Hannah More

“ Enter Orlando.
Or. Julia in tears!
Jul. Alas! you have undone me!
Behold the wretched victim of her promise!
I urg'd, at your request, the fatal suit
Which has destroy'd my peace; Rivers suspects me,
And I am wretched!
Or. Better 'tis to weep
A temporary ill than weep for ever;
That anguish must be mine.
Jul. Ha! weep for ever!
Can they know wretchedness who know not love?
Or. Not love! oh, cruel friendship! tyrant honour!
Jul. Friendship! alas, how cold art thou to love!
Or. Too well I know it; both alike destroy me,
I am the slave of both, and more than either
The slave of honour. ”

“ Trueman. Well, Mr. Fantom, you are a wonderful man to keep up such a stock of benevolence at so small an expense. To love mankind so dearly, and yet avoid all opportunities of doing them good; to have such a noble zeal for the millions, and to feel so little compassion for the units; to long to free empires and enlighten kingdoms; and yet deny instruction to your own village, and comfort to your own family. Surely none but a philosopher could indulge so much philanthropy and so much frugality at the same time. ”

“ O I will tell thee all! thou couldst not find An hour, a moment in Elwina's life, When her full heart so long'd to ease its burthen, And pour its sorrows in thy friendly bosom: Hear then, with pity hear, my tale of woe, And, O forgive, kind nature, filial piety, If my presumptuous lips arraign a father! Yes, Birtha, that belov'd, that cruel father, Has doom'd me to a life of hopeless anguish, To die of grief ere half my days are number'd; Doom'd me to give my trembling hand to Douglas, 'Twas all I had to give—my heart was—Percy's. ”

“ I eagerly inquired what he thought I had to fear? "You have every thing to fear," replied he, in a tone of grave irony, "which a man not four-and-twenty, of an honorable family, with a clear estate of four thousand a year, a person that all the ladies admire, a mind which all the men esteem, and a temper which endears you to men, women, and children, can fear from a little country girl, whose heart is as free as a bird, and who, if I may judge by her smiles and blushes whenever you are talking to her, would have no mortal objection to sing in the same cage with you." ”

“ Ye never gave, in all your round of blessing,
A gift so greatly welcome to my soul,
As Manlius' friendship on the terms of honour!
Man. Immortal Powers! why am not I a slave?
By heav'n! I almost envy thee thy bonds.
Reg. My friend, there's not a moment to be lost;
Ere this, perhaps, the Senate is assembled.
To thee, and to thy virtues, I commit
The dignity of Rome—my peace and honour.
Man. Illustrious man, farewell!
Reg. Farewell, my friend!
Man. The sacred flame thou hast kindled in my soul
Glows in each vein, trembles in every nerve,
And raises me to something more than man. ”

“ To forget the dark valley, through which every traveller was well assured he must one day pass, seemed, indeed, the object of general desire. To this great end, all that human ingenuity could invent was industriously set to work. The travellers read, and they wrote, and they painted, and they sung, and they danced, and they drank as they went along, not so much because they all cared for these things, or had any real joy in them, as because this restless activity served to divert their attention from ever being fixed on the dark and shadowy valley. ”

“ I do not desire it, I only wish to die." "We are very apt to talk most of dying when we are least fit for it," said Worthy. "This is not the language of that submission which makes us prepare for death; but of that despair which makes us out of humor with life. O! Mr. Bragwell! you are indeed disappointed of the grand ends which made life so delightful to you; but till your heart is humbled, till you are brought to a serious conviction of sin, till you are brought to see what is the true end of life, you can have no hope in death. ”

“ A work of capital genius, to a man of an ordinary mind, is the bed of Procrustes to one of a short stature, the man is too little to fill up the space assigned him, and undergoes the torture in attempting it: and a moderate, or low production to a man of bright talents, is the punishment inflicted by Mezentius; the living spirit has too much animation to endure patiently to be in contact with a dead body.
Taste sesms to be a sentiment of the soul which gives the bias to opinion, for we feel before we reflect. ”

