Fate sits on these dark battlements and frowns, And as the portal opens to receive me, A voice in hollow murmurs through the courts Tells of a nameless deed.

What is acquired without labor is seldom worth acquiring at all.

Ignorance of true pleasure more frequently than temptation to that which is false, leads to vice.

The world ridicules a passion which it seldom feels; its scenes, and its interests, distract the mind, deprave the taste, corrupt the heart, and love cannot exist in a heart that has lost the meek dignity of innocence.

One act of beneficence, one act of real usefulness, is worth all the abstract sentiment in the world.

If the weak hand, that has recorded this tale, has, by its scenes, beguiled the mourner of one hour of sorrow, or, by its moral, taught him to sustain it - the effort, however humble, has not been vain, nor is the writer unrewarded.

When justice happens to oppose prejudice, we are apt to believe it virtuous to disobey her.