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In order to become successful, you must only promise what you can deliver and deliver more than what you've promised.

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The Promise

How time will heal
Make me forget
You promised me
Time will heal
Make me forget
You promised me
Love will save us all
And time will heal
You promised me...
How love will save
Make me forget
You promised me
Love will save
Make me forget
You promised me
Time will heal us all
And love will save
You promised me...
I trusted you
I wanted your words
Believed in you
I needed your words
Time will heal
Make me forget
And love will save us all
You promised me another wish
Another way
You promised me another dream
Another day
You promised me another time
You promised me another life
You promised me...
So I swallowed the shame and I waited
I buried the blame and I waited
Choked back years of memories...
I pushed down the pain and I waited
Trying to forget...
You promised me another wish
Another way
You promised me another dream
Another day
You promised me another time
You promised me...
Another lie
Oh you promised me...
You promised me...you promised me
And I waited...and I waited...and I waited...
And I'm still waiting...

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Thats The Way

I know you see me watchin
Although youre tryin to play it
Like you dont
When I know you do
Youve got the every want thing
That kind of every need thing
Youre what I want
So come give it up
Yeah I wont stop til I get what I want
So what am I to do
cause what I want is you
Baby, stop and think
What you and I could be
Together I know we
Can be perfectly complete
Baby, I can give you anything
If you promise to be with me
I promise I can make you happy
Thats the way our love should be
No one could love you better anyway
Youll never find another close to me
I promise I can make you happy
And thats the way our love should be
Why are you tryin to deny
Me of the lovin thats mine
Just let it go
Let me take control
Boy, I got just what you want
And all the love you need
Once you grab a hold
You wont let me go
I wont stop til I get what I want
So what am I to do
cause what I want is you
Baby, stop and think
What you and I could be
Together I know we
Can be perfectly complete
Baby, I can give you anything
If you promise to be with me
I promise I can make you happy
Thats the way our love should be
No one could love you better anyway
Youll never find another close to me
I promise I can make you happy
And thats the way our love should be
Baby, I can give you anything
If you promise to be with me
I promise I can make you happy
Thats the way our love should be

[...] Read more

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Face To Face

Anderson/squire/howe/white/sherwood/khoroshev
Here we are trying to mend all the broken hearts
In a world where the pain is the fear
Aint no doubt theres a method to madness here
Set your clock to the start of a brand new year
Shine your heart to the universe and get the news
Not alone never have been, never will be
See the truth, not to mention the promise made
See them all, see them all high on judar rhythm
We began at the very first spring
How the promise will come when the promise is made
We will sing at the very first spring
That the promise will come when the promise is made
Promise is made, promise is made
Shake me up, take me up
Face to face
Lift me up, shake me up
Face to face
Make me real, make me longing to see you smile
Shall we dancing, shall we be the dancing down under
In this life of lives, are we ready to take the chance
Moving to the rhythm, here at last to
Believe
To believe
We began at the first real spring
How the promise will come when the promise is made
We will sing at the very first spring
That the promise will come when the promise is made
We began at the first real spring - ya
We will sing at the very first spring - ya
We began at the first real spring
We will sing at the very first spring
How the promise will come when the promise is made
Promise is made, promise is made
We began at the first real spring
That the promise will come when the promise is made
We will sing at the very first spring
That the promise will come when the promise is made
Promise is made, promise is made
Shake it up, take me up
Face to face
Face to face
Face to face

