Bright

“ Life is like that. There must be shadows. Without shadows we could not be conscious of light. But when the lights are too bright, the shadows too deep, then all is wrong.
“Your bright lights of life at the Opera House, the sable coats, the silks and jewels, they are a form of life. But there the lights are too strong. They blind the eyes, hide the true beauty that may be beneath it all. ”

“ Bright can touch with equal ease. His speech is the natural expression of a mind at once beautiful and strong. The whole man speaks, and not, as is the case with most other speakers, only a part of him. ”

“ Sweet light shall couch by flowery sapphire and blue violets, and dance with jocund joys where the white daisies tesselate the mead; then memory shall illuminate itself—turn out its store of images bright as at their creation; then shall the soul arrange its myriad hues of by-gone time; dwell over the glory of the spiritual scene, until, in extasy and grateful joy, a voice shall shout,—"How beautiful is Light." ”

“ That brow, though still so beautifully fair, had lost the halo of its purity. The brilliant beings of the mind, pluming their pinions to the distant spheres, were dragged to earth. Love, too, with the bright beings that adore, was bound, but a rosy light played round its fetters, while ministers of flesh were tracing, with barbed arrows, dark, fearful characters upon the throbbing heart. ”

“ She ever occupied, without claiming attention, charming continually by her singularly pleasant voice, while the earnestness and truth that beamed from her bright blue—very blue—eyes increased the value of every word she uttered. ”

“ The only positive colour which relieved the half tints of the face lay in the sharp bright eyes which gleamed beneath the busy eyebrows like tiny patches of vivid blue sky seen through little rifts in a curtain of cloud. All expression, all mobility, all life were concentrated in those two points. ”

“ Thine shall be all of beauty whereof the poet sang—
The perfume, and the pageant, the melody, the mirth
Of the golden day, and the starry night;
Of heaven, and of earth.
O, keep pure thy soul!
IV—"THY MIND IS LIKE A CRYSTAL BROOK
Thy mind is like a crystal brook
Wherein clean creatures live at ease,
In sun-bright waves or shady nook. ”

“ Bright, in a volume of more than fourteen hundred pages, can find no room for an incident which has become a living force in history. He takes pains to omit, in his lukewarm account of the battle, the one thing that was best worth the telling. ”

“ Bright’s character well fitted him for the work of conciliating the undergraduates. With great elevation of mind and high principle he combined a genuine sympathy for every form of wholesome energy, physical and intellectual, and was ever ready with encouragement and advice. In the university Bright took a prominent part in the division of the old school of law and modern history, and in the establishment of intercollegiate lectures open to all members of the university. ”

“ Every thing throws light upon every thing,—though the reflection,—which is, in many cases, so bright, as to force itself upon common eyes—may, in other cases, be so faint, as to be perceptible only to eyes of the nicest discernment. ”

“ The sun rises and sets, the stars sink and reappear, and all the spheres hold their circle-dance; but they never return again as they disappeared, and even in the bright fountain of life itself there is life and progress. ”

“ Prout and Harding were admirers of Bright's pictures and sketches. The queen and the prince consort were among his earliest patrons. In 1844 a water-colour painting called 'Entrance to an old Prussian Lawn - Winter - Evening effect' was bought by her majesty, who now possesses several others of Bright's works. As a teacher of his art Bright was for some years very popular, and derived nearly 2,000l. a year from this branch of his profession. Bright's pictures are varied in subject, and usually masterly in manipulation. His colouring is rich and deep. ”

“ The pictures of our early days are pale compared with that, and we cannot revive their colours. No doubt, too, there is much in life and in ourselves which looked very bright and glorious, and has lost its dazzling glitter for our eyes, grown accustomed to a brighter light ”

“ I've always imagined this fad about souls came with civilization."
"I have begun to think," answered his companion, "that with much of the so-called civilization, men and women are losing their souls. Miss Bright is a remarkable woman. She believes in the possibilities of every man and woman. ”

