Give me that growth which some perchance deem sleep,
  Wherewith the steadfast coral-stems arise,
  Which, by the toil of gathering energies,
  Their upward way into clear sunshine keep
  Until, by Heaven’s sweetest influences,
  Slowly and slowly spreads a speck of green
  Into a pleasant island in the seas,
  Where, mid tall palms, the cane-roofed home is seen,
  And wearied men shall sit at sunset’s hour,
  Hearing the leaves and loving God’s dear power.
Sonnet VII.  J.R.  LOWELL.

A drainless shower
Of light is poesy:  ’t is the supreme of power;
’T is might half slumbering on its own right arm.
Sleep and Poetry.  J. KEATS.

For dear to gods and men is sacred song. 
Self-taught I sing:  by Heaven and Heaven alone,
The genuine seeds of poesy are sown.
Odyssey, Bk.  XXII.  HOMER. Trans. of POPE.

Still govern thou my song,
Urania, and fit audience find, though few.
Paradise Lost, Bk.  VII.  MILTON.

POLITICS.

The freeman casting, with unpurchased hand,
The vote that shakes the turrets of the land.
Poetry.  O.W.  HOLMES.

  A weapon that comes down as still
    As snowflakes fall upon the sod;
  But executes a freeman’s will,
    As lightning does the will of God: 
  And from its force, nor doors nor locks
  Can shield you;—­’t is the ballot-box.
A Word from a Petitioner.  J. PIERPONT.

  What is a Communist?  One who has yearnings
  For equal division of unequal earnings.
Epigram.  E. ELLIOTT.

Measures, not men, have always been my mark. The Good-natured Man, Act ii.  O. GOLDSMITH.

Coffee, which makes the politician wise,
And see through all things with his half shut eyes.
Rape of the Lock, Canto III.  A. POPE.

             Get thee glass eyes;
  And, like a scurvy politician, seem
  To see the things thou dost not.
King Lear, Act iv.  Sc. 6.  SHAKESPEARE.

Here and there some stern, high patriot stood,
Who could not get the place for which he sued.
Don Juan, Canto XIII.  LORD BYRON.

Get place and wealth; if possible, with grace;
If not, by any means get wealth and place.
Epistles of Horace, Epistle I.  A. POPE.

  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 winged insect, or the chrysalis
  It thrust aside with unreluctant foot.
Pursuit and Possession.  T.B.  ALDRICH.