I.
Ice.
Yon foaming flood seems motionless as ice;
Its dizzy turbulence eludes the eye,
Frozen by distance.
958
WORDSWORTH: Address to Kilchurn Castle.
Idea.
Delightful task! to rear the tender thought,
To teach the young idea how to shoot.
959
THOMSON: Seasons, Spring, Line 1149.
Idleness.
Absence of occupation is not rest,
A mind quite vacant is a mind distress'd.
960
COWPER: Retirement, Line 623.
Ignorance.
Ignorance is the curse of God,
Knowledge the wing wherewith we fly to heaven.
961
SHAKS.: 2 Henry VI., Act iv., Sc. 7.
From ignorance our comfort flows,
The only wretched are the wise.
962
PRIOR: To Hon. C. Montague.
Where ignorance is bliss
'Tis folly to be wise.
963
GRAY: Ode on Eton College.
Ills.
Kings may be blest, but Tam was glorious,
O'er a' the ills o' life victorious.
964
BURNS: Tam O'Shanter.
There mark what ills the scholar's life assail,—
Toil, envy, want, the patron, and the jail.
965
DR. JOHNSON: Van. of Human Wishes, Line 159.
Imagination.
The lunatic, the lover, and the poet,
Are of imagination all compact.
966
SHAKS.: Mid. N. Dream, Act v., Sc. 1.
Imagination is the air of mind.
967
BAILEY: Festus, Sc. Another and a Better World.
But thou that didst appear so fair
To fond imagination,
Dost rival in the light of day
Her delicate creation.
968
WORDSWORTH: Yarrow Visited.
Immortality.
It must be so, Plato, thou reasonest well!—
Else whence this pleasing hope, this fond desire,
This longing after immortality?
969
ADDISON: Cato, Act v., Sc. 1.
Where music dwells
Lingering and wandering on as loth to die,
Like thoughts whose very sweetness yieldeth proof
That they were born for immortality.
970
WORDSWORTH: Ecclesiastical Sonnets, Pt. iii., xliii.
Impossibility.
And what's impossible can't be,
And never, never comes to pass.
971
COLMAN, JR.: Maid of the Moor.
Impudence.
For he that has but impudence,
To all things has a fair pretence;
And, put among his wants but shame,
To all the world may lay his claim.
972
BUTLER: Misc. Thoughts, Line 17.
Inconstancy.
Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more;
Men were deceivers ever;
One foot in sea, and one on shore;
To one thing constant never.
973
SHAKS.: Much Ado, Act ii., Sc. 3, Song.
There are three things a wise man will not trust—
The wind, the sunshine of an April day,
And woman's plighted faith.
974
SOUTHEY: Madoc, Pt. ii., Caradoc and Senena, Line 51.
Independence.
Thy spirit, Independence, let me share;
Lord of the lion-heart and eagle-eye,
Thy steps I follow with my bosom bare,
Nor heed the storm that howls along the sky.
975
SMOLLETT: Ode to Independence.
Let independence be our boast,
Ever mindful what it cost;
Ever grateful for the prize,
Let its altar reach the skies!
976
JOSEPH HOPKINSON: Hail, Columbia!
Indifference.
What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba.
977
SHAKS.: Hamlet, Act ii., Sc. 2.
Let ev'ry man enjoy his whim;
What's he to me, or I to him?
978
CHURCHILL: Ghost, Bk. iv., Line 215.
Infancy.
Ere sin could blight, or sorrow fade,
Death came with friendly care;
The opening bud to heav'n convey'd,
And bade it blossom there.
979
COLERIDGE: Epitaph on an Infant.
Infidelity.
If man loses all, when life is lost,
He lives a coward, or a fool expires.
A daring infidel (and such there are,
From pride, example, lucre, rage, revenge,
Or pure heroical defect of thought,)
Of all earth's madmen, most deserves a chain.
980
YOUNG: Night Thoughts, Night vii., Line 199.
Influence.
No life
Can be pure in its purpose and strong in its strife,
And all life not be purer and stronger thereby.
981
OWEN MEREDITH: Lucile, Pt. ii., Canto vi., St. 40.
Ladies, whose bright eyes
Rain influence, and judge the prize.
982
MILTON: L'Allegro, Line 121.
Ingratitude.
I hate ingratitude more in a man
Than lying, vainness, babbling, drunkenness,
Or any taint of vice, whose strong corruption
Inhabits our frail blood.
983
SHAKS.: Tw. Night, Act iii., Sc. 4.
Ingratitude! thou marble-hearted fiend,
More hideous, when thou show'st thee in a child,
Than the sea-monster!
984
SHAKS.: King Lear, Act i., Sc. 4.
How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is
To have a thankless child.
985
SHAKS.: King Lear, Act i., Sc. 4.
Inhumanity.
Man's inhumanity to man
Makes countless thousands mourn.
986
BURNS: Man was Made to Mourn.
Inn.
Whoe'er has travelled life's dull round,
Where'er his stages may have been,
May sigh to think he still has found,
The warmest welcome at an inn.
987
SHENSTONE: Lines on Window of Inn at Henley.
Innocence.
The silence often of pure innocence
Persuades, when speaking fails.
988
SHAKS.: Wint. Tale, Act ii., Sc. 3.
An age that melts in unperceiv'd decay,
And glides in modest innocence away.
989
DR. JOHNSON: Van. of Human Wishes, Line 293.
Instinct.
Then vainly the philosopher avers
That reason guides our deeds, and instinct theirs.
How can we justly different causes frame,
When the effects entirely are the same?
Instinct and reason how can we divide?
'Tis the fool's ignorance, and the pedant's pride.
990
PRIOR: Solomon on the V. of the World, Bk. i., Line 231.
Invention.
Th' invention all admir'd, and each how he
To be th' inventor miss'd; so easy it seem'd,
Once found, which yet unfound most would have thought
Impossible!
991
MILTON: Par. Lost, Bk. vi., Line 498.
Iron.
Ay me! what perils do environ
The man that meddles with cold iron!
992
BUTLER: Hudibras, Canto iii., Line 1.
Isle, Isles.
Some unsuspected isle in far-off seas.
993
ROBERT BROWNING: Pippa Passes, Pt. ii.
The sprinkled isles,
Lily on lily, that o'erlace the sea.
994
ROBERT BROWNING: Cleon.
Italy.
Italia! O Italia! thou who hast
The fatal gift of beauty, which became
A funeral dower of present woes and past,
On thy sweet brow is sorrow plough'd by shame,
And annals graved in characters of flame.
995
BYRON: Ch. Harold, Canto iv., St. 4.
Italy, my Italy!
Queen Mary's saying serves for me
(When fortune's malice
Lost her Calais):
"Open my heart, and you will see
Graved inside of it 'Italy.'"
996
ROBERT BROWNING: De Gustibus, ii.
Ivy.
Oh, a dainty plant is the ivy green,
That creepeth o'er ruins old!
Of right choice food are his meals, I ween,
In his cell so lone and cold.
Creeping where no life is seen,
A rare old plant is the ivy green.
997
DICKENS: Pickwick Papers, Ch. 6.