600

STREAMS.

STREAMS-STRUGGLES, STRUGGLING.

The current that with gentle murmur glides,
Thou know'st, being stopp'd, impatiently doth rage;
But when his fair course is not hindered,

He makes sweet music with th' enamell'd stones,
Giving a gentle kiss to every sedge
He overtaketh in his pilgrimage.

Sh. Two G. II. 7.

Streams, as if created for his use, Pursue the track of his directing wand, Sinuous or straight, now rapid and now slow, Now murmuring soft, now roaring in cascades. Cowper, Task (on Capability Brown), 111. 776.

STRENGTH-
-see Force.

O, it is excellent

To have a giant's strength; but it is tyrannous
To use it like a giant.

Sh. M. for M. 11. 2.

What is strength, without a double share Of wisdom? Vast, unwieldy, burthensome; Proudly secure, yet liable to fall

By weakest subtleties; not made to rule,

But to subserve where wisdom bears command.

STRIKES.

A mechanic his labour will often discard

If the rate of his pay he dislikes;

Milton, Sam. Ag. 53.

But a clock, and its case is uncommonly hard,

Will continue to work though it strikes.

STRIVING.

Hood, Epigram on the Superiority of Machinery.

When workmen strive to do better than well,

They do confound their skill in covetousness. Sh. K. J. IV. 2.

How far your eyes may pierce I cannot tell;
Striving to better, oft we mar what's well.

STROLLERS-see Players.

Sh. Lear, 1. 4.

The strolling tribe; a despicable race. Churchill, Apology.1.206.

STRUGGLES, STRUGGLING-see Danger, Greatness.

The smallest effort is not lost;

Each wavelet on the ocean toss'd

Aids in the ebb tide or the flow;

Each rain-drop makes some flow'ret blow

Each struggle lessens human woe.

Chas. Mackay, the Old and New, 44.

STRUMPET-STYLE.

601

STRUMPET.

'Tis the strumpet's plague

To beguile many, and be beguil'd by one.

STUDENTS, STUDY.

Study is like the heaven's glorious sun,

Sh. Oth. IV. 1.

That will not be deep-search'd with saucy looks;

Small have continual plodders ever won,

Save base authority from others' books. Sh. Love's L. L. 1. 1. Study evermore is overshot :

While it doth study to have what it would,

It doth forget to do the thing it should:

And when it hath the thing it hunteth most,

'Tis won, as towns with fire; so won, so lost. Sh.L. L. L. 1. 1. Universal plodding prisons up

The nimble spirits in the arteries;

As motion, and long-during action tires
The sinewy vigour of the traveller.

Sh. Love's L. L. IV. 3.

Sh. Tam. S. 1. 1.

Fall to them, as you find your stomach serves you:
No profit grows where is no pleasure ta'en;
In brief, Sir, study what you most affect.
Man, that thinks to force and strain
Beyond its natural sphere, his brain,
In vain torments it on the rack,
And, for improving, sets it back.

Butler, Sat. 2.

With curious art the brain, too finely wrought,
Preys on itself, and is destroy'd by thought:
Constant attention wears the active mind,
Blots out her powers, and leaves a blank behind.

Churchill, Ep. to Hogarth, 645.

If not to some peculiar end design'd
Study's the specious trifling of the mind,

Or is at best a secondary aim,

A chase for sport alone, and not for game. Young, L. F. 11. 67.

STUPIDITY-see Folly, Simplicity.

Blocks are better cleft with wedges,

Than tools of sharp or subtle edges,
And dullest nonsense has been found

By some to be the most profound. Butler, Pindaric Ode, 4. STYLE-see Language, Poetry.

The lives of trees lie only in the barks,

And in their styles the wit of greatest clerks. Butler, Sat. 2. In all you write be neither low nor vile :

The meanest thing may have a proper style.

Dryden, Art of Poetry, 1. 79.

602

STYLE-continued.

STYLE-SUCCESS.

Be sure avoid set phrases when you write,
The usual way of speech is more polite.

SUBJECTS.

Subjects are stiff-neck'd animals: they soon
Feel slackened reins, and throw the rider down.

SUBMISSION-see Obedience.

Ovid.

Dryden, Aurengzebe.

Shall I bend low, and in a bondsman's key,
With bated breath, and whispering humbleness,
Say this ?

Sh. M. of Ven. 1. 3.

You shall be as a father to my youth

My voice shall sound as you do prompt mine ear:
And I will stoop and humble my intents
To your well practis'd, wise directions.

