I must lay down the law as I understand it, and as I read it in books of authority.

Stimulate the heart to love and the mind to be early accurate, and all other virtues will rise of their own accord, and all vices will be thrown out.

To leave no interval between the sentence and the fulfillment of it doth beseem God only, the Immutable!

No voice; but oh - the silence sank Like music on my heart.

A maxim is a conclusion upon observation of matters of fact, and is merely speculative; a "principle" carries knowledge within itself, and is prospective.

Ignorance seldom vaults into knowledge.

Creation rather than painting, or if painting, yet such, and with such co-presence of the whole picture flash'd at once upon the eye, as the sun paints in a camera obscura. (Describing his poetic ideal, 1817)