Part 62

~Martyrs.~--Even in this world they will have their judgment-day, and their names, which went down in the dust like a gallant banner trodden in the mire, shall rise again all glorious in the sight of nations.--Mrs. Stowe.

It is not the death that makes the martyr, but the cause.--Canon Dale.

It is admirable to die the victim of one's faith; it is sad to die the dupe of one's ambition.--Lamartine.

God discovers the martyr and confessor without the trial of flames and tortures, and will hereafter entitle many to the reward of actions which they had never the opportunity of performing.--Addison.

~Matrimony.~--When a man and woman are married their romance ceases and their history commences.--Rochebrune.

It resembles a pair of shears, so joined that they cannot be separated; often moving in opposite directions, yet always punishing any one who comes between them.--S. Smith.

Married in haste, we repent at leisure.--Congreve.

I believe marriages would in general be as happy, and often more so, if they were all made by the Lord Chancellor, upon a due consideration of the characters and circumstances, without the parties having any choice in the matter.--Johnson.

Hanging and wiving go by destiny.--Shakespeare.

The married man is like the bee that fixes his hive, augments the world, benefits the republic, and by a daily diligence, without wronging any, profits all; but he who contemns wedlock, like a wasp, wanders an offence to the world, lives upon spoil and rapine, disturbs peace, steals sweets that are none of his own, and, by robbing the hives of others, meets misery as his due reward.--Feltham.

One can, with dignity, be wife and widow but once.--Joubert.

Few natures can preserve through years the poetry of the first passionate illusion. That can alone render wedlock the seal that confirms affection, and not the mocking ceremonial that consecrates its grave.--Bulwer-Lytton.

It's hard to wive and thrive both in a year.--Tennyson.

Maids want nothing but husbands, and when they have them, they want everything.--Shakespeare.

Wedlock's like wine, not properly judged of till the second glass.--Douglas Jerrold.

A good wife is like the ivy which beautifies the building to which it clings, twining its tendrils more lovingly as time converts the ancient edifice into a ruin.--Johnson.

He that marries is like the Doge who was wedded to the Adriatic. He knows not what there is in that which he marries: mayhap treasures and pearls, mayhap monsters and tempests, await him.--Heinrich Heine.

A husband is a plaster that cures all the ills of girlhood.--Molière.

There is more of good nature than of good sense at the bottom of most marriages.--Thoreau.

The love of some men for their wives is like that of Alfieri for his horse. "My attachment for him," said he, "went so far as to destroy my peace every time that he had the least ailment; but my love for him did not prevent me from fretting and chafing him whenever he did not wish to go my way."--Bovée.

No navigator has yet traced lines of latitude and longitude on the conjugal sea.--Balzac.

Has any one ever pinched into its pilulous smallness the cobweb of pre-matrimonial acquaintanceship?--George Eliot.

~Mediocrity.~--Mediocrity is excellent to the eyes of mediocre people.--Joubert.

Mediocrity is now, as formerly, dangerous, commonly fatal, to the poet; but among even the successful writers of prose, those who rise sensibly above it are the very rarest exceptions.--Gladstone.

~Meditation.~--Chewing the cud of sweet and bitter fancy.--Shakespeare.

'Tis greatly wise to talk with our past hours, and ask them what report they bore to heaven, and how they might have borne more welcome news.--Young.

Meditation is that exercise of the mind by which it recalls a known truth, as some kind of creatures do their food, to be ruminated upon till all vicious parts be extracted.--Bishop Horne.

~Meekness.~--The flower of meekness grows on a stem of grace.--J. Montgomery.