What is the jay more precious than the lark, Or is the adder better than the eel, Because his painted skin delights the eye? The mind therefore must be cultivated with that diligence and application which its immense value requires. Thus in the Fourth Act of Hamlet, the young prince exclaims: What is a man, If his chief good, and market of his time, That capability and god-like reason To rust in us unused. And is not the improvement of time inculcated with no little tenderness and earnestness in the following lines? O, Gentlemen, the time of life is short; To spend that shortness basely were too long, Still ending at the arrival of an hour. Doctor Young says that 'Procrastination is the thief of time.' With this consideration, the following lines which are to be found in the Fifth Act of the Play of All's Well that Ends Well,' sufficiently merit our approval. Let's take the instant by the forward top; And thus, in the Fourth Act of the Play of Julius Cæsar, when Brutus discovers that his enemies increase, he grows impatient for the fight, and declares ; There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; Is bound in shallows and in miseries. In the Second Act of the Play of King Richard the Third, the Marquis of Dorset in a remonstrance to the Duchess of York, thus teaches us submission to Heaven. Comfort, dear mother; God is much displeased In the Fourth Act of the Second Part of King Henry the Fourth, the young prince, afterwards Henry the Fifth, with great judgment, gives utterance to his reflections on an earthly crown, O polish'd perturbation! golden care! That scalds with safety. In the same Act, King Henry the Fourth utters the following reflections on the cares and toils attendant on the achievement of gold: How quickly nature falls into revolt When gold becomes her object! For this the foolish over-careful fathers Have broke their sleep with thoughts, their brains with care, Their bones with industry; For this they have engross'd and piled up Our thighs packed with wax, our mouths with honey, * A Night-cap. We bring it to the hive: and, like the bees, Ungodly pastors may receive instruction from the following lines which are spoken by Ophelia to her brother Laertes. The latter had offered the young lady some excellent advice. Ophelia replies as follows: I shall the effect of this good lesson keep, As watchman to my heart: but, good my brother, Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven: In the Second Act of the Merchant of Venice we are taught that honour should only be conferred on the deserving. For who shall go about To cozen fortune, and be honourable Without the stamp of merit? Let none presume O that estates, degrees, and offices Were not derived corruptly; and that clear honour How much low peasantry would then be glean'd From the true seed of honour! and how much honour Pick'd from the chaff and ruin of the times, To be new varnish'd! In Act the Second of the Comedy of All's Well that Ends Well, our poet shows that honour is due to personal virtue, not to birth. We may possess the privilege of the latter without any, the smallest degree of merit, on our part. In the above Play the following wise utterances are addressed by the King of France to Bertram. The latter rejects an excellent young lady because she is untitled and lowly-born, Honour due to virtue only. From lowest place when virtuous things proceed, Is good without a name: vileness is so; In these to nature she's immediate heir; Where dust, and damn'd oblivion is the tomb |