FRANCKE'S ENCOURAGING DISCOVERY. It is said that when Francke was engaged in the great work of erecting his world-known Orphan-House at Halle, for the means of which he looked to the Lord in importunate prayer from day to day, an apparently accidental circumstance made an abiding impression on him and those about him. A workman, in digging a part of the foundation, found a small silver coin, with the following inscription : POSIES FROM WEDDING-RINGS. Portia. A quarrel, ho, already! What's the matter? That she did give me: whose posy was For all the world like cutler's poetry Upon a knife: Love me, and leave me not.— Hamlet, Act III. sc. 2. Hamlet. Is this a prologue, or the posy of a ring? Jacques. You are full of pretty answers: have you not been acquainted with goldsmiths' wives, and conned them out of rings?—. As You Like It, Act III. sc. 2. The following posies were transcribed by an indefatigable collector, from old wedding-rings, chiefly of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Tho orthography is, in most cases, altered: Knives were formerly inscribed, by means of aqua-fortis, with short sen tences in distich. Death never parts Love and respect No gift can show The love I owe. Let him never take a wife That will not love her as his life. In loving thee I love myself. Love and pray Dear wife, thy rod Made us two one. Eternally All I refuse, Worship is due To God and you. Love and live happy. 1689. Joy day and night Be our delight. Divinely knit by Grace are we; Late two, now one; the pledge here see. 1657. Endless my love "Twixt man and wife. Joyful love This ring doth prove. I find new life. Of rapturous joy. In loving wife Spend all thy life. 1697. In love abide Till death divide. In unity. Let's live and die. Happy in thee Hath God made me. None can prevent God did decree I kiss the rod In love and joy Be our employ. God above Continue our love. True love will ne'er forget. Faithful ever, As gold is pure, God sent her me, Live and die My heart you have, As God decreed, No force can move For a kiss The want of thee Is grief to me. I fancy none One word for all, Your sight, God's blessing be Love is sure Where faith is pure. Thy friend am I, God's appointment Hurt not that heart Take hand and heart, As long as life, Thy friend am I, Let me in thee Will lovers die. Thy consent I wish to thee In thee my love Love and joy The pledge I prove I love the rod Desire, like fire, My heart and I, Until I die. This ring doth bind Body and mind. Endless as this Shall be our bliss.-THOS. BLISS. 1719. I do rejoice In thee my choice. Love him in heart, I change the life Not Two, but One. Till life be gone. Numbers, vi. 24, 25, 26. In its circular continuity, the ring was accepted as a type of eternity, and, hence, the stability of affection. Constancy and Heaven are round, Or, as Herrick says,— This is love, and worth commending, And as this round Is nowhere found To flaw or else to sever, So let our love As endless prove, And pure as gold forever. LADY KATHERINE GREY'S WEDDING-RING. The ring received by this excellent woman, who was a sister of Lady Jane Grey, from her husband, the Earl of Hertford, at their marriage, consisted of five golden links, the four inner ones bearing the following lines, of the earl's composition: As circles five by art compact shewe but one ring in sight, Parallel Passages. INCLUDING IMITATIONS, PLAGIARISMS, AND ACCIDENTAL COINCIDENCES. Pretensions to originality are ludicrous.-BYRON'S Letters. An apple cleft in two is not more twin Than these two creatures.-Twelfth Night, V.1. Milton "borrowed" other poets' thoughts, but he did not borrow as gipsies borrow children, spoiling their features that they may not be recognized. No, he returned them improved. Had he "borrowed" your coat, he would have restored it with a new nap upon it!-LEIGH HUNT. Man wants but little here below, Nor wants that little long.-GOLDSMITH: Hermit. Evidently stolen from DR. YOUNG:— Man wants but little, nor that little long.-Night Thoughts. Be wise to-day: 'tis madness to defer.-Night Thoughts. But CONGREVE had said, not long before, Defer not till to-morrow to be wise; To-morrow's sun to thee may never rise.-Letter to Cobham. Like angels' visits, few and far between.-CAMPBELL: Pleasures of Hope. Copied from BLAIR : like an ill-used ghost, Not to return; or if it did, its visits, Like those of angels, short and far between.-Grave. But this pretty conceit originated with NORRIS, of Bemer. ton, (died 1711,) in a religious poem : But those who soonest take their flight Are the most exquisite and strong: Like angels' visits, short and bright, Mortality's too weak to bear them long.-The Parting. Dear as the light that visits these sad eyes, Dear as the ruddy drops that warm my heart.-GRAY's Bard. GRAY himself points out the imitation in SHAKSPEARE : You are my true and honorable wife; As dear to me as are the ruddy drops That visit my sad heart.-Julius Cæsar, Act II. Sc. 1. |