Learn of the little nautilus to sail,
Spread the thin oar, and catch the driving gale.
Essay on Man, Epistle III. A. POPE.
On the great streams the ships may go
About men's business to and fro.
But I, the egg-shell pinnace, sleep
On crystal waters ankle-deep:
I, whose diminutive design,
Of sweeter cedar, pithier pine,
Is fashioned on so frail a mould,
A hand may launch, a hand withhold:
I, rather, with the leaping trout
Wind, among lilies, in and out;
I, the unnamed, inviolate.
Green, rustic rivers navigate.
The Canoe Speaks. R.L. STEVENSON.
Row us forth! Unfurl thy sail!
What care we for tempest blowing?
Let us kiss the blustering gale!
Let us breast the waters flowing!
Though the North rush cold and loud,
Love shall warm and make us merry;
Though the waves all weave a shroud,
We will dare the Humber ferry!
The Humber Ferry. B.W. PROCTER (Barry Cornwall).
BOOKS.
Dreams, books, are each a world; and books, we know,
Are a substantial world, both pure and good;
Round these, with tendrils strong as flesh and blood,
Our pastime and our happiness will grow.
Personal Talk. W. WORDSWORTH.
Silent companions of the lonely hour,
Friends, who can alter or forsake.
Who for inconstant roving have no power,
And all neglect, perforce, must calmly take.
To My Books. MRS. C. NORTON.
Some books are drenched sands,
On which a great soul's wealth lies all in heaps,
Like a wrecked argosy.
A Life Drama. ALEX. SMITH.
Worthy books
Are not companions—they are solitudes:
We lose ourselves in them and all our cares.
Festus: Sc. A Village Feast. Evening. P.J. BAILEY.
'Tis pleasant, sure, to see one's name in print;
A book's a book, although there's nothing in 't.
English Bards and Scotch Reviewers. LORD BYRON.
Golden volumes! richest treasures,
Objects of delicious pleasures!
You my eyes rejoicing please,
You my hands in rapture seize!
Brilliant wits and musing sages,
Lights who beamed through many ages!
Left to your conscious leaves their story,
And dared to trust you with their glory;
And now their hope of fame achieved,
Dear volumes! you have not deceived!
Curiosities of Literature. Libraries. I. DISRAELI.