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Face To Face

Anderson/squire/howe/white/sherwood/khoroshev
Here we are trying to mend all the broken hearts
In a world where the pain is the fear
Aint no doubt theres a method to madness here
Set your clock to the start of a brand new year
Shine your heart to the universe and get the news
Not alone never have been, never will be
See the truth, not to mention the promise made
See them all, see them all high on judar rhythm
We began at the very first spring
How the promise will come when the promise is made
We will sing at the very first spring
That the promise will come when the promise is made
Promise is made, promise is made
Shake me up, take me up
Face to face
Lift me up, shake me up
Face to face
Make me real, make me longing to see you smile
Shall we dancing, shall we be the dancing down under
In this life of lives, are we ready to take the chance
Moving to the rhythm, here at last to
Believe
To believe
We began at the first real spring
How the promise will come when the promise is made
We will sing at the very first spring
That the promise will come when the promise is made
We began at the first real spring - ya
We will sing at the very first spring - ya
We began at the first real spring
We will sing at the very first spring
How the promise will come when the promise is made
Promise is made, promise is made
We began at the first real spring
That the promise will come when the promise is made
We will sing at the very first spring
That the promise will come when the promise is made
Promise is made, promise is made
Shake it up, take me up
Face to face
Face to face
Face to face

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No, No, No

No!!
Let me take my scarf off,
No, no, no, yes, yes, yes.
Dont help me, (help me)
I can do it and you know it.
Dont touch me, (touch me)
I dont like it.
Let me take my blouse off,
No, no, no, yes, yes, yes.
Dont help me, (help me)
I can do it and you know it.
Dont touch me, (touch me)
I dont like it.
You promised me, you promised me,
You promised me, you promised me.
I dont remember what you promised,
I know you didnt keep it.
Let me take my pants off,
No, no, no, yes, yes, yes.
Dont hold me, (hold me)
I dont want it.
Youre thinking of rock hudson when we do it. (lets do it!)
Let me take my ring off,
No, no, no, yes, yes, yes.
Dont do it, (do it!)
I cant do it,
Im seeing broken glass when we do it. (do it!)
You promised me, you promised me,
You promised me, you promised me.
I dont remember what we promised,
But I know we didnt keep it.
You promised me, you promised me,
You promised me, you promised me.
I dont remember what we promised,
But I miss you!

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No, No, No/a Little Story

No!!
Let me take my scarf off,
No, no, no, yes, yes, yes.
Dont help me, (help me)
I can do it and you know it.
Dont touch me, (touch me)
I dont like it.
Let me take my blouse off,
No, no, no, yes, yes, yes.
Dont help me, (help me)
I can do it and you know it.
Dont touch me, (touch me)
I dont like it.
You promised me, you promised me,
You promised me, you promised me.
I dont remember what you promised,
I know you didnt keep it.
Let me take my pants off,
No, no, no, yes, yes, yes.
Dont hold me, (hold me)
I dont want it.
Youre thinking of rock hudson when we do it. (lets do it!)
Let me take my ring off,
No, no, no, yes, yes, yes.
Dont do it, (do it!)
I cant do it,
Im seeing broke glass when we do it. (do it!)
You promised me, you promised me,
You promised me, you promised me.
I dont remember what we promised,
But I know we didnt keep it.
You promised me, you promised me,
You promised me, you promised me.
I dont remember what we promised,
But I miss you!
- once there was this little boy who asked his father,
Would you tell me that old, old story?
Once there was this little boy who asked his father,
Would you tell me that old, old story?
Once there was this little boy and he went to...
- mummy...you should remember this more because dyou know why?
- why?
- I learnt it from my daddy, you know.
- umm-umm.
- hah-hah.
- once there was this little boy who asked his father
To tell him that old, old, old, old, old, old story.
Once upon a time there was this little boy who said,
Would you tell me that old, old story?
Once upon...

[...] Read more

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Edward Bulwer-Lytton

The Land of Promise: a Fable

I.

A pilgrim folk, o'er leagues of pathless sand
Long journeying patiently from far away,
Lured by the promise of a fairer land,
Reach'd ere the close of one eventful day
The craggy shore of a capacious stream:
And lo! the Promised Land before them lay
All in a golden sunset, whose last gleam
Reveal'd between the rovers and their rest
No barrier save that river's bridgeless breast.


II.

