520 MOCKING-BIRD MODESTY
MOCKING-BIRD
Then from the neighboring thicket the mocking-bird, wildest of singers,
Swinging aloft on a willow spray that hung o'er the water.
Shook from his little throat such floods of delirious music;
That the whole air and the woods and the waves seemed silent to listen.
Winged mimic of the woods! thou motley fool!
Who shall thy gay buffoonery describe?
Thine ever-ready notes of ridicule
Pursue thy fellows still with jest and jibe:
Wit, sophist, songster, Yorick of thy tribe;
Thou sportive satirist of Nature's school;
To thee the palm of scoffing we ascribe,
Arch-mocker and mad abbot of misrule!
Robert Wilde, D.D.—Sonnet. To the Mocking-Bird.
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MODERATION
{{Hoyt quote
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| text = <poem>This only grant me, that my means may lie
Too low for envy, for contempt too high.
Cowley—Essays in Prose and Verse. Of
Myself. (Trans, of Horace.}})
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{{Hoyt quote
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| text = <poem>Moderation is the silken string r unnin g
through the pearl-chain of all virtues.
Fuller—Holy and Profane States. Bk. III.
Of Moderation. See also Bishop Hat.t,—
Christian Moderation. Introduction.
Aus Massigkeit entspringt ein reines Gliick.
True happiness springs from moderation.
Goethe—Die Natwiiche Tochter. II. 5. 79
Auream quisquis mediocritatem deligit tutus
caret obsoleti sordibus tecti, caret invidenda
sobrius aula.
Who loves the golden mean is safe from
the poverty of a tenement, is free from the
envy of a palace.
Horace—Carmina. II. 10. 5.
Est modus in rebus, sunt certi denique fines
Quos ultra citraque nequit consistere rectum.
There is a mean in all things; and, moreover, certain limits on either side of which
right cannot be found.
Horace—Satires. I. 1. 106.
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| text = The moderation of fortunate people comes
from the calm which good fortune gives to
their tempers.
La Rochefoucauld—Maxims. No. 18.
Le juste milieu.
The proper mean.
Phrase used by Louia Philippe in an address to the deputies of Gaillac. First
occurs in a letter of Voltaire's to Count
d'Argental, Nov. 29, 1765. Also in
Pascal—Pensées.
Medio tutissimus ibis.
Safety lies in the middle course.
Ovid—Metamorphoses. Bk. II. L. 136.
Take this at least, this last advice, my son:
Keep a stiff rein, and move but gently on:
The coursers of themselves will run too fast,
Your art must be to moderate their haste.
Ovid—Metamorphoses. Story of Phaeton. Bk.
II. L. 147. Addison's trans.
Modus omnibus in rebus, soror, optimum est
habitu;
Nimia omnia nimium exhibent negotium hominibus ex se.
In everything the middle course is best:
all things in excess bring trouble to men.
Plautus—Famulus. I. 2. 29.
He knows to live who keeps the middle state,
And neither leans on this side nor on that.
| author = Pope
| work = Bk. II. Satire II. L. 61.
Give me neither poverty nor riches.
Proverbs. XXX. 8.
Souhaitez done mediocrity.
Wish then for mediocrity.
Rabelais—Pantagruel. Bk. rV. Prologue.
Modica voluptas laxat animos et temperat.
Moderate pleasure relaxes the spirit, and
moderates it.
Seneca—De Ira. II. 20.
Be moderate, be moderate.
Why tell you me of moderation?
The grief is fine, full, perfect, that I taste,
And violenteth in a sense as strong
As that which causeth it: how can I moderate it?
Troilus and Cressida. Act IV. Sc. 4. L. 1.
Bonarum rerum consuetudo pessima est.
The too constant use even of good things
is hurtful.
Syrus—Maxims.
Id arbitror
Adprime in vita esse utile, Ut ne quid nimis.
Excess in nothing,—this I regard as a
principle of the highest value in life.
Terence—Andria. I. 1. 33.
There is a limit to enjoyment, though the
sources of wealth be boundless,
And the choicest pleasures of life he within
the ring of moderation.
Topper—Proverbial Philosophy. Of Compensation. L. 15.
Give us enough but with a sparing hand.
Waller—Reflections.
MODESTY
Maximum ornamentum amicitise toUit, qui
ex ea tollit verecundiam.
He takes the greatest ornament from
friendship, who takes modesty from it.
Cicero—De AmicUia. XX.
Modesty is that feeling by which honorable
shame acquires a valuable and lasting authority.
Cicero—Rhetorical Invention. Bk. II. Sec.
LVI.
