Page:The Carcanet.djvu/33

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So bright the tear in beauty's eye,
Love half regrets to kiss it dry;
So sweet the blush of bashfulness,
Even pity scarce can wish it less!
Byron. 


The most lasting families have only their seasons, more or less of a certain constitutional strength. They have their spring and summer sunshine glare, their wane, decline, and death: they flourish and shine perhaps for ages; at last they sicken: their light grows pale, and, at a crisis when the off-sets are withered and the old stock is blasted, the whole tribe disappears. There are limits ordained to every thing under the sun. Man will not abide in honour. Of all human vanities, family pride is one of the weakest. Reader, go thy way; secure thy name in the book of life, where the page fades not, nor the title alters nor expires—leave the rest to Heralds and the Parish Register,

BORLASE.


They mourn, but smile at length; and smiling mourn:
The tree will wither long before it fall;
The hull drives on, though mast and sail be torn;
The roof-tree sinks, but moulders on the hall
In massy hoariness; the ruined wall
Stands when all wind-worn battlements are gone;
The bars survive the captive they enthral;