Part 6

~Ancients.~--In tragedy and satire I maintain, against some critics, that this age and the last have excelled the ancients; and I would instance in Shakespeare of the former, in Dorset of the latter.--Dryden.

Though the knowledge they have left us be worth our study, yet they exhausted not all its treasures; they left a great deal for the industry and sagacity of after-ages.--Locke.

~Angels.~--In old days there were angels who came and took men by the hand and led them away from the city of destruction. We see no white-winged angels now. But yet men are led away from threatening destruction: a hand is put in theirs, which leads them forth gently towards a calm and bright land, so that they look no more backward; and the hand may be a little child's.--George Eliot.

Millions of spiritual creatures walk the earth unseen, both when we wake and when we sleep.--Milton.

~Anger.~--If a man meets with injustice, it is not required that he shall not be roused to meet it; but if he is angry after he has had time to think upon it, that is sinful. The flame is not wrong, but the coals are.--Beecher.

Temperate anger well becomes the wise.--Philemon.

When anger rushes, unrestrained, to action, like a hot steed, it stumbles in its way.--Savage.

Bad temper is its own scourge. Few things are bitterer than to feel bitter. A man's venom poisons himself more than his victim.--Charles Buxton.

Above all, gentlemen, no heat.--Talleyrand.

Anger ventilated often hurries towards forgiveness; anger concealed often hardens into revenge.--Bulwer-Lytton.

Keep cool and you command everybody.--St. Just.

I never work better than when I am inspired by anger; when I am angry I can write, pray, and preach well; for then my whole temperament is quickened, my understanding sharpened, and all mundane vexations and temptations depart.--Luther.

When one is in a good sound rage, it is astonishing how calm one can be.--Bulwer-Lytton.

~Angling.~--I give up fly-fishing; it is a light, volatile, dissipated pursuit. But ground-bait with a good steady float that never bobs without a bite is an occupation for a bishop, and in no way interferes with sermon-making.--Sydney Smith.

He that reads Plutarch shall find that angling was not contemptible in the days of Mark Antony and Cleopatra.--Izaak Walton.

Idle time not idly spent.--Sir Henry Wotton.

To see the fish cut with her golden oars the silver stream and greedily devour the treacherous bait.--Shakespeare.

~Anticipation.~--It has been well said that no man ever sank under the burden of the day. It is when to-morrow's burden is added to the burden of to-day that the weight is more than a man can bear.--George MacDonald.

The craving for a delicate fruit is pleasanter than the fruit itself.--Herder.

The hours we pass with happy prospects in view are more pleasing than those crowned with fruition. In the first instance, we cook the dish to our own appetite; in the latter, nature cooks it for us.--Goldsmith.

We are apt to rely upon future prospects, and become really expensive while we are only rich in possibility. We live up to our expectations, not to our possessions, and make a figure proportionable to what we may be, not what we are. We outrun our present income, as not doubting to disburse ourselves out of the profits of some future place, project, or reversion that we have in view.--Addison.

Nothing is so good as it seems beforehand.--George Eliot.

~Antiquarian.~--A thorough-paced antiquarian not only remembers what all other people have thought proper to forget, but he also forgets what all other people think it proper to remember.--Colton.

The earliest and the longest has still the mastery over us.--George Eliot.

~Antithesis.~--Young people are dazzled by the brilliancy of antithesis, and employ it.--Bruyère.

Antithesis may be the blossom of wit, but it will never arrive at maturity unless sound sense be the trunk, and truth the root.--Colton.

~Apology.~--An apology in the original sense was a pleading off from some charge or imputation, by explaining or defending principles or conduct. It therefore amounted to a vindication.--Crabbe.

Brother, brother, we are both in the wrong.--Gay.