Each sufferer, sick and footsore from the waste,
Hail'd with reviving hope the blissful sight.
About the river-beach they pitch'd in haste
Their evening tents, and roam'd in dreams all night
The Land of Promise. At the dawn, however,
The signal trumpet sounded, summoning
The tribe to council. For that rock-bound river
Was broad, and deep, and rapid. The first thing
On which their pilgrim parliament decided
Was to preserve intact, to a community
Whose best opinions might be much divided,
The necessary strength of social unity.
And so it ruled that they should all agree
To recognize as final the authority
Of whatsoever plan might chance to be
Adopted by the vote of the majority.


III.

Scarce was this salutary rule laid down,
Ere one brisk leader of the emigration
(Whose dauntless spirit was to all well known)
Sprang forward with a shout of exultation;
And, from the shoulder of the stony shore
Pointing where every gaze instinctive turn'd,
"Brothers," he cried, "procrastinate no more!
The Promised Land, long arduously earn'd,
Before us lies. Why linger, then, the brave?
What need of projects and of plans? To me
Nature hard muscles and a man's heart gave,
Nor need I more to grasp the good I see.
Forward! Who follows? Fate befriends the bold!"
Without a pause he plunged into the wave
That 'twixt the wanderers and their wishes roll'd;

[...] Read more

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Prince Hohenstiel-Schwangau, Saviour of Society

Epigraph

Υδραν φονεύσας, μυρίων τ᾽ ἄλλων πόνων
διῆλθον ἀγέλας . . .
τὸ λοίσθιον δὲ τόνδ᾽ ἔτλην τάλας πόνον,
. . . δῶμα θριγκῶσαι κακοῖς.

I slew the Hydra, and from labour pass'd
To labour — tribes of labours! Till, at last,
Attempting one more labour, in a trice,
Alack, with ills I crowned the edifice.

You have seen better days, dear? So have I —
And worse too, for they brought no such bud-mouth
As yours to lisp "You wish you knew me!" Well,
Wise men, 't is said, have sometimes wished the same,
And wished and had their trouble for their pains.
Suppose my Œdipus should lurk at last
Under a pork-pie hat and crinoline,
And, latish, pounce on Sphynx in Leicester Square?
Or likelier, what if Sphynx in wise old age,
Grown sick of snapping foolish people's heads,
And jealous for her riddle's proper rede, —
Jealous that the good trick which served the turn
Have justice rendered it, nor class one day
With friend Home's stilts and tongs and medium-ware,—
What if the once redoubted Sphynx, I say,
(Because night draws on, and the sands increase,
And desert-whispers grow a prophecy)
Tell all to Corinth of her own accord.
Bright Corinth, not dull Thebes, for Lais' sake,
Who finds me hardly grey, and likes my nose,
And thinks a man of sixty at the prime?
Good! It shall be! Revealment of myself!
But listen, for we must co-operate;
I don't drink tea: permit me the cigar!
First, how to make the matter plain, of course —
What was the law by which I lived. Let 's see:
Ay, we must take one instant of my life
Spent sitting by your side in this neat room:
Watch well the way I use it, and don't laugh!
Here's paper on the table, pen and ink:
Give me the soiled bit — not the pretty rose!
See! having sat an hour, I'm rested now,
Therefore want work: and spy no better work
For eye and hand and mind that guides them both,
During this instant, than to draw my pen
From blot One — thus — up, up to blot Two — thus —
Which I at last reach, thus, and here's my line
Five inches long and tolerably straight:

[...] Read more

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I'll Do My Best To Deliver

Ask me for what you want.
Just ask me,
Ask me.
And make it anything,
You need...
From me.

Ask me for what you want.
Ask me for what you need,
And I'll do my best to deliver.
Ask me.
Just ask me.

Ask me for what you want.
Just ask me.
Ask me.
Ask me for anything,
And I will fullfill...
That need.

Ask me for what you want.
Ask me for what you need,
And I'll do my best to deliver.
Ask me.
Just ask me.
And I'll do my best to deliver.
Ask me.
Just ask me.

