Thursday, May 14, 2009

Familiar Quotations - Part 8

29, 1770._


If I were an American, as I am an Englishman, while a foreign
troop was landed in my country I never would lay down my
arms,--never! never! never!

_Speech, Nov. 18, 1777._


The poorest man may in his cottage bid defiance to all the force
of the Crown. It may be frail; its roof may shake; the wind may
blow through it; the storms may enter, the rain may enter,--but
the King of England cannot enter; all his forces dare not cross
the threshold of the ruined tenement!

_Speech on the Excise Bill._


We have a Calvinistic creed, a Popish liturgy, and an Arminian
clergy.

_Prior's Life of Burke_ (1790).


FOOTNOTES:

[364-4] Quoted by Lord Mahon, "greater than the throne
itself."--_History of England, vol. v. p. 258._

[364-5] "Indemnity for the past and security for the
future."--RUSSELL: _Memoir of Fox, vol. iii. p. 345, Letter to the
Hon. T. Maitland._




SAMUEL JOHNSON. 1709-1784.

Let observation with extensive view
Survey mankind, from China to Peru.[365-1]

_Vanity of Human Wishes. Line 1._


There mark what ills the scholar's life assail,--
Toil, envy, want, the patron, and the jail.

_Vanity of Human Wishes. Line 159._


He left the name at which the world grew pale,
To point a moral, or adorn a tale.

_Vanity of Human Wishes. Line 221._


Hides from himself his state, and shuns to know
That life protracted is protracted woe.

_Vanity of Human Wishes. Line 257._


An age that melts in unperceiv'd decay,
And glides in modest innocence away.

_Vanity of Human Wishes. Line 293._


Superfluous lags the veteran on the stage.

_Vanity of Human Wishes. Line 308._


Fears of the brave, and follies of the wise!
From Marlb'rough's eyes the streams of dotage flow,
And Swift expires, a driv'ler and a show.

_Vanity of Human Wishes. Line 316._


Must helpless man, in ignorance sedate,
Roll darkling down the torrent of his fate?

_Vanity of Human Wishes. Line 345._


For patience, sov'reign o'er transmuted ill.

_Vanity of Human Wishes. Line 362._


Of all the griefs that harass the distrest,
Sure the most bitter is a scornful jest.[366-1]

_London. Line 166._


This mournful truth is ev'rywhere confess'd,--
Slow rises worth by poverty depress'd.[366-2]

_London. Line 176._


Studious to please, yet not ashamed to fail.

_Prologue to the Tragedy of Irene._


Each change of many-colour'd life he drew,
Exhausted worlds, and then imagin'd new.

_Prologue on the Opening of Drury Lane Theatre._


And panting Time toil'd after him in vain.

_Prologue on the Opening of Drury Lane Theatre._


For we that live to please must please to live.

_Prologue on the Opening of Drury Lane Theatre._


Catch, then, oh catch the transient hour;
Improve each moment as it flies!
Life 's a short summer, man a flower;
He dies--alas! how soon he dies!

_Winter. An Ode._


Officious, innocent, sincere,
Of every friendless name the friend.

_Verses on the Death of Mr. Robert Levet. Stanza 2._


In misery's darkest cavern known,
His useful care was ever nigh[366-3]
Where hopeless anguish pour'd his groan,
And lonely want retir'd to die.

_Verses on the Death of Mr. Robert Levet. Stanza 5._


And sure th' Eternal Master found
His single talent well employ'd.

_Verses on the Death of Mr. Robert Levet. Stanza 7._


Then with no throbs of fiery pain,[367-1]
No cold gradations of decay,
Death broke at once the vital chain,
And freed his soul the nearest way.

_Verses on the Death of Mr. Robert Levet. Stanza 9._


That saw the manners in the face.

_Lines on the Death of Hogarth._


Philips, whose touch harmonious could remove
The pangs of guilty power and hapless love!
Rest here, distressed by poverty no more;
Here find that calm thou gav'st so oft before;
Sleep undisturb'd within this peaceful shrine,
Till angels wake thee with a note like thine!

_Epitaph on Claudius Philips, the Musician._


A Poet, Naturalist, and Historian,
Who left scarcely any style of writing untouched,
And touched nothing that he did not adorn.[367-2]

_Epitaph on Goldsmith._


How small of all that human hearts endure,
That part which laws or kings can cause or cure!
Still to ourselves in every place consigned,
Our own felicity we make or find.
With secret course, which no loud storms annoy,
Glides the smooth current of domestic joy.

