Our royal master saw with heedful eyes
The state of his two universities;
To one he sends a regiment, for why?
That learned body wanted loyalty.
To the other books he gave, as well discerning,
How much that loyal body wanted learning.
Ab uno disce omnes.
From one learn all.
Disce, puer, virtutem ex me, verumque laborem;
Fortunam ex aliis.
Learn, O youth, virtue from me and true labor; fortune from others.
Aut disce, aut discede; manet sors tertia, caedi.
Either learn, or depart; a third course is open to you, and that is, submit to be flogged.
Much learning shows how little mortals know,
Much wealth, how little worldings can enjoy.
Young—Night Thoughts. Night VI. L. 519.
Were man to live coeval with the sun,
The patriarch-pupil would be learning still.
Young—Night Thoughts. Night VII. L. 86.
LEE (River)
On this I ponder
Where'er I wander,
And thus grow fonder,
Sweet Cork, of thee,—
With thy bells of Shandon,
That sounds so grand on
The pleasant waters
Of the river Lee.
LEISURE
And leave us leisure to be good.
Gray—Hymn. Adversity. Sc. 3.
No blessed leisure for Love or Hope,
But only time for Grief.
Hood—The Song of the Shirt
Retired Leisure,
That in trim gardens takes his pleasure.
| author = Milton | work = Il Penseroso. L. 49.
Mend when thou canst; be better at thy leisure.
King Lear. Act II. Sc. 4. L. 232.
Leisure is pain; take off our chariot wheels,
How heavily we drag the load of life!
Blest leisure is our curse; like that of Cain,
It makes us wander, wander earth around
To fly that tyrant, thought.
Young—Night Thoughts. Night H. L. 125.
LEMON
My living in Yorkshire was so far out of the
way, that it was actually twelve miles from a lemon. Sydney Smith—Lady Holland's Memoir. Vol. I. P. 262. </poem>
LETTERS (See Post, Writing)
LEVEN (River)
On Leven's banks, while free to rove,
And tune the rural pipe to love,
I envied not the happiest swain
That ever trod, the Arcadian plain.
Pure stream! in whose transparent wave
My youthful limbs I wont to lave;
No torrents stain thy limpid source,
No rocks impede thy dimpling course,
That sweetly warbles o'er its bed,
With white, round, polish'd pebbles spread.
Smollett—Ode to Leven Water.
LIBERALITY
(See also Generosity, Gifts)
He that's liberal
To all alike, may do a good by chance, But never out of judgment.</poem>
Then gently scan your brother man,
Still gentler sister woman;
Tho' they may gang a kennin' wrang,
To step aside is human.
Burns—Address to the Unco Guid.
It is better to believe that a man does possess
good qualities than to assert that he does not.
Chinese Moral Maxims. Compiled by John
Francis Davis, F. R. S. China, 1823.
The liberal soul shall be made fat.
Proverbs. XI. 25.
Shall I say to Caesar
What you require of him? for he partly begs
To be desir'd to give. It much would please him,
That of his fortunes you should make a staff
To lean upon.
Antony and Cleopatra. Act III. Sc. 13. L. 67.
LIBERTY
A day, an hour, of virtuous liberty
Is worth a whole eternity in bondage.
<poem>L'arbre de la liberty ne croit qu'arrose' par le
sang des tyrans. The tree of liberty grows only when watered by the blood of tyrants.
But what is liberty without wisdom, and without virtue? It is the greatest of all possible evils; for it is folly, vice, and madness, without tuition or restraint.