“ Bright, like his father before him, declines to blow a trumpet when he does a good deed. He acts on the principle of not letting his right hand know what his left hand doeth in such matters; and, as a consequence, his benefactions are better known to the beneficiaries than to the public. ”

“ Villars; a brightness how superior in value to that which results from mere quickness of parts, wit, or imagination! a brightness, which, not contented with merely diffusing smiles, and gaining admiration from the sallies of the spirits, reflects a real and a glorious lustre upon all mankind! ”

“ He looked at her and for a moment she lived in the bright blue worlds of his eyes, eagerly and confidently. ”

“ In the darkness which overwhelmed the world on the fall of the Roman empire the knowledge of the notæ was utterly lost, and therefore Bright may be justly regarded as an original inventor, inasmuch as the secret of the ancient shorthand was not unravelled until the beginning of the present century. Only one copy of Bright's 'Characterie' (1588) is known to be in existence. ”

“ Bright was in theology of the progressive school, and in politics a liberal with certain radical tendencies. Although somewhat visionary, changeable in his opinions, and apt at times to be discouraged, it was his moral elevation and his sincerity which earned him general respect, while his affectionate nature endeared him to his friends, who included persons of every shade of religious and political thought. ”

“ Bright's is the only powerful intellect in the House in which reason and imagination are blended ia just and equal proportions, the imagination acting as a stimulus to the reason, but never as a controlling power. ”

“ Bright has always manifested superiority in these qualities. Known, while occupied exclusively in the details of his proper avocation, for skill, promptness, and enterprise, he has also been distinguished, since his sphere of usefulness has been extended to the national councils, for the scope and accuracy of his general information, the comprehensiveness of his mind, the richness of his imagination, and the effective energy of his eloquence. ”

“ We had not seen her for some years—except for a few brief moments—and rejoiced to find her in nothing changed; her voice as light and happy, her laughter as full of gentle mirth, her eyes as bright and truthful, and her countenance as expressive of goodness and loving-kindness, as they have ever been. ”

“ Light in the mode of brightness exists only for eyes which look thereon, and the soul enamoured with the pageant of universal beauty, and fixing its attention on that luminous script of the endless book which is called things manifest, seems to cry on its own part, as God at the dawn of the first day, the sublime and creative words: Fiat lux. ”

“ It would be worth the while to look closely into the eye which has been open and seeing at such hours, and in such solitudes, its dull, yellowish, greenish eye. Methinks my own soul must be a bright invisible green. ”

“ In the bright morning I walked wondering; wondering I walked through the still twilight and many-colored sunset; watching the great stars gather, and lost in the mystery of worlds beyond number, and spaces beyond thought, till, side by side, we lay down to sleep under the stars in the Valley of Life and of Dreams. ”

“ His eyes were bright, and, indeed, he scarcely knew whether they beheld dreams or realities. ”

“ It is not a brilliancy which dazzles, but a delicate whiteness and a brilliancy infused, furnishing the most excessive delight to the eyes, never wearied thereby, nor by the visible brightness which enables us to see a beauty so divine. ”

“ It brings down the pride of external work, and takes the brightness and colour out of our successes; and this is well, for such brightness and colour are nothing more than the reflection of ourselves and our own activity. ”

“ She is the same that at my window peeps,
⁠'Tis her fair face that shines so bright;
'Tis that sweet fairy, she that never sleeps,
⁠But walks about high heaven all the night.
Imagination can see kingdoms in shadows, and watch warriors and their brilliant staff vanish in the mists of a grandeur lent for awhile by the fleecy clouds. She can hear the blast of trumpet and shawm as they travel through infinite space, and echoes the mystic praises of the Creator. ”

“ Hope, frail but lovely shadow! thou dost come,
Like a bright vision on our pathway here,
Making the gloomy future beautiful,
And gilding our horizon with a light,
The fairest human eye can ever know. ”

