O, that estates, degrees, and offices
Were not derived corruptly, and that clear honor
Were purchased by the merit of the wearer!
Merchant of Venice, Act ii. Sc. 9. SHAKESPEARE.
POSSESSION.
When I behold what pleasure is pursuit,
What life, what glorious eagerness it is,
Then mark how full possession falls from this,
How fairer seem the blossoms than the fruit,—
I am perplext, and often stricken mute,
Wondering which attained the higher bliss,
The wingèd insect, or the chrysalis
It thrust aside with unreluctant foot.
Pursuit and Possession. T.B. ALDRICH.
Bliss in possession will not last;
Remembered joys are never past;
At once the fountain, stream, and sea,
They were, they are, they yet shall be.
The Little Cloud. J. MONTGOMERY.
But 'midst the crowd, the hum, the shock of men,
To hear, to see, to feel, and to possess,
And roam along, the world's tired denizen,
With none who bless us, none whom we can bless.
Childe Harold, Canto II. LORD BYRON.
I die,—but first I have possessed,
And come what may, I have been blessed.
The Giaour. LORD BYRON.
POVERTY.
I am as poor as Job, my lord, but not so patient.
King Henry IV., Pt. II. Act i. Sc. 2. SHAKESPEARE.
Yon friendless man, at whose dejected eye
Th' unfeeling proud one looks, and passes by,
Condemned on penury's barren path to roam,
Scorned by the world, and left without a home.
Pleasures of Hope. T. CAMPBELL.
Through tattered clothes small vices do appear;
Robes and furred gowns hide all.
King Lear, Act iv. Sc. 6. SHAKESPEARE.