Oh ask me for what you want.
Ask me for what you need,
And I'll do my best to deliver.
Ask me.
Just ask me.
And I will do my best to deliver.
Ask me.
Just ask me.
And I'll do my best to deliver.
Ask me.
Just ask me.
And I will do my best to deliver.

Just ask me for what you want.
Just ask me for what you need,
And I will do my best to deliver.

Come thunderstorms, rain or shine...
That pressure you have will be taken right off your mind.
I will do my best to deliver.
Just ask me...

[...] Read more

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A Promise to Keep This Secret

A promise to keep this secret,
Is a hard job.
A promise to keep discreet,
Is just so hard.

A promise to keep this secret,
Is a hard job.
A promise to keep discreet,
Is just so hard.

Why would somebody have an elicit affair?
With a promise to keep this secret,
Is a hard job.
And do it while sneaking around,
In the clear open air?
A promise to keep discreet,
Is just so hard.

A friend can be a friend to another,
Until the end.
But a friend can not be trusted,
When a cheating begins.

A promise to keep this secret,
Is a hard job.
A promise to keep discreet,
Is just so hard.

And a friend can't be expected to defend a friend.
When that friend is also 'friend',
To those who swap and cheat on spouses...
Of,
Other friends!
Oh.

A promise to keep this secret,
Is a hard job.
A promise to keep discreet,
Is just so hard.

A promise to keep this secret,
Is a hard job.
A promise to keep discreet,
Is just so hard.

When those swapping spouses sneak from houses,
Living just next door???
Keeping this a secret is a hard job.

When those swapping spouses sneak from houses...

[...] Read more

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I Promise You

i would walk through the moon and the sun just to be with you i promise.
I promise to be there for you in all of your times of joy and sorrow.
I promise to climb the highest mountain and swim the deapest ocean for you alone.I promise to make a new memory with you each and every day with you.I Promise to cry a million tears and walk a million miles to be with you.I promise to live and care for you without change.I promise to do anything for you just to see the beauty of your ravishing smile.I promise to find a new way to see fires of passion burning.I would buy a thousand rose for you just to se you smile i promise.I promise to be the best dad to our children.I will laugh with you, i will fight with you, i will share the same breath with you i promise.I promise never to steal, lie, or cheat.But if i'll steal, i promise to steal away your sorrows.And if i'll lie, i promise to lie with you all thd nights of my life.And if i'll cheat, i promise to cheat your death, because i couldn't live a day without you.I promise you.

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Promises

Two hearts that shouldnt
Talk to each other become close
In a town much like a prison cell
People speak our names
On the street in hushed tones
Oh the stories theyd tell
If anyone would listen
You come from a town where
People dont bother saying hello
Unless somebodys born or dies
And I come from a place where they
Drag your hopes through the mud
Because their own dreams are all dying
And when we walk down the street
The wind sings our name in rebel songs
The sounds of the night should make us anxious
But its much to late when the fear is gone
I will meet you in the next life, I promise you
Where we can be together, I promise you
I will wait till then in heaven, I promise you
I promise, I promise
Theres so many fighting
To get past the pearly gates
But nobody ever wants to die or get saved
Their intentions arent that good
And I can smell the asphalt
Thats their personal road to hell being paved
And when we walk down the street
The wind sings our name in rebel songs
But its much to late when the fear is gone
I will meet you in the next life, I promise you
Where we can be together, I promise you
I will wait till then in heaven, I promise you
I promise, I promise
Solo - pitrelli / solo - mustaine
I will meet you in the next life, I promise you
Where we can be together, I promise you
I will wait till then in heaven, I promise you
I promise, I promise
String arrangement - suzie katayama

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Solomon on the Vanity of the World, A Poem. In Three Books. - Power. Book III.