_Lines added to Goldsmith's Traveller._


Trade's proud empire hastes to swift decay.

_Line added to Goldsmith's Deserted Village._


From thee, great God, we spring, to thee we tend,--
Path, motive, guide, original, and end.[367-3]

_Motto to the Rambler. No. 7._


Ye who listen with credulity to the whispers of fancy, and
pursue with eagerness the phantoms of hope; who expect that age
will perform the promises of youth, and that the deficiencies of
the present day will be supplied by the morrow,--attend to the
history of Rasselas, Prince Of Abyssinia.

_Rasselas. Chap. i._


"I fly from pleasure," said the prince, "because pleasure has
ceased to please; I am lonely because I am miserable, and am
unwilling to cloud with my presence the happiness of others."

_Rasselas. Chap. iii._


A man used to vicissitudes is not easily dejected.

_Rasselas. Chap. xii._


Few things are impossible to diligence and skill.

_Rasselas. Chap. xii._


Knowledge is more than equivalent to force.[368-1]

_Rasselas. Chap. xiii._


I live in the crowd of jollity, not so much to enjoy company as
to shun myself.

_Rasselas. Chap. xvi._


Many things difficult to design prove easy to performance.

_Rasselas. Chap. xvi._


The first years of man must make provision for the last.

_Rasselas. Chap. xvii._


Example is always more efficacious than precept.

_Rasselas. Chap. xxx._


The endearing elegance of female friendship.

_Rasselas. Chap. xlvi._


I am not so lost in lexicography as to forget that _words are the
daughters of earth, and that things are the sons of
heaven_.[368-2]

_Preface to his Dictionary._


Words are men's daughters, but God's sons are things.[368-3]

_Boulter's Monument._ (Supposed to have been inserted by Dr. Johnson,
1745.)


Whoever wishes to attain an English style, familiar but not
coarse, and elegant but not ostentatious, must give his days and
nights to the volumes of Addison.

_Life of Addison._


To be of no church is dangerous. Religion, of which the rewards
are distant, and which is animated only by faith and hope, will
glide by degrees out of the mind unless it be invigorated and
reimpressed by external ordinances, by stated calls to worship,
and the salutary influence of example.

_Life of Milton._


The trappings of a monarchy would set up an ordinary
commonwealth.

_Life of Milton._


His death eclipsed the gayety of nations, and impoverished the
public stock of harmless pleasure.

_Life of Edmund Smith_ (alluding to the death of Garrick).


That man is little to be envied whose patriotism would not gain
force upon the plain of Marathon, or whose piety would not grow
warmer among the ruins of Iona.

_Journey to the Western Islands: Inch Kenneth._


He is no wise man that will quit a certainty for an uncertainty.

_The Idler. No. 57._


What is read twice is commonly better remembered than what is
transcribed.

_The Idler. No. 74._


Tom Birch is as brisk as a bee in conversation; but no sooner
does he take a pen in his hand than it becomes a torpedo to him,
and benumbs all his faculties.

_Life of Johnson_ (Boswell).[369-1] _Vol. i. Chap. vii. 1743._


Wretched un-idea'd girls.

_Life of Johnson_ (Boswell). _Vol. i. Chap. x. 1752._


This man [Chesterfield], I thought, had been a lord among wits;
but I find he is only a wit among lords.[369-2]

_Life of Johnson_ (Boswell). _Vol. ii. Chap. i. 1754._


Sir, he [Bolingbroke] was a scoundrel and a coward: a scoundrel
for charging a blunderbuss against religion and morality; a
coward, because he had not resolution to fire it off himself, but
left half a crown to a beggarly Scotchman to draw the trigger at
his death.

_Life of Johnson_ (Boswell). _Vol. ii. Chap. i. 1754._


Is not a patron, my lord, one who looks with unconcern on a man
struggling for life in the water, and when he has reached ground
encumbers him with help?

_Life of Johnson_ (Boswell). _Vol. ii. Chap. ii. 1755._


I am glad that he thanks God for anything.

_Life of Johnson_ (Boswell). _Vol. ii. Chap. ii. 1755._


If a man does not make new acquaintances as he advances through
life, he will soon find himself left alone. A man, sir, should
keep his friendship in a constant repair.

