When some old friend shall step to my bedside, Touch my chill face, and Ihence shall gently glide;
And when his next companions say
" How doth he do ? What hopes ?" shall turn away
Answering only with a lift up hand
" Who can his fate withstand !"
Then shall a gasp or two do more
Than e'er my rhetoricke could before— Persuade the peevish world to trouble me no more.
Flatman.
We are bound to speak truth to our neighbour; for the use and application of speech imply a tacit promise of truth, speech having been given us for no other purpose. It is not a compact between one private man with another; it is a common compact of mankind in general, and a kind of right of nations, or rather a law of nature. Whoever tells an untruth violates this law and common compact. Nicole.
In every season of life grief brings its own peculiar antidote along with it: the buoyancy of youth soon repels its 'deadening weight; the firmness of manhood resists its weakening influence; the torpor of old age is insensible to its most acute pangs.
