VIRTUE.
Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.—Philippians, iv. 8.
Giving all diligence add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge.—II. Peter, i. 5.
Heaven doth with us as we with torches do;
Not light them for themselves: for if our virtues
Did not go forth of us, ’t were all alike
As if we had them not.
Shakspere.
Tell faith it’s fled the city;
Tell how the country erreth;
Tell manhood, shakes of pity;
Tell virtue, least preferreth;
And if they do reply
Spare not to give the lie.
Sir W. Raleigh.
—Walls of brass resist not
A noble undertaking—nor can vice
Raise any bulwark to make good a place
Where virtue seeks to enter.
Fletcher.
Eternal Spirit! Thou who think’st not scorn
To make thyself a lowly habitant
In the mean cottage of the human breast
When purity has been thy harbinger:
Come then, and lead the virtues in Thy train;
Allot to each her office; ceaseless guard
Still let them bold around this earth-born heart,
And watch, with closest glance, its languid pulse.
John Hey.
Virtue’s no virtue whiles it lives secure;
When difficulty waits on ’t, then ’t is pure.
John Quarles.
Yet sometimes nations will decline so low
From virtue, which is reason, that no wrong
But justice, and some fatal course annexed,
Deprives them of their outward liberty,
Their inward lost.
Milton.
Life swarms with ills; the boldest are afraid;
Where, then, is safety for a tender maid?
Unfit for conflict, round beset with woes,
And man, whom least she fears, her worst of foes;
When kind, most cruel; when oblig’d the most,
The least obliging; and by favours lost.
Cruel by nature, they for kindness hate,
And scorn you for those ills themselves create:
If on your frame our sex a blot has thrown,
’Twill ever stick, through malice of your own.
Most hard! in pleasing your chief glory lies;
And yet from pleasing your chief dangers rise:
Then please the best; and know, for men of sense,
Your strongest charms are native innocence;
Arts on the mind, like paint upon the face,
Fright him that’s worth your love from your embrace,
In simple manners, all the secret lies;
Be kind and virtuous, you’ll be blest and wise.
Young.
Our hearts ne’er bow but to superior worth,
Nor ever fail of their allegiance there;
Fools, indeed, drop the man in their account,
And vote the mantle into majesty.
Shall man be proud to wear his livery,
And souls in ermine scorn a soul without?
Can place or lessen us, or aggrandise?
Pigmies are pigmies still, though perched on hills,
And pyramids are pyramids in vales;
Each man makes his own stature, builds himself:
Virtue alone outlives the pyramids;
Her monuments shall last when Egypt’s fall.
Young.
I saw the virtuous man contend
With life’s unnumbered woes;
And he was poor—without a friend,
Press’d by a thousand foes.
I saw the passion’s pliant slave
In gallant trim, and gay;
His course was pleasure’s placid wave,
And I was caught in folly’s snare,
And join’d her giddy train,
But found her soon the nurse of care
And punishment, and pain.
There surely is some guiding pow’r
Which rightly suffers wrong,
Gives vice to bloom its little hour,
But virtue late and long.
Camoens.
O Thou! by whose almighty nod the scale
Of empire rises, or alternate falls,
Send forth the saving virtues round the land
In bright patrol: white peace and social love;
The tender-looking charity, intent
On gentle deeds, and shedding tears through smiles;
Undaunted truth, and dignity of mind:
Courage composed and keen; sound temperance,
Healthful in heart and look; clear chastity,
With blushes reddening as she moves along,
Disordered at the deep regard she draws;
Rough industry; activity untired,
With copious life informed, and all awake.
Thomson.
Virtue with peculiar charms appears
Crowned with the garland of life’s blooming years.
Cowper.
While virtue lends a zest to joy,
And bliss to rapture warms,
Our very tears she turns to smiles,
And every pang disarms.
But vice her foul circean cup
May medicate in vain:
E’en in her mirth some sorrow lurks,
In all her pleasures, pain.
Since this, with voice from heav’n, proclaims
That He that rules above,
Doth on the side of virtue stand,
Let fear be lost in love.
C. C. Colton.
Know thou this truth, (enough for man to know,)
Virtue alone is happiness below.
Pope.
Virtue, the strength and beauty of the soul,
Is the best gift of heaven: a happiness
That e’en above the smiles and frowns of fate
Exalts great nature’s favourites; a wealth
That ne’er encumbers, nor can be transferred.
Riches are oft by guilt and baseness earned,
Or dealt by chance to shield a lucky knave;
Or throw a cruel sunshine on a fool.
But for one end, one much neglected use,
Are riches worth your care: for nature’s wants
Are few, and without opulence supplied.
This noble end is to produce the soul;
To show the virtues in their fairest light;
To make humanity the minister
Of bounteous Providence; and lend the breast
That generous luxury the Gods enjoy.
Dr. Armstrong.
Virtue in itself commands its happiness,
Of every outward object independent.
Francis.
Virtue
Stands like the sun, and all which rolls around
Drinks life, and light, and glory, from her aspect.
Byron.
The discipline of slavery is unknown
Among us,—hence the more do we require
The discipline of virtue; order else
Cannot subsist, nor confidence, nor peace—
Thus duties rising out of good possest,
And prudent caution needful to avert
Impending evil, equally require,
That the whole people should be taught and trained.
So shall licentiousness and black resolve
Be rooted out, and virtuous habits take
Their place; and genuine piety descend
Like an inheritance, from age to age.
Wordsworth.