Like leaves on trees the race of man is found,
Now green in youth, now withering on the ground: 
Another race the following spring supplies;
They fall successive, and successive rise.
Iliad, Bk.  VI.  HOMER. Trans. of POPE.

Know then thyself, presume not God to scan;
The proper study of mankind is man.
* * * * *
Created half to rise, and half to fall;
Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all;
Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurled;
The glory, jest, and riddle of the world!
Essay on Man, Epistle II.  A. POPE.

MANNERS.

                        Those graceful acts,
   Those thousand decencies that daily flow
   From all her words and actions.
Paradise Lost, Bk.  VIII.  MILTON.

   Of manners gentle, of affections mild;
   In wit a man, simplicity a child.

* * * * *

   A safe companion and an easy friend
   Unblamed through life, lamented in thy end.
 Epitaph on Gay.  A. POPE.

   Her air, her manners, all who saw admired;
   Courteous though coy, and gentle though retired: 
   The joy of youth and health her eyes displayed,
   And ease of heart her every look conveyed.
Parish Register, Pt.  II.  G. CRABBE.

Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar. Hamlet, Act i.  Sc. 3.  SHAKESPEARE.

  What would you have? your gentleness shall force
  More than your force move us to gentleness.
As You Like It, Act ii.  Sc. 7.  SHAKESPEARE.

  ’Tis not enough your counsel still be true;
  Blunt truths more mischief than nice falsehoods do.
Essay on Criticism, Pt.  III.  A. POPE.

   Fit for the mountains and the barb’rous caves,
   Where manners ne’er were preached.
Twelfth Night, Act iv.  Sc. 1.  SHAKESPEARE.

   He was the mildest mannered man
   That ever scuttled ship or cut a throat.
Don Juan, Canto III.  LORD BYRON.

   Men’s evil manners live in brass; their virtues
   We write in water.
King Henry VIII., Act iv.  Sc. 2.  SHAKESPEARE.

   Manners with fortunes, humors turn with climes,
   Tenets with books, and principles with times.
Moral Essays, Epistle I.  A. POPE.

   Plain living and high thinking are no more. 
   The homely beauty of the good old cause
   Is gone; our peace, our fearful innocence. 
   And pure religion breathing household laws.
Written in London, September, 1802.  W. WORDSWORTH.

   Eye Nature’s walks, shoot folly as it flies,
   And catch the manners living as they rise;
   Laugh where we must, be candid where we can,
   But vindicate the ways of God to man.
Essay on Man, Epistle I.  A. POPE.

MATRIMONY.