The sum of earthly bliss.
Bliss in possession will not last;
Remember'd joys are never past;
At once the fountain, stream, and sea,
They were,—they are,—they yet shall be.
Some place the bliss in action, some in ease,
Those call it pleasure, and contentment these.
Condition, circumstance, is not the thing;
Bliss is the same in subject or in king.
The way to bliss lies not on beds of down,
And he that had no cross deserves no crown.
Quarles—Esther.
| seealso = (See also Paulinus, under Christianity)
| topic =
| page =
}}
{{Hoyt quote
| num = 6
| text = <poem>I know I am—that simplest bliss
The millions of my brothers miss.
I know "the fortune to be born,
Even to the meanest wretch they scorn.
Bayard Taylor—Prince Deukalion. Act IV.
We thinke no greater blisse than such
To be as be we would,
When blessed none but such as be
The same as be they should.
William Warner—Albion's England.
| place = Bk. X. Ch.LIX. St. 68.
| note =
| topic =
| page = 73
}}
{{Hoyt quote
| num =
| text = <poem>The spider's most attenuated thread
Is cord, is cable, to man's tender tie
On earthly bliss; it breaks at every breeze.
Young—Night Thoughts. Night 1. L. 178.
BLOOD
{{Hoyt quote
| num =
| text = <poem>Le sang qui vient de se repandre, est-il done si pur?
Was the blood which has been shed then so pure?
Antoine Barnave, on hearing a criticism of the murder of Foulon and Bartier. (1790)
| topic =
| page =
}}
{{Hoyt quote
| num =
| text = <poem>Blut ist ein ganz besondrer Saft.
Blood is a juice of rarest quality.
Goethe—Faust. I. 4. 214.
| note =
| topic =
| page = 73
}}
{{Hoyt quote
| num =
| text = <poem>Blud's thicker than water.
[[Author:Walter Scott|Scott]]—Guy Mannering. Ch. XXXVIII.
Hands across the sea
Feet on English ground,
The old blood is bold blood, the wide world round.
Byron Webber—Hands across the Sea.
Blood is thicker than water.
Attributed to Commodore Tattnall. See Eleventh Ed. of Encyclopedia Britannica in notice of Tattnall. Vincent S. Lean stated in Notes and Queries. Seventh S. XIII. 114, he had found the proverb in the British Museum copy of the 1797 Ed. of Allan Ramsay's. Collection,. (First Ed,. 1737)
BLUEBELL
! s Campanula rotundifolia
Hang-head Bluebell,
Bending like Moses' sister over Moses,
Full of a secret that thou dar'st not tell!
George MacDonald—Wild Flowers.
Oh! roses and lilies are fair to see;
But the wild bluebell is the flower for me.
Louisa A. Meredith—The Bluebell. L. 178.
BLUEBIRD
"So the Bluebirds have contracted, have they, for a house?
And a next is under way for little Mr. Wren?"
"Hush, dear, hush! Be quiet, dear! quiet as a mouse.
These are weighty secrets, and we must whisper them."
In the thickets and the meadows
Piped the bluebird, the Owaissa.
On the summit of the lodges
Sang the robin, the Opechee.
| author = Longfellow
| work = Hiawatha. Pt. XXI.
Whither away, Bluebird,
Whither away?
The blast is chill, yet in the upper sky
Thou still canst find the color of thy wing,
The hue of May.
Warbler, why speed thy southern flight? ah,
why,
Thou too, whose song first told us of the
Spring?
Whither away?
E. C. Stedman—The Flight of the Birds.
BLUSHES
An Arab, by his earnest gaze,
Has clothed a lovely maid with blushes;
A smile within his eyelids plays
And into words his longing gushes.
Wm. R.Alger—Oriental Poetry. Love Sowing
and Reaping Roses.
Girls blush, sometimes, because they are alive,
Half wishing they were dead to save the shame.
The sudden blush devours them, neck and brow;
They have drawn too near the fire of life, like
gnats,
And flare up bodily, wings and all.
E. B. Browning—Aurora Leigh.
| place = Bk. II. L.
732.
So sweet the blush of bashfulness,
E'en pity scarce can wish it less!
Byron—Bride of Abydos. Canto 1. St. 8
Blushed like the waves of hell.
| author = Byron
| work = Devil's Drive. St. 5.
'Tis not on youth's smooth cheek the blush alone,
which fades so fast,
But the tender bloom of heart is gone, ere youth
itself be past.