“ Elwina! Elw. And is that all? so cold? Raby. [sternly.] Elwina! Elw. Then I'm undone indeed! How stern his looks! I will not be repuls'd, I am your child, The child of that dear mother you ador'd; You shall not throw me off, I will grow here, And, like the patriarch, wrestle for a blessing. Raby. [holding her from him.] Before I take thee in these aged arms, Press thee with transport to this beating heart, And give a loose to all a parent's fondness, Answer, and see thou answer me as truly As if the dread inquiry came from heaven,— Does no interior sense of guilt confound thee? ”

“ Strike, my brave friend! be sudden and be silent!
Death, which is terrible to happy men,
To me will be a blessing: I have lost
All that could make life dear; I've lost my friend;
I've stabb'd the peace of mind of that fair creature;
I have surviv'd my honour: this is dying!
The mournful fondness of officious love
Will plant no thorns upon my dying pillow;
No precious tears embalm my memory,
But curses follow it.
Em. See, Rivers melts;
He pities thee.
Or. I'll spare thy noble heart
The pain of punishing: Orlando's self
Revenges both. ”

“ Oh my friend, Eternity is a depth which no geometry can measure, no arithmetic calculate, no imagination conceive, no rhetoric describe. The eye of a dying Christian seems gifted to penetrate depths hid from the wisdom of philosophy. It looks athwart the dark valley without dismay, cheered by the bright scene beyond it. It looks with a kind of chastised impatience to that land where happiness will be only holiness perfected. There all the promises of the gospel will be accomplished. There afflicted virtue will rejoice at its past trials, and acknowledge their subservience to its present bliss. ”

“ Did I remain in Rome.
Man. Ah! Regulus,
Why, why so late do I begin to love thee?
Alas! why have the adverse fates decreed
I ne'er must give thee other proofs of friendship,
Than those so fatal and so full of woe?
Reg. Thou hast perform'd the duties of a friend;
Of a just, faithful, Roman, noble friend:
Yet, generous as thou art, if thou constrain me
To sink beneath a weight of obligation,
I could—yes, Manlius—I could ask still more.
Man. Explain thyself.
Reg. I think I have fulfill'd
The various duties of a citizen;
Nor have I aught beside to do for Rome. ”

“ Hester Wilmot had never been bred to go to church, for her father and mother had never thought of going themselves, unless at a christening in their own family, or at a funeral of their neighbors, both of which they considered merely as opportunities for good eating and drinking, and not as offices of religion.
As poor Hester had no comfort at home, it was the less wonder she delighted in her school, her Bible, and her church; for so great is God's goodness, that he is pleased to make religion a peculiar comfort to those who have no other comfort. ”

“ The terror of his look is lost in love,
In fond, paternal love.
Enter Guildford.
Guild. Come to my arms,
And there conceal that penetrating eye,
Lest it should read what I would hide for ever,
Would hide from all, but most would hide from thee——
Thy father's grief, his shame, his rage, his tears.
Em. Tears! heaven and earth! see if he does not weep!
Guild. He who has drawn this sorrow from my eyes
Shall pay me back again in tears of blood.
'Tis for thy sake I weep.
Em. Ah, weep for me?
Hear, Heaven, and judge; hear, Heaven, and punish me!
If any crime of mine——
Guild. ”

“ ACT THE FIFTH. SCENE I. ELWINA'S APARTMENT.
Elw. Thou who in judgment still remember'st mercy, Look down upon my woes, preserve my husband! Preserve my husband! Ah, I dare not ask it; My very prayers may pull down ruin on me! If Douglas should survive, what then becomes Of—him—I dare not name? And if he conquers, I've slain my husband. Agonizing state! When I can neither hope, nor think, nor pray, But guilt involves me. Sure to know the worst Cannot exceed the torture of suspense, When each event is big with equal horror. ”