Our Common Land: (and Other Short Essays).

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Macmillan, 1877 - Social Science - 206 pages
 

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Page 146 - Yet, ere we part, one lesson I can leave you For every day. Be good, sweet maid, and let who will be clever ; Do noble things, not dream them, all day long : And so make life, death, and that vast for-ever One grand, sweet song.
Page 61 - Give to him that asketh of thee; and from him that would borrow of thee turn not away.
Page 174 - And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction, yet shall not thy teachers be removed into a corner any more, but thine eyes shall see thy teachers : and thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, " This is the way, walk ye in it," when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.
Page 15 - For a cap and bells our lives we pay: Bubbles we buy with a whole soul's tasking; 'Tis heaven alone that is given away, 'Tis only God may be had for the asking.
Page 87 - Our little systems have their day; They have their day and cease to be; They are but broken lights of thee, And thou, O Lord, art more than they.
Page 143 - That altho' we're plain and songless, And poor city birds are we, Yet before the days of darkness We, the sparrows, never flee. But we hover round the window, And we peck against the pane, While we twitteringly tell them That the spring will come again. And when drizzly dull November Falls so gloomily o'er...
Page 144 - And when drizzly dull November Falls so gloomily o'er all, And the misty fog enshrouds them In a dim and dreary pall; When the streets all fade to dreamland, And the people follow fast, And it seems as though the sunshine Was for evermore gone past,— Then we glide among the housetops, And we track the murky waste, And we go about our business With a cheerful earnest haste : Not as though our food were plenty, Or no dangers we might meet ; But as though the work of living Was a healthy work, and...
Page 9 - ... custom. For long they had no legal existence, but the courts of law at last learned to recognise custom as conferring rights. The custom has altered in kind ; in lieu of cattle, sheep, and pigs turned out to pasture on the Commons, human beings have taken their place, and wear down the turf instead of eating it.

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