_Life of Johnson_ (Boswell). _Vol. ii. Chap. ii. 1755._


Being in a ship is being in a jail, with the chance of being
drowned.

_Life of Johnson_ (Boswell). _Vol. ii. Chap. iii. 1759._


Sir, I think all Christians, whether Papists or Protestants,
agree in the essential articles, and that their differences are
trivial, and rather political than religious.[370-1]

_Life of Johnson_ (Boswell). _Vol. ii. Chap. v. 1763._


The noblest prospect which a Scotchman ever sees is the high-road
that leads him to England.

_Life of Johnson_ (Boswell). _Vol. ii. Chap. v. 1763._


If he does really think that there is no distinction between
virtue and vice, why, sir, when he leaves our houses let us count
our spoons.

_Life of Johnson_ (Boswell). _Vol. ii. Chap. v. 1763._


Sir, your levellers wish to level _down_ as far as themselves;
but they cannot bear levelling _up_ to themselves.

_Life of Johnson_ (Boswell). _Vol. ii. Chap. v. 1763._


A man ought to read just as inclination leads him; for what he
reads as a task will do him little good.

_Life of Johnson_ (Boswell). _Vol. ii. Chap. vi. 1763._


Sherry is dull, naturally dull; but it must have taken him a
great deal of pains to become what we now see him. Such an access
of stupidity, sir, is not in Nature.

_Life of Johnson_ (Boswell). _Vol. ii. Chap. ix._


Sir, a woman preaching is like a dog's walking on his hind legs.
It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at
all.

_Life of Johnson_ (Boswell). _Vol. ii. Chap. ix._


I look upon it, that he who does not mind his belly will hardly
mind anything else.[371-1]

_Life of Johnson_ (Boswell). _Vol. ii. Chap. ix._


This was a good dinner enough, to be sure, but it was not a
dinner to _ask_ a man to.

_Life of Johnson_ (Boswell). _Vol. ii. Chap. ix._


A very unclubable man.

_Life of Johnson_ (Boswell). _Vol. ii. Chap. ix. 1764._


I do not know, sir, that the fellow is an infidel; but if he be
an infidel, he is an infidel as a dog is an infidel; that is to
say, he has never thought upon the subject.

_Life of Johnson_ (Boswell). _Vol. iii. Chap. iii. 1769._


It matters not how a man dies, but how he lives.

_Life of Johnson_ (Boswell). _Vol. iii. Chap. iv._


That fellow seems to me to possess but one idea, and that is a
wrong one.[371-2]

_Life of Johnson_ (Boswell). _Vol. iii. Chap. v. 1770._


I am a great friend to public amusements; for they keep people
from vice.

_Life of Johnson_ (Boswell). _Vol. iii. Chap. viii. 1772._


A cow is a very good animal in the field; but we turn her out of
a garden.

_Life of Johnson_ (Boswell). _Vol. iii. Chap. viii. 1772._


Much may be made of a Scotchman if he be caught young.

_Life of Johnson_ (Boswell). _Vol. iii. Chap. viii. 1772._


A man may write at any time if he will set himself doggedly to
it.

_Life of Johnson_ (Boswell). _Vol. iv. Chap. ii. 1773._


Let him go abroad to a distant country; let him go to some place
where he is _not_ known. Don't let him go to the devil, where he
_is_ known.

_Life of Johnson_ (Boswell). _Vol. iv. Chap. ii. 1773._


Was ever poet so trusted before?

_Life of Johnson_ (Boswell). _Vol. v. Chap. vi. 1774._


Attack is the reaction. I never think I have hit hard unless it
rebounds.

_Life of Johnson_ (Boswell). _Vol. v. Chap. vi. 1775._


A man will turn over half a library to make one book.

_Life of Johnson_ (Boswell). _Vol. v. Chap. viii. 1775._


Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.

_Life of Johnson_ (Boswell). _Vol. v. Chap. ix._


Hell is paved with good intentions.[372-1]

_Life of Johnson_ (Boswell). _Vol. v. Chap. ix._


Knowledge is of two kinds: we know a subject ourselves, or we
know where we can find information upon it.[372-2]

_Life of Johnson_ (Boswell). _Vol. v. Chap. ix._


I never take a nap after dinner but when I have had a bad night;
and then the nap takes me.

_Life of Johnson_ (Boswell). _Vol. vi. Chap. i. 1775._


In lapidary inscriptions a man is not upon oath.