The Argument


Solomon considers man through the several stages and conditions of life, and concludes, in general, that we are all miserable. He reflects more particularly upon the trouble and uncertainty of greatness and power; gives some instances thereof from Adam down to himself; and still concludes that All Is Vanity. He reasons again upon life, death, and a future being; finds human wisdom too imperfect to resolve his doubts; has recourse to religion; is informed by an angel what shall happen to himself, his family, and his kingdom, till the redemption of Israel; and, upon the whole, resolves to submit his inquiries and anxieties to the will of his Creator.


Come then, my soul: I call thee by that name,
Thou busy thing, from whence I know I am;
For, knowing that I am, I know thou art,
Since that must needs exist which can impart:
But how thou camest to be, or whence thy spring,
For various of thee priests and poets sing.

Hearest thou submissive, but a lowly birth,
Some secret particles of finer earth,
A plain effect which Nature must beget,
As motion orders, and as atoms meet,
Companion of the body's good or ill,
From force of instinct more than choice of will,
Conscious of fear or valour, joy or pain,
As the wild courses of the blood ordain;
Who, as degrees of heat and cold prevail,
In youth dost flourish, and with age shalt fail,
Till, mingled with thy partner's latest breath,
Thou fliest, dissolved in air and lost in death.

Or, if thy great existence would aspire
To causes more sublime, of heavenly fire
Wert thou a spark struck off, a separate ray,
Ordain'd to mingle with terrestrial clay,
With it condemn'd for certain years to dwell,
To grieve its frailties, and its pains to feel,
To teach it good and ill, disgrace or fame,
Pale it with rage, or redden it with shame,
To guide its actions with informing care,
In peace to judge, to conquer in the war;
Render it agile, witty, valiant, sage,
As fits the various course of human age,
Till, as the earthly part decays and falls,
The captive breaks her prison's mouldering walls,
Hovers awhile upon the sad remains,
Which now the pile or sepulchre contains,
And thence, with liberty unbounded, flies,
Impatient to regain her native skies?

Whate'er thou art, where'er ordain'd to go,
(Points which we rather may dispute than know)
Come on, thou little inmate of this breast,
Which for thy sake from passions'l divest
For these, thou say'st, raise all the stormy strife,

[...] Read more

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Deliver Me

deliver me...
from the fury, the noise,
and the roar of the wheel...
deliver me...
from my own insecurities,
my unconscious greed,
and my self driven fears.
deliver me...
from my conceptual understanding,
my limited knowledge,
and my worship of knowledge.
deliver me...
from all anger and hatred
in whatever disguise...
deliver me...
from being driven by
mouth and stomach unchecked,
from what i think i need.
deliver me..
from my countless mistakes,
and the excuses i make!
deliver me...
from any kind of pride
that closes the open hand!
deliver me...
from any sense of self
that would seperate and divide.
deliver me...
from laziness and tiredness,
from bitterness and lonliness.
deliver me...
from all forms of apathy,
and the want to possess...
deliver me...
and bring me to realize myself!

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I Promise

I won't run away no more, I promise
Even when I get bored, I promise
Even when you lock me out, I promise
I say my prayers every night, I promise
I don't wish that I'm strict, I promise
The tantrums and the chilling chats, I promise
Even when the ship is wrecked, I promise
Tie me to the rotten deck, I promise
I won't fool around no more, I promise
Even when I get bored, I promise
Even when you lock me out, I promise
I say my prayers every night, I promise
I won't fool around no more, I promise

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Can't you see it?

You ask me where the love is
But you don't realize it's everywhere
You ask me where our dreams are
But you don't realize it's right in front of us
You ask for the promise
But you don't realize that we already have it
You ask me where the faith is
But you don't realize that everything has faith

Can't you see the love beside us?
Can't you see the dreams in front?
Don't you know the promise is in our hearts?
Don't you know that we have faith?

You ask for things we already have
Where is the love?
Where is our dreams?
Where is the peace?
Where is the promise?
Where is the faith?

Can't you see the love beside us?
Can't you see the dreams in front?
Don't you know the promise is in our hearts?
Don't you know that we have faith?