“ This speculative knowledge shines in the brightness of the light of day, that through it men may see and consider their acts. This brightness is of the human mind carefully looking about itself; and this glorious knowledge appears as a white mist permeating the minds of the peoples, as quickly as mist is scattered through the air; it is light as the light of day, after the brightness of that most glorious work which God benignly works in men, to wit, that they shun evil and do the good which shines in them as the light of day.... ”

“ Sweet drop of pure and pearly light!
In thee the rays of Virtue shine;
More calmly clear, more mildly bright,
Than any gem that gilds the mine. ”

“ So each of the things that now on earth
In this their life is loved by mankind,
Frail and earthly, fleets away.
But they be wondrous, the Beauty and Brightness
That give brightness and beauty to each,
And possess ever after power over all. ”

“ If we imagine all the innumerable flowers which nature pours out, like a tribute of incense to the God who is adorning her, again to be stripped, in a single moment, of their odour, though they were to retain all their bright diversities of colouring, it would seem as if they were deprived of a spirit which animates them,—how cold and dead would they instantly become,—and how much should we lose of that vernal joy, which renders the season of blossoms almost a new life to ourselves. ”

“ I'll break records, When I run to buy the ring. I don't know who the fellow was who first invented life, But he started a darned good thing. Oh! the sun shines brighter than it used to, And the world becomes worthwhile. ”

“ And so it often happens that, under circumstances like these, a character is built up which, if it necessarily shine upon but a few lives, shines for them with a brightness all the purer and more intense. Such virtue is not the beacon flame upon the hill-top, wakening half the land to heroic courage and stern endurance, but the quiet lamp which giveth light to all that are in the house, for sweet patience, and fine courtesy, and the practice of all homely goodness. ”

“ And yet it seems to me that he might brighten the world as the sun fills this sky with light. As it is, the rays that illumine hearts and faces glint only here and there between the threatening clouds of evil. ”

“ And behold, a clear light appeared on high, and raising my eyes towards it, I see the window above me full of brightness, and from out of that brightness there appeared One, in aspect, indeed, similar to a man, but in His splendour truly God. ”

“ Brightman's face, pale and wan, gazing [221] at me through the fog. Certainly Hatch had neither nerves nor fancies; no living woman within my circle of acquaintance possessed less. What did it all mean? Where could the mystery lie? ”

“ but it had not offended her whose beauty "is not like earthly beauty, dangerous to look upon, but like the morning star which is its emblem, bright and musical." ”

“ The friend of man will find no fault with me for having given a dark shade here and there upon my canvass to set off and contrast the brighter tints{106} and nobler attributes of human nature. Whether in novel, drama or in poem, I love the mirror, that presents mankind in amiable lights ”

“ The radiant flashing of thine eyes is eloquent that thou art of kingly and not of servile stock. Beauty announces blood, and loveliness of soul glitters in the flash of the eyes. A keen glance betokens lordly birth, and it is plain that he whom fairness, that sure sign of nobleness, commends, is of no mean station. The outward alertness of thine eyes signifies a spirit of radiance within. Face vouches for race; and the lustre of forefathers is beheld in the brightness of the countenance. ”

“ Bright, who has taken lately to representing himself as, above all, a promoter of reason and of the simple natural truth of things, and his policy as a fostering of the growth of intelligence,—just the aims, as is well known, of culture also,—Mr. ”

“ The first Atlantic cable gave me the happiness and privilege of meeting and working with the late Sir Charles Bright. He was the engineer of this great undertaking—full of vigor, full of enthusiasm. We were shipmates on the Agamemnon on the ever-memorable expedition of 1858, during which we were out of sight of land for thirty-three days. To Sir C. Bright’s vigor, earnestness, and enthusiasm was due the successful laying of the cable. ”

“ So do the shadows of our own desires stand between us and our better angels, and thus their brightness is eclipsed. ”

“ What would the rose with all her pride be worth,
Were there no sun to call her brightness forth? ”