_Life of Johnson_ (Boswell). _Vol. vi. Chap. i. 1775._


There is now less flogging in our great schools than
formerly,--but then less is learned there; so that what the boys
get at one end they lose at the other.

_Life of Johnson_ (Boswell). _Vol. vi. Chap. i. 1775._


There is nothing which has yet been contrived by man by which so
much happiness is produced as by a good tavern or inn.[372-3]

_Life of Johnson_ (Boswell). _Vol. vi. Chap. iii. 1776._


No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money.

_Life of Johnson_ (Boswell). _Vol. vi. Chap. iii. 1776._


Questioning is not the mode of conversation among gentlemen.

_Life of Johnson_ (Boswell). _Vol. vi. Chap. iv. 1776._


A man is very apt to complain of the ingratitude of those who
have risen far above him.

_Life of Johnson_ (Boswell). _Vol. vi. Chap. iv. 1776._


All this [wealth] excludes but one evil,--poverty.

_Life of Johnson_ (Boswell). _Vol. vi. Chap. ix. 1777._


Employment, sir, and hardships prevent melancholy.

_Life of Johnson_ (Boswell). _Vol. vi. Chap. ix. 1777._


When a man is tired of London he is tired of life; for there is
in London all that life can afford.

_Life of Johnson_ (Boswell). _Vol. vi. Chap. ix. 1777._


He was so generally civil that nobody thanked him for it.

_Life of Johnson_ (Boswell). _Vol. vi. Chap. ix. 1777._


Goldsmith, however, was a man who whatever he wrote, did it
better than any other man could do.

_Life of Johnson_ (Boswell). _Vol. vii. Chap. iii. 1778._


Johnson had said that he could repeat a complete chapter of "The
Natural History of Iceland," from the Danish of Horrebow, the
whole of which was exactly (Ch. lxxii. _Concerning snakes_) thus:
"There are no snakes to be met with throughout the whole
island."[373-1]

_Life of Johnson_ (Boswell). _Vol. vii. Chap. iv. 1778._


As the Spanish proverb says, "He who would bring home the wealth
of the Indies must carry the wealth of the Indies with him," so
it is in travelling,--a man must carry knowledge with him if he
would bring home knowledge.

_Life of Johnson_ (Boswell). _Vol. vii. Chap. v. 1778._


The true, strong, and sound mind is the mind that can embrace
equally great things and small.

_Life of Johnson_ (Boswell). _Vol. vii. Chap. vi. 1778._


I remember a passage in Goldsmith's "Vicar of Wakefield," which
he was afterwards fool enough to expunge: "I do not love a man
who is zealous for nothing." . . . There was another fine passage
too which he struck out: "When I was a young man, being anxious
to distinguish myself, I was perpetually starting new
propositions. But I soon gave this over; for I found that
generally what was new was false."

_Life of Johnson_ (Boswell). _Vol. vii. Chap. viii. 1779._


Claret is the liquor for boys, port for men; but he who aspires
to be a hero must drink brandy.

_Life of Johnson_ (Boswell). _Vol. vii. Chap. viii. 1779._


A Frenchman must be always talking, whether he knows anything of
the matter or not; an Englishman is content to say nothing when
he has nothing to say.

_Life of Johnson_ (Boswell). _Vol. vii. Chap. x._


Of Dr. Goldsmith he said, "No man was more foolish when he had
not a pen in his hand, or more wise when he had."

_Life of Johnson_ (Boswell). _Vol. vii. Chap. x._


The applause of a single human being is of great consequence.

_Life of Johnson_ (Boswell). _Vol. vii. Chap. x._


The potentiality of growing rich beyond the dreams of
avarice.[374-1]

_Life of Johnson_ (Boswell). _Vol. viii. Chap. ii._


Classical quotation is the _parole_ of literary men all over the
world.

_Life of Johnson_ (Boswell). _Vol. viii. Chap. iii. 1781._


My friend was of opinion that when a man of rank appeared in that
character [as an author], he deserved to have his merits
handsomely allowed.[374-2]

_Life of Johnson_ (Boswell). _Vol. viii. Chap. iii. 1781._


I never have sought the world; the world was not to seek
me.[374-3]

_Life of Johnson_ (Boswell). _Vol. viii. Chap. v. 1783._


He is not only dull himself, but the cause of dullness in
others.[374-4]

_Life of Johnson_ (Boswell). _Vol. viii. Chap. v. 1784._


You see they 'd have fitted him to a T.