Sh. H. IV. 2. v. 2.

SUCCESS-see Applause, Fate, Industry, Perseverance.

Didst thou never hear,

That things ill got had ever bad success? Sh. H. vl. 3. II. 2.
Good success

Is oft more fatal far than bad, one winning throw,
Cast from a flattering die, may tempt a gamester
To hazard his whole fortunes. Chapman, Revenge for Honor.
In tracing human story, we shall find
The cruel more successful than the kind.

If well thou hast begun, go on fore-right;
It is the end that crowns us, not the fight.

Sir W. Davenant, Siege of Rhodes.

Herrick, Aph. 310.

Conquer we shall, but we must first contend;
'Tis not the fight that crowns us, but the end.

If all things by success are understood,
Men that make war, grow wicked to be good.

Virtue, without success,

Ib. 341.

Howard, Indian Queen.

Is a fair picture shewn by an ill light;
But lucky men are favourites of heaven

All own the chief, when fortune owns the cause.

Dryden, Spanish Friar.

'Tis not in mortals to command success;
But we'll do more, Sempronius-we'll deserve it.

Addison, Cato, 1. 2.

SUCCESS-continued.

SUCCESS SUICIDE.

Had I miscarried, I had been a villain :
For men judge actions always by events:
But when we manage by a just foresight,
Success is prudence, and possession right.

603

Higgons, Generous Conqueror.

It is success that colours all in life:
Success makes fools admir'd, makes villains honest;
All the proud virtue of this vaunting world
Fawns on success, and power, howe'er acquir'd.

Thomson, Agamemnon, v. 1.

What; though success will not attend on all,
Who bravely dares must sometimes risk a fall.

SUFFERING, SUFFERANCE.

Smollett, Advice, 207.

Sufferance is the badge of all our tribe. Sh. M. of Ven. 1. 3.
The poor beetle that we tread upon,

In corp'ral sufferance feels a pang as great
As when a giant dies.

Sh. M. for M. III. 1.

We by our sufferings learn to prize our bliss ;
Like early lovers, whose unpractis'd hearts
Were long the may-game of malicious arts,
When once they find their jealousies were vain,
With double heat renew their fires again.

Dryden, Astræa Redux, 210.
Suffering is sweet when honour doth adorn it.
Who slights revenge? not he that fears, but scorns it.
Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham.

SUICIDE-see Death, Despair, Immortality.
Why, he that cuts off twenty years of life,
Cuts off so many years of fearing death.

I do find it cowardly and vile,
For fear of what might fall, so to prevent
The time of life.

Sh. Jul. C. III. 1.

To be or not to be; that is the question :
Whether 't is nobler in the mind, to suffer
The stings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,

Sh. Jul. C. v. I.

And, by opposing, end them? To die-to sleep;—
No more, and, by a sleep, to say we end

The heart-ache, and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to; 't is a consummation
Devoutly to be wished.

Sh. Ham. III. 1.

Who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
The pangs of dispriz'd love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office, and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy take,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin ?

-He

That kills himself t' avoid misery, fears it;
And at the best shows a bastard valour.

Sh. Ham. III. 1.

Massinger, Maid of Honour.

Says he, to kill himself a brave man scorns;
So, instead of his throat, he cut his corns.

Kenny, Major McPherson, a Song.

What torments are allotted those sad spirits
Who, groaning with the burden of despair,
No longer will endure the cares of life,
But boldly set themselves at liberty,

Through the dark caves of death to wander on,
Like wilder'd travellers without a guide;
Eternal rovers in the gloomy maze.

When all the blandishments of life are gone,
The coward sneaks to death, the brave live on.

Lee.

G. Sewell, The Suicide.
Fear, guilt, despair, and moon-struck frenzy rush
On voluntary death: the wise, the brave,
When the fierce storms of fortune round them roar,
Combat the billows with redoubled force:
Then, if they perish ere the port is gain'd,

They sink with decent pride; and from the deep
Honour retrieves them bright as rising stars.

If there be an hereafter,

And that there is, conscience, uninfluenc'd
And suffer'd to speak out, tells every man,
Then must it be an awful thing to die;

Fenton, Mariamne.

More horrid yet to die by one's own hand. Blair, Grave, 398.

Our time is fix'd; and all our days are number'd!

How long, how short, we know not: this we know,

Duty requires we calmly wait the summons,

Nor dare to stir till heaven shall give permission.

Blair, Grave, 417.