| C.N. Douglas, comp. Forty Thousand Quotations: Prose and Poetical. 1917. | | | | Skull |
| | | Where be your gibes now? your gambols? your songs? your flashes of merriment that were wont to set the table on a roar? Shakespeare. | 1 |
| | Look on its broken arch, its ruined wall, |
| Its chambers desolate, its portals foul; |
| Yes, this was once ambitions airy hall, |
| The dome of thought, the palace of the soul. |
Byron. | 2 |
| | Thou hollow skull! what meanings lurk |
| Beneath that grin? tis but to say |
| Thy brain like mine was once at work |
| With thoughts that led thee far astray; |
| Longing for truth, you sought the days clear light, |
| But miserably strayd in gloom and night. |
Goethe. | 3 |
| | O empty vault of former glory! |
| Whereer thou wert in time of old, |
| Thy surface tells thy living story |
| Though now so hollow, dead, and cold: |
| For in thy form is yet descried |
| The traces left of young desire; |
| The painters art, the statesmans pride, |
| The muses song, the poets fire; |
| But these, forsooth, now seem to be |
| Mere lumps on thy periphery. |
Dr. Forster. | 4 |
| | These various organs show the place |
| Where friendship lovd, where passion glowd, |
| Where veneration grew in grace, |
| Where justice swayd, where man was proud |
| Whence wit its slippery sallies threw |
| On vanity, thereby defeated; |
| Where hopes imaginary view |
| Of things to come (fond fool) is seated; |
| Where circumspection made us fear, |
| Mid gleams of joy some danger near. |
Dr. Forster. | 5 | | |
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