Alone.

ALONE!-that worn-out word,

So idly spoken, and so coldly heard;

Yet all that poets sing, and grief hath known,

Of hopes laid waste, knells in that word-Alone!

LYTTON, The New Timon.
They are never ALONE that are accompanied with noble thoughts.
-Sir PHILIP SIDNEY, Arcadia.

Why should we faint and fear to live ALONE,
Since all alone, so Heaven has willed, we die,
Nor even the tenderest heart, and next our own,
Knows half the reasons why we smile and sigh.

KEBLE, Twenty-fourth Sunday after Trinity.

Ambassador.-An AMBASSADOR is an honest man sent to lie abroad for the commonwealth.-Sir H. WOTTON.

Ambition.-AMBITION hath one heel nail'd in hell,

Though she stretch her fingers to touch the heavens.—LILLY.

AMBITION is the mind's immodesty.—DAVENANT.

AMBITION, like a torrent, ne'er looks back

And is a swelling and the last affection

A high mind can put off; being both a rebel
Unto the soul and reason, and enforceth

All laws, all conscience, treads upon religion,

And offereth violence to nature's self.-BEN JONSON.
Banish the canker of AMBITIOUS thoughts.

SHAKESPERE, Henry VI.

I charge thee, fling away AMBITION:
By that sin fell the angels.—Ibid., Henry VIII.

I have no spur

To prick the sides of my intent; but only
Vaulting AMBITION, which o'erleaps itself,
And falls on the other side.-Ibid., Macbeth.

Lowliness is young AMBITION's ladder,
Whereto the climber-upward turns his face;
But when he once obtains the upmost round,
He then unto the ladder turns his back,
Looks in the clouds, scorning the base degrees
By which he did ascend.—Ibid., Julius Cæsar.

When that the poor have cried, Cæsar hath wept:
AMBITION should be made of sterner stuff.-Ibid.

66

men. I had most need of blessing, and AMEN Stuck in my throat.-Ibid., Macbeth.

Angel. The accusing spirit, which flew up to heaven's chancery with the oath, blushed as he gave it in; and the recording ANGEL, as he wrote it down, dropped a tear upon the word and blotted it out for ever.-STERNE, Tristram Shandy.

Angels. But, sad as ANGELS for the good man's sin,
Weep to record, and blush to give it in.

CAMPBELL, Pleasures of Hope.

ANGELS and ministers of grace, defend us!

SHAKESPERE, Hamlet.

ANGELS are bright still, though the brightest fell.

Ibid., Macbeth.

Thy purpose firm is equal to the deed:
Who does the best his circumstance allows,
Does well, acts nobly; ANGELS could no more.

YOUNG, Night Thoughts.

Angel-Visits.-Cease, every joy, to glimmer on my mind,
But leave-oh! leave the light of Hope behind!
What though my winged hours of bliss have been,
Like ANGEL-VISITS, few and far between.

CAMPBELL, Pleasures of Hope.

Angels' Visits.-How fading are the joys we dote upon !
Like apparitions seen and gone;

But those which soonest take their flight
Are the most exquisite and strong;
Like ANGELS' VISITS, short and bright,
Mortality's too weak to bear them long.

JOHN MORRIS, 1711, The Parting.

The good he scorn'd

Stalked off reluctant, like an ill-us'd ghost,
Not to return; or, if it did, in VISITS

Like those of ANGELS, short and far between.

BLAIR, The Grave. Anger.-ANGER is like a full hot horse; who, being allowed his way, self-mettle tires him.-SHAKESPERE, Henry VIII.

ANGER is the most impotent passion that accompanies the mind of man; it effects nothing it goes about; and hurts the man who is possessed by it more than any other against whom it is directed. -CLARENDON.

He carries ANGER as the flint bears fire;
Which, much enforced, shows a hasty spark,

And straight is cold again.-SHAKESPERE, Julius Cæsar.

Othello.

Men in rage strike those that wish them best.—Ibid., Angle.—I am, sir, a brother of the ANGLE.-WALTON, Angier. Angling. All that are lovers of virtue,

a-ANGLING.-Ibid.

be quiet, and go

ANGLING is somewhat like poetry, men are to be born so.—

Ibid.

Angling. We may say of ANGLING as Dr. Boteler said of strawberries, "Doubtless God could have made a better berry, but doubtless God never did:" and so, if I might be judge, God never did make a more calm, quiet, innocent recreation than angling.-Ibid.

Annals. If you have writ your ANNALS true, 'tis there,
That, like an eagle in a dove-cote, I

Flutter'd your Volscians in Corioli:

Alone I did it.-Boy !-SHAKESPERE, Coriolanus.

Nor grandeur hear with a disdainful smile

The short and simple ANNALS of the poor.-GRAY, Elegy.

Annie.-ANNIE of Tharaw, my light and my sun,
The threads of our two lives are woven in one.

LONGFELLOW, Annie of Tharaw.

Another, yet the same.-POPE, Dunciad, book iii. TICKELL, From a Lady in England. JOHNSON, Life of Dryden. DARWIN,

Botanic Garden, pt. i. canto 4, line 380. WORDSWORTH, The
Excursion, book ix. SCOTT, The Abbot, ch. 1.

Apoplexy.-A slight touch of APOPLEXY may be called a retaining fee on the part of death.-MENAGE.