Can't you see that it's everywhere?
Can't you see the happiness?
Can't you see the peacefulness?
Or are you too busy
with looking at the bad things
To see the good?
When you look at the bad things
That's all you get.

Can't you see the love beside us?
Can't you see the dreams in front?
Don't you know the promise is in our hearts?
Don't you know that we have faith?

You should be saying
I can see the love
I can see the dreams
I can see the promise
I can see the faith
I can see the peace

Can't you see the love beside us?
Can't you see the dreams in front?

[...] Read more

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The Interpretation of Nature and

I.

MAN, being the servant and interpreter of Nature, can do and understand so much and so much only as he has observed in fact or in thought of the course of nature: beyond this he neither knows anything nor can do anything.


II.

Neither the naked hand nor the understanding left to itself can effect much. It is by instruments and helps that the work is done, which are as much wanted for the understanding as for the hand. And as the instruments of the hand either give motion or guide it, so the instruments of the mind supply either suggestions for the understanding or cautions.

III.

Human knowledge and human power meet in one; for where the cause is not known the effect cannot be produced. Nature to be commanded must be obeyed; and that which in contemplation is as the cause is in operation as the rule.

IV.

Towards the effecting of works, all that man can do is to put together or put asunder natural bodies. The rest is done by nature working within.

V.

The study of nature with a view to works is engaged in by the mechanic, the mathematician, the physician, the alchemist, and the magician; but by all (as things now are) with slight endeavour and scanty success.

VI.

It would be an unsound fancy and self-contradictory to expect that things which have never yet been done can be done except by means which have never yet been tried.

VII.

The productions of the mind and hand seem very numerous in books and manufactures. But all this variety lies in an exquisite subtlety and derivations from a few things already known; not in the number of axioms.

VIII.

Moreover the works already known are due to chance and experiment rather than to sciences; for the sciences we now possess are merely systems for the nice ordering and setting forth of things already invented; not methods of invention or directions for new works.

IX.

The cause and root of nearly all evils in the sciences is this -- that while we falsely admire and extol the powers of the human mind we neglect to seek for its true helps.

X.

The subtlety of nature is greater many times over than the subtlety of the senses and understanding; so that all those specious meditations, speculations, and glosses in which men indulge are quite from the purpose, only there is no one by to observe it.

XI.

As the sciences which we now have do not help us in finding out new works, so neither does the logic which we now have help us in finding out new sciences.

XII.

The logic now in use serves rather to fix and give stability to the errors which have their foundation in commonly received notions than to help the search after truth. So it does more harm than good.

XIII.

[...] Read more

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John Donne

A Litany

I.

THE FATHER.

FATHER of Heaven, and Him, by whom
It, and us for it, and all else for us,
Thou madest, and govern'st ever, come
And re-create me, now grown ruinous:
My heart is by dejection, clay,
And by self-murder, red.
From this red earth, O Father, purge away
All vicious tinctures, that new-fashioned
I may rise up from death, before I'm dead.


II.
THE SON.

O Son of God, who, seeing two things,
Sin and Death, crept in, which were never made,
By bearing one, tried'st with what stings
The other could Thine heritage invade ;
O be Thou nail'd unto my heart,
And crucified again ;
Part not from it, though it from Thee would part,
But let it be by applying so Thy pain,
Drown'd in Thy blood, and in Thy passion slain.


III.

THE HOLY GHOST.

O Holy Ghost, whose temple I
Am, but of mud walls , and condensèd dust,
And being sacrilegiously
Half wasted with youth's fires of pride and lust,
Must with new storms be weather-beat,
Double in my heart Thy flame,
Which let devout sad tears intend, and let—
Though this glass lanthorn, flesh, do suffer maim—
Fire, sacrifice, priest, altar be the same.


IV.

THE TRINITY.

