A poet that fails in writing becomes often a morose critic; the weak and insipid white wine makes at length excellent vinegar.
Of all the cants which are canted in this canting would—though the cant of hypocrites may be the worst—the cant of criticism is the most tormenting.
Sterne—Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy. (Orig. ed.) Vol. III. Ch. XII. "The cant of criticism." Borrowed from Sir Joshua Reynolds, Idler, Sept. 29, 1759.
For, poems read without a name,
We justly praise, or justly blame;
And critics have no partial views,
Except they know whom they abuse.
And since you ne'er provoke their spite,
Depend upon't their judgment's right.
Swot—On Poetry. L. 129.
For since he would sit on a Prophet's seat,
As a lord of the Human soul,
We needs must scan him from head to feet,
Were it but for a wart or a mole.
| author = Tennyson
| work = The Dead Prophet. St. XIV.
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{{Hoyt quote
| num = 5
| text = Critics are like brushers of noblemen's clothes.
Attributed to Sm Henry Wotton by Bacon.
Apothegms. No. 64.
CROCUS
Crocus
Welcome, wild harbinger of spring!
To this small nook of earth;
Feeling and fancy fondly cling
Round thoughts which owe their birth
To thee, and to the humble spot
Where chance has fixed thy lowly lot.
Bernard Barton—To a Crocus.
Hail to the King of Bethlehem,
Who weareth in his diadem
The yellow crocus for the gem
Of his authority!
| author = Longfellow
| work = Christus. Pt. II. The Golden
Legend. IX.
CROW
To shoot at crows is powder flung away.
Gay. Ep. IV. Last line.
Only last night he felt deadly sick, and, after
a great deal of pain, two black crows flew out of
his mouth and took wing from the room.
Cesta Romanorum—Tale XLV.
Even the blackest of them all, the crow,
Renders good service as your man-at-arms,
Crushing the beetle in his coat of mail,
And crying havoc on the slug and snail.
Loncifellow—Tales of a Wayside Inn. The
Poet's Tale. Birds of KiEingworth. St. 19.
n Light thickens; and the crow
Makes wing to the rooky wood.
Macbeth. Act III. Sc. 2. L. 49.
The crow doth sing as sweetly as the lark
When neither is attended.
Merchant of Venice. Act V. Sc. 1. L. 102.
As the many-winter^ crow that leads the clanging rookery home.
| author = Tennyson
| work = Lochsley Hall. St. 34.
CRUELTY
Man's inhumanity to man
Makes countless thousands mourn!
Burns—Man Was Made to Mourn.
| seealso = (See also Young)
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{{Hoyt quote
| num =
| text = <poem>Contre les rebelles c'est cruaute' que d'estre
humain, et humanity d'estre cruel.
It is cruelty to be humane to rebels, and
humanity is cruelty.
Attributed to Charles IX. According to M.
Fournter, an expression taken from a sermon Of CoRNEILLE MuTS, BiSHOP OF
BrrouTE. Used by Catherine de Medicis.
Detested sport,
That owes its pleasures to another's pain.
It is not linen you're wearing out,
But human creatures' lives.
Hood—Song of the Shirt.
Even bear-baiting was esteemed heathenish
and unchristian: the sport of it, not the inhumanity, gave offence.
Hume—History of England. Vol. I. Ch.
lxh.
| seealso = (See also Macaulay)
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{{Hoyt quote
| num =
| text = <poem>An angel with a trumpet said,
"Forever more, forever more,
The reign of violence is o'er!"
| author = Longfellow
| work = The Occuliation of Orion. St. 6.
Je voudrais bien voir la grimace qu'il fait a
cette heure sur cet echafaud.
I would love to see the grimace he [Marquis
de Cinq-Mars] is now making on the scaffold.
Louis XIIT. See Histoire de Louis XIII.
IV. P. 416.
Gaudensque viam fecisse ruina.
He rejoices to have made his way by ruin.
Lucan—Pharsalia. I. 150.
The Puritan hated bear-baiting, not because
it gave pain to the bear, but because it gave
pleasure to the spectators.
Macaulay—History of England. Vol.1. Ch.
II.
| seealso = (See also Hume)
| topic =
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{{Hoyt quote
| num =
| text = <poem>I must be cruei, only to be kind.
Hamlet. Act III. Sc. 4. L. 178.