Apothecary.—I do remember an APOTHECARY,

And hereabouts he dwells.—SHAKESPERE, Romeo and Juliet.
Applaud. I would APPLAUD thee to the very echo,
That should applaud again.—Ibid., Macbeth.

Apples. There's small choice in rotten APPLES.

Ibid., Taming of the Shrew.

While tumbling down the turbid stream,

Lord love us, how we APPLES swim !—D. MALLETT, Tyburn. Arabie.-Sabean odours from the spicy shore

Of ARABIE the blest.-MILTON, Paradise Lost.

Arch. Triumphal ARCH that fill'st the sky,
When storms prepare to part;

I ask not proud Philosophy

To teach me what thou art.

THOMAS CAMPBELL, To the Rainbow.

Arguing. In ARGUING, too, the parson own'd his skill,
For e'en though vanquished, he could argue still;
While words of learned length and thund'ring sound
Amazed the gazing rustics ranged around;
And still they gazed, and still the wonder grew
That one small head should carry all he knew.

GOLDSMITH, Deserted Village. Argument.-A knock-down ARGUMENT 'tis but a word and a blow. DRYDEN, Amphitryon.

It would be ARGUMENT for a week, laughter for a month, and a good jest for ever.- -SHAKESPERE, Henry IV.

Arm-chair.—I love it-I love it, and who shall dare
To chide me for loving that old ARM CHAIR!

ELIZA COOK, The Old Arm-Chair

A-roving. So we'll go no more A-ROVING
So late into the night.-BYRON, So we'll go.
Art.-ART may err, but Nature cannot miss.

DRYDEN, The Jock and Hon

And our hearts though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
Funeral marches to the grave.

LONGFELLOW, A Psalm of Life.

Artful Dodger.-A sobriquet of one of the characters in Dickens's "Oliver Twist." He is a young thief, and an adept in villainy. Ashes.-ASHES to ASHES.-Common Prayer.

ASHES to ASHES, dust to dust;

He is gone who seem'd so great.—
Gone; but nothing can bereave him
Of the force he made his own,
Being here, and we believe him
Something far advanced in State,
And that he wears a truer crown

Than any wreath that man can weave him.
Speak no more of his renown,

Lay your earthly fancies down,

And in the vast cathedral leave him,
God accept him, Christ receive him.

TENNYSON, Ode on the Duke of Wellington.

Asmodeus. [Heb. Ashmedai, the destroyer.] In the Jewish demonology, an evil spirit, the demon of vanity, or dress, called in the Talmud "king of the devils," whence some assume him to be identical with Beelzebub, and others with Azrael. In modern times, he has been jocularly spoken of as the destroying demon of matrimonial happiness.

Could the reader take an ASMODEUS' flight, and, waving open all roofs and privacies, look down from the roof of Notre Dame, what a Paris were it!-CARLYLE.

Aspect.

With grave
ASPECT he rose, and in his rising seemed
A pillar of state; deep on his front engraven
Deliberation sat, and public care;

And princely counsel in his face yet shone,
Majestic though in ruin. Sage he stood,

With Atlantean shoulders, fit to bear

The weight of mightiest monarchies; his look

Drew audience and attention still as night

Or summer's noontide air.-MILTON, Paradise Lost.

Ass.-Egregiously an Ass.-SHAKESPERE, Othello.

O that he were here to write me down, an ASS!

Assurance.-I'll make ASSURANCE double sure,
And take a bond of Fate.—Ibid., Macbeth.

Ibid., Much Ado.

Assyrian.-The ASSYRIAN came down like the wolf on the fold,
And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold.

BYRON, Destruction of Sennacherib.

Astronomer.-An undevout ASTRONOMER is mad.

YOUNG, Night Thoughts.

Atheist.-An ATHEIST's laugh's a poor exchange
For Deity offended!-BURNS, To a Young Friend.
By night an ATHEIST half believes a God.

YOUNG, Night Thoughts.

Athens. ATHENS, the eye of Greece, mother of arts
And eloquence.-MILTON, Paradise Regained.

Atticus.-Who but must laugh, if such a man there be?

Who would not weep, if ATTICUS were he ?-POPE, To Arbuthnot.

Auburn.-Sweet AUBURN! loveliest village of the plain.

GOLDSMITH, The Deserted Village.

Audience. Still govern thou my song,
Urania, and fit AUDIENCE find, though few.

MILTON, Paradise Lost.

Augean Stable.-Corruption or pollution of long standing. Augeas, King of Elis, had a stable large enough to contain three thousand oxen, which had not been cleaned for many years.

He hired Her

cules to clean it out in one day, which he accomplished by turning
the river Alpheus through it.

Author.-An AUTHOR! 'Tis a venerable name!
How few deserve it, and what numbers claim !
Unblest with sense above their peers refin'd,
Who shall stand up, dictators to mankind?
Nay, who dare shine, if not in virtue's cause?
That sole proprietor of just applause.

YOUNG, Night Thoughts.

Most AUTHORS steal their works, or buy;
Garth did not write his own Dispensary.

POPE, Essay on Criticism.

Choose an AUTHOR as you choose a friend.

Awake.—AWAKE, arise, or be for ever fallen!

Earl of RosCOMMON.

MILTON, Paradise Lost.