O blessed glorious Trinity,
Bones to philosophy, but milk to faith,

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Tale XXI

The Learned Boy

An honest man was Farmer Jones, and true;
He did by all as all by him should do;
Grave, cautious, careful, fond of gain was he,
Yet famed for rustic hospitality:
Left with his children in a widow'd state,
The quiet man submitted to his fate;
Though prudent matrons waited for his call,
With cool forbearance he avoided all;
Though each profess'd a pure maternal joy,
By kind attention to his feeble boy;
And though a friendly Widow knew no rest,
Whilst neighbour Jones was lonely and distress'd;
Nay, though the maidens spoke in tender tone
Their hearts' concern to see him left alone,
Jones still persisted in that cheerless life,
As if 'twere sin to take a second wife.
Oh! 'tis a precious thing, when wives are dead,
To find such numbers who will serve instead;
And in whatever state a man be thrown,
'Tis that precisely they would wish their own;
Left the departed infants--then their joy
Is to sustain each lovely girl and boy:
Whatever calling his, whatever trade,
To that their chief attention has been paid;
His happy taste in all things they approve,
His friends they honour, and his food they love;
His wish for order, prudence in affairs,
An equal temper (thank their stars!), are theirs;
In fact, it seem'd to be a thing decreed,
And fix'd as fate, that marriage must succeed:
Yet some, like Jones, with stubborn hearts and

hard,
Can hear such claims and show them no regard.
Soon as our Farmer, like a general, found
By what strong foes he was encompass'd round,
Engage he dared not, and he could not fly,
But saw his hope in gentle parley lie;
With looks of kindness then, and trembling heart,
He met the foe, and art opposed to art.
Now spoke that foe insidious--gentle tones,
And gentle looks, assumed for Farmer Jones:
'Three girls,' the Widow cried, 'a lively three
To govern well--indeed it cannot be.'
'Yes,' he replied, 'it calls for pains and care:
But I must bear it.'--'Sir, you cannot bear;
Your son is weak, and asks a mother's eye:'
'That, my kind friend, a father's may supply.'

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VI. Giuseppe Caponsacchi

Answer you, Sirs? Do I understand aright?
Have patience! In this sudden smoke from hell,—
So things disguise themselves,—I cannot see
My own hand held thus broad before my face
And know it again. Answer you? Then that means
Tell over twice what I, the first time, told
Six months ago: 't was here, I do believe,
Fronting you same three in this very room,
I stood and told you: yet now no one laughs,
Who then … nay, dear my lords, but laugh you did,
As good as laugh, what in a judge we style
Laughter—no levity, nothing indecorous, lords!
Only,—I think I apprehend the mood:
There was the blameless shrug, permissible smirk,
The pen's pretence at play with the pursed mouth,
The titter stifled in the hollow palm
Which rubbed the eyebrow and caressed the nose,
When I first told my tale: they meant, you know,
"The sly one, all this we are bound believe!
"Well, he can say no other than what he says.
"We have been young, too,—come, there's greater guilt!
"Let him but decently disembroil himself,
"Scramble from out the scrape nor move the mud,—
"We solid ones may risk a finger-stretch!
And now you sit as grave, stare as aghast
As if I were a phantom: now 't is—"Friend,
"Collect yourself!"—no laughing matter more
"Counsel the Court in this extremity,
"Tell us again!"—tell that, for telling which,
I got the jocular piece of punishment,
Was sent to lounge a little in the place
Whence now of a sudden here you summon me
To take the intelligence from just—your lips!
You, Judge Tommati, who then tittered most,—
That she I helped eight months since to escape
Her husband, was retaken by the same,
Three days ago, if I have seized your sense,—
(I being disallowed to interfere,
Meddle or make in a matter none of mine,
For you and law were guardians quite enough
O' the innocent, without a pert priest's help)—
And that he has butchered her accordingly,
As she foretold and as myself believed,—
And, so foretelling and believing so,
We were punished, both of us, the merry way:
Therefore, tell once again the tale! For what?
Pompilia is only dying while I speak!
Why does the mirth hang fire and miss the smile?
My masters, there's an old book, you should con
For strange adventures, applicable yet,

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