A birthday:--and now a day that rose With much of hope, with meaning rife-- A thoughtful day from dawn to close: The middle day of human life.

180 JEAN INGELOW. _A Birthday Walk._

=Bivouac.=

On Fame's eternal camping-ground Their silent tents are spread, And Glory guards with solemn round The bivouac of the dead.

181 THEODORE O'HARA: _Bivouac of the Dead._

=Blasphemy.=

Great men may jest with saints; 'tis wit in them; But, in the less, foul profanation.

That in the captain's but a choleric word, Which in the soldier is flat blasphemy.

182 SHAKS.: _M. for M.,_ Act ii., Sc. 2.

=Bleakness.=

A naked house, a naked moor, A shivering pool before the door, A garden bare of flowers and fruit, And poplars at the garden foot: Such is the place that I live in, Bleak without and bare within.

183 ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON: _The House Beautiful._

=Blessings.=

How blessings brighten as they take their flight!

184 YOUNG: _Night Thoughts,_ Night ii., Line 602.

For blessings ever wait on virtuous deeds, And though a late, a sure reward succeeds.

185 CONGREVE: _Mourning Bride,_ Act v., Sc. 12.

=Blindness.=

O dark, dark, dark, amid the blaze of noon; Irrecoverably dark! total eclipse, Without all hope of day.

186 MILTON: _Samson Agonistes,_ Line 80.

O, loss of sight, of thee I most complain!

Blind among enemies, O worse than chains, Dungeons, or beggary, or decrepit age!

Light, the prime work of God, to me 's extinct, And all her various objects of delight Annul'd, which might in part my grief have eas'd, 187 MILTON: _Samson Agonistes,_ Line 67.

=Bliss.=

Condition, circumstance, is not the thing; Bliss is the same in subject or in king.

188 POPE: _Essay on Man,_ Epis. iv., Line 57.

Vain, very vain, my weary search to find That bliss which only centres in the mind.

189 GOLDSMITH: _Traveller,_ Line 423.

=Blood.=

When the blood burns, how prodigal the soul Lends the tongue vows.

190 SHAKS.: _Hamlet,_ Act i., Sc. 3.

A ruddy drop of manly blood The surging sea outweighs; The world uncertain comes and goes, The lover rooted stays.

191 EMERSON: _Epigraph to Friendship._

Blood is a juice of very special kind.

192 GOETHE: _Faust_ (Swanwick's Trans.), Line 1386.

=Bloom.=

O'er her warm cheek and rising bosom move The bloom of young Desire and purple light of Love.

193 GRAY: _Prog. of Poesy,_ Pt. i., St. 1, Line 3.

=Blossoms.=

Who in life's battle firm doth stand Shall bear hope's tender blossoms Into the silent land.

194 J.G. VON SALIS: _The Silent Land._

=Bluntness.=

I have neither wit, nor words, nor worth, Action, nor utterance, nor the power of speech, To stir men's blood: I only speak right on.

195 SHAKS.: _Jul. Caesar,_ Act iii., Sc. 2.

=Blushing.=

Girls blush, sometimes, because they are alive, Half wishing they were dead to save the shame.

The sudden blush devours them, neck and brow; They have drawn too near the fire of life, like gnats, And flare up boldly, wings and all.

What then?

Who's sorry for a gnat ... or girl?

196 MRS. BROWNING: _Aurora Leigh,_ Bk. ii., Line 732.

=Boasting.=

Here's a large mouth, indeed, That spits forth death, and mountains, rocks, and seas; Talks as familiarly of roaring lions, As maids of thirteen do of puppy dogs.

197 SHAKS.: _King John,_ Act ii., Sc. 2.

=Boat.=