles the Fifth! His breath still works miracles at this day. Guesses at Truth.

W

WISDOM and fortune combating together,
If that the former dare but what it can,

No chance may shake it.1

Antony and Cleopatra, Act iii. Sc. 13, 1. 79.

How poor are they that have not patience! What wound did ever heal but by degrees? 2

Othello, Act ii. Sc. 3, 1. 376.

1 God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. - Psalm

xlvi. I.

2 Let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. — James i. 4.

I shall be well content with any choice

Tends to God's glory and my country's weal.'

First Part King Henry VI., Act v. Sc. 1, 1. 26.

SORROW AND PATIENCE OF KING LEAR'S ONLY LOVING DAUGHTER.

Earl of Kent. Did your letters pierce the queen to any demonstration of grief?

Gentleman. Ay, sir; she took them, read them in my pres

ence;

And now and then an ample tear trill'd down
Her delicate cheek: it seem'd she was a queen
Over her passion; who, most rebel-like,

Sought to be king o'er her.

Kent.

O, then it moved her.

Gent. Not to a rage; patience and sorrow strove
Who should express her goodliest. You have seen
Sunshine and rain at once: her smiles and tears
Were like a better day: those happy smiles,
That play'd on her ripe lip, seem'd not to know
What guests were in her eyes; which parted thence,
As pearls from diamonds dropp'd. In brief,
Sorrow would be a rarity most beloved,

If all could so become it.

Kent.

Made she no verbal question?

Gent. 'Faith, once or twice she heaved the name of

'father'

1 I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. - Phil. iv. II.

THE POWER OF WISDOM.

Pantingly forth, as if it press'd her heart:

Cried 'Sisters! sisters! Shame of ladies! sisters!

Kent! father! sisters! What, i' the storm? i' the night?

Let pity not be believed!' There she shook

The holy water from her heavenly eyes,

And clamour moisten'd: then away she started
To deal with grief alone.

King Lear, Act iv. Sc. 3, 1. 11.

He covets less

Than misery itself would give; rewards

His deeds with doing them; and is content

To spend the time, to end it.

71

Coriolanus, Act ii. Sc. 2, 1. 130.

Self-knowledge.

Not the truth of which any one is, or supposes himself to be, possessed, but the upright endeavor he has made to arrive at truth makes the worth of the man. For not by the possession, but by the investigation, of truth are his powers expanded, wherein alone his ever-growing perfection exists. Possession makes us easy, indolent, proud.

If God held all truth shut up in his right hand, and in his left nothing but the ever restless instinct for truth, though with the condition of ever and for ever erring, and should say to me, Choose! I should bow humbly to his left hand, and say, Father, give! pure truth is for Thee alone. LESSING, quoted by Lowell," Among My Books," First Series, p. 347.

A soul with good intent and purpose just
Discerns far more than lecturer can teach.1

SOPHOCLES, Fragments, 1. 88.

Surely people must know themselves; so few ever think about any thing else. Yes, they think what they have, what they shall get, how they shall appear, what they shall do, perchance now and then what they shall be, but never, or hardly ever, what they are. Guesses at Truth.

Go to your bosom ;

Knock there, and ask your heart what it doth know

That's like my brother's fault: if it confess

A natural guiltiness such as is his,

1 I have more understanding than all my teachers: for thy testimonies are my meditation. - Psalm cxix. 99.

SELF-KNOWLEDGE.

Let it not sound a thought upon your tongue
Against my brother's life.1

73

Measure for Measure, Act ii. Sc. 2, l. 136.

I and my bosom must debate a while,
And then I would no other company.

King Henry V., Act iv. Sc. 1, 1. 31.

Thy glass will show thee how thy beauties wear,
Thy dial how thy precious minutes waste;
The vacant leaves thy mind's imprint will bear,
And of this book this learning may'st thou taste.
The wrinkles which thy glass will truly show,
Of mouthed graves will give thee memory;
Thou by thy dial's shady stealth may'st know
Time's thievish progress to eternity.

Look, what thy memory can not obtain.

Commit to these waste blanks, and thou shalt find
Those children nursed, deliver'd from thy brain,
To take a new acquaintance of thy mind.
These offices, so oft as thou wilt look,
Shall profit thee and much enrich thy book.

Better conquest never canst thou make Than arm thy constant and thy nobler parts Against these giddy loose suggestions.

Sonnet, lxxvii.

King John, Act iii. Sc. 1, 1. 290.

1 Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye. - Matt.

vii. 5.