He that parts us shall bring a brand from heaven,
And fire us hence like foxes.
Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more,
Men were deceivers ever,
One foot in sea and one on shore;
To one thing constant never.
Mvxih Ado About Nothing. Act II. Sc. 3.
L. 64. See also Thos. Percy—The Friar of Orders Gray.
If ever thou shalt love, .
In the sweet pangs of it remember me;
For such as I am all true lovers are;
Unstaid and skittish in all motions else,
Save in the constant image of the creature
That is belov'd.
I would have men of such constancy put to
sea, that their business might be everything and
their intent everywhere; for that's it that always
makes a good voyage of nothing.
O heaven! were man
But constant, he were perfect. That one error
Fills him with faults; makes him run through all
the sins:
Inconstancy falls off ere it begins.
Through thick and thin, both over banck and
bush,
In hope her. to attaine by hooke or crooke.
Spenser—Faerie Queene.
| place = Bk. III. Canto
I. St. 17.
| seealso = (See also Butler)
| topic =
| page =
}}
{{Hoyt quote
| num =
| text = <poem>Out upon it! I have lov'd
Three whole days together;
And am like to love three more,
If it prove fair weather.
Sir John Suckling—Constancy.
CONTEMPLATION
The act of contemplation then creates the
thing contemplated.
Isaac D'Israeli—Literary Character. Ch. XII.
But first and chiefest, with thee bring
Him that yon soars on golden wing,
Guiding the fiery-wheeled throne,
The Cherub Contemplation.
In discourse more sweet,
(For Eloquence the Soul, Song charms the sense,)
Others apart sat on a hill retir'd,
In thoughts more elevate, and reasoned high
Of Providence, Foreknowledge, Will and Fate,
Fixed fate, free will, foreknowledge absolute;
And found no end, in wand'ring mazes lost.
When holy and devout religious men
Are at their beads, 'tis hard to draw them thence;
So sweet is zealous contemplation.
Contemplation makes a rare turkey-cock of
him: how he jets under his advanced plumes.
CONTEMPT
(See also Scorn)
Go—let thy less than woman's hand
Assume the distaff—not the brand.
When they talk'd of their Raphaels, Correggios,
and stuff,
He shifted his trumpet, and only took snuff.
| author = Goldsmith
| work = Retaliation.
| place = L. 145.
| note =
| topic =
| page =
}}
{{Hoyt quote
| num = 15
| text = <poem>Grown all to all, from no one vice exempt,
And most contemptible to shun contempt.
Call me what instrument you will, though
you can fret me, yet you cannot play upon me.
I had rather chop this hand off at a blow,
And with the other fling it at thy face,
Than bear so low a sail, to strike to thee.
Henry VI. Pt.III. Act V. Sc. 1. L. 49
CONTENT
Ten poor men sleep in peace on one straw heap, as Saadi sings,
But the immensest empire is too narrow for two
Wm. R. Alger—Oriental Poetry. Elbow
Room.
Ah, sweet Content, where doth thine harbour
hold?
Barnabe Barnes—Parthenophil and Parthenophe.
Happy am I; from care I'm free!
Why aren't they all contented like me?
Opera of La Bayadere.
From labour health, from health contentment
spring;
Contentment opes the source of every joy.
James Beattie—The Minstrel.
| place = Bk. I. St. 13.
In Paris a queer little man you may see,
A little man all in gray ;
Rosy and round as an apple is he,
Content with the present whate'er it may be,
While from care and from cash he is equally free,
And merry both night and day!
"Ma foi! I laugh at the world," says he,
"I laugh at the world, and the world laughs at
me!"
What a gay little man in gray.
BerancIer—The Little Man all in Gray.
Trans, by Amelia B. Edwards.
