. of Alcoeus._

=Leaf--Leaves.=

My way of life
Is fall'n into the sere, the yellow leaf.
1065
SHAKS.: _Macbeth,_ Act v., Sc. 3.

Call for the robin-redbreast and the wren,
Since o'er shady groves they hover,
And with leaves and flowers do cover
The friendless bodies of unburied men.
1066
JOHN WEBSTER: _The White Devil,_ Act v., Sc. 2.

Like leaves on trees the race of man is found,--
Now green in youth, now withering on the ground.
1067
POPE: _Iliad,_ Bk. vi., Line 181.

=Learning.=

"The thrice three Muses mourning for the death
Of learning, late deceas'd in beggary,"--
That is some satire, keen and critical.
1068
SHAKS.: _Mid. N. Dream,_ Act v., Sc. 1.

Learning unrefin'd,
That oft enlightens to corrupt the mind.
1069
FALCONER: _Shipwreck,_ Canto i., Line 166.

Some for renown, on scraps of learning dote,
And think they grow immortal as they quote.
1070
YOUNG: _Love of Fame,_ Satire i., Line 89.

=Lending.=

Loan oft loses both itself and friend.
1071
SHAKS.: _Hamlet,_ Act i., Sc. 3.

If thou wilt lend this money, lend it not
As to thy friends; (for when did friendship take
A breed of barren metal of his friend?)
But lend it rather to thine enemy;
Who, if he break, thou mayst with better face
Exact the penalties.
1072
SHAKS.: _M. of Venice,_ Act i., Sc. 3.

=Letters.=

My letters! all dead paper, mute and white!
And yet they seem alive, and quivering
Against my tremulous hands which loose the string
And let them drop down on my knee to-night.
1073
MRS. BROWNING: _Sonnets fr. Portuguese,_ Sonnet xxviii.

Kind messages, that pass from land to land;
Kind letters, that betray the heart's deep history,
In which we feel the pressure of a hand,--
One touch of fire,--and all the rest is mystery!
1074
LONGFELLOW: _Dedication to Seaside and Fireside,_ St. 5.

You have the letters Cadmus gave,--
Think ye he meant them for a slave?.
1075
BYRON: _Don Juan,_ Canto iii., St. 86. 10.

=Liberty.=

I must have liberty
Withal, as large a charter as the wind,
To blow on whom I please.
1076
SHAKS.: _As You Like It,_ Act ii., Sc. 7.

In liberty's defence, my noble task,
Of which all Europe rings from side to side;
This thought might lead me through the world's vain mask,
Content, though blind--had I no better guide.
1077
MILTON: Sonnet xxii., _To Cyriack Skinner._

When liberty is gone,
Life grows insipid and has lost it