Gard'ner, for telling me these news of woe,
Pray God the plants thou graft'st may never grow.

Gard'ner, for telling me these news of woe,
Pray God the plants thou graft'st may never grow.

"Oh! what a vile and abject thing is man unless he can erect
himself above humanity." Here is a read more

"Oh! what a vile and abject thing is man unless he can erect
himself above humanity." Here is a bon mot and a useful desire,
but equally absurd. For to make the handful bigger than the
hand, the armful bigger then the arm, and to hope to stride
further than the stretch of our legs, is impossible and
monstrous. . . . He may lift himself if God lend him His hand of
special grace; he may lift himself . . . by means wholly
celestial. It is for our Christian religion, and not for his
Stoic virtue, to pretend to this divine and miraculous
metamorphosis.

The gem cannot be polished without friction, not a man perfected without trials.

The gem cannot be polished without friction, not a man perfected without trials.

Man seems the only growth that dwindles here.

Man seems the only growth that dwindles here.

Then bless thy secret growth, nor catch
At noise, but thrive unseen and dumb;
Keep clean, be read more

Then bless thy secret growth, nor catch
At noise, but thrive unseen and dumb;
Keep clean, be as fruit, earn life, and watch,
Till the white-wing'd reapers come.

'Tis thus the mercury of man is fix'd,
Strong grows the virtue with his nature mix'd.

'Tis thus the mercury of man is fix'd,
Strong grows the virtue with his nature mix'd.

We grow because we struggle, we learn and overcome.

We grow because we struggle, we learn and overcome.

We find comfort among those who agree with us-- growth among those who don't.

We find comfort among those who agree with us-- growth among those who don't.

Arts and sciences are not cast in a mould, but are found and
perfected by degrees, by often handling read more

Arts and sciences are not cast in a mould, but are found and
perfected by degrees, by often handling and polishing, as bears
leisurely lick their clubs into shape.