_Life of Johnson_ (Boswell). _Vol. viii. Chap. ix. 1784._


I have found you an argument; I am not obliged to find you an
understanding.

_Life of Johnson_ (Boswell). _Vol. viii. Chap. ix. 1784._


Who drives fat oxen should himself be fat.[375-1]

_Life of Johnson_ (Boswell). _Vol. viii. Chap. ix. 1784._


Blown about with every wind of criticism.[375-2]

_Life of Johnson_ (Boswell). _Vol. viii. Chap. x. 1784._


If the man who turnips cries
Cry not when his father dies,
'T is a proof that he had rather
Have a turnip than his father.

_Johnsoniana. Piozzi, 30._


He was a very good hater.

_Johnsoniana. Piozzi, 39._


The law is the last result of human wisdom acting upon human
experience for the benefit of the public.

_Johnsoniana. Piozzi, 58._


The use of travelling is to regulate imagination by reality, and
instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are.

_Johnsoniana. Piozzi, 154._


Dictionaries are like watches; the worst is better than none, and
the best cannot be expected to go quite true.

_Johnsoniana. Piozzi, 178._


Books that you may carry to the fire and hold readily in your
hand, are the most useful after all.

_Johnsoniana. Hawkins. 197._


Round numbers are always false.

_Johnsoniana. Hawkins. 235._


As with my hat[375-3] upon my head
I walk'd along the Strand,
I there did meet another man
With his hat in his hand.[375-4]

_Johnsoniana. George Steevens. 310._


Abstinence is as easy to me as temperance would be difficult.

_Johnsoniana. Hannah More. 467._


The limbs will quiver and move after the soul is gone.

_Johnsoniana. Northcote. 487._


Hawkesworth said of Johnson, "You have a memory that would
convict any author of plagiarism in any court of literature in
the world."

_Johnsoniana. Kearsley. 600._


His conversation does not show the minute-hand, but he strikes
the hour very correctly.

_Johnsoniana. Kearsley. 604._


Hunting was the labour of the savages of North America, but the
amusement of the gentlemen of England.

_Johnsoniana. Kearsley. 606._


I am very fond of the company of ladies. I like their beauty, I
like their delicacy, I like their vivacity, and I like their
silence.

_Johnsoniana. Seward. 617._


This world, where much is to be done and little to be known.

_Prayers and Meditations. Against inquisitive and perplexing Thoughts._


Gratitude is a fruit of great cultivation; you do not find it
among gross people.

_Tour to the Hebrides. Sept. 20, 1773._


A fellow that makes no figure in company, and has a mind as
narrow as the neck of a vinegar-cruet.

_Tour to the Hebrides. Sept. 30, 1773._


The atrocious crime of being a young man, which the honourable
gentleman has with such spirit and decency charged upon me, I
shall neither attempt to palliate nor deny; but content myself
with wishing that I may be one of those whose follies may cease
with their youth, and not of that number who are ignorant in
spite of experience.[376-1]

_Pitt's Reply to Walpole. Speech, March 6, 1741._


Towering in the confidence of twenty-one.

_Letter to Bennet Langton. Jan. 9, 1758._


Gloomy calm of idle vacancy.

_Letter to Boswell. Dec. 8, 1763._


Wharton quotes Johnson as saying of Dr. Campbell, "He is the
richest author that ever grazed the common of literature."

FOOTNOTES:

[365-1]
All human race, from China to Peru,
Pleasure, howe'er disguised by art, pursue.

THOMAS WARTON: _Universal Love of Pleasure._


De Quincey (Works, vol. x. p. 72) quotes the criticism of some
writer, who contends with some reason that this high-sounding
couplet of Dr. Johnson amounts in effect to this: Let observation
with extensive observation observe mankind extensively.

[366-1]
Nothing in poverty so ill is borne
As its exposing men to grinning scorn.

OLDHAM (1653-1683): _Third Satire of Juvenal._

[366-2] Three years later Johnson wrote, "Mere unassisted merit
advances slowly, if--what is not very common--it advances at all."

[366-3] _Var._ His ready help was always nigh.

[367-1] _Var._ Then with no fiery throbbing pain.

[367-2]
Qui nullum fere scribendi genus
Non tetigit,
Nullum quod tetigit non ornavit.

See Chesterfield, page 353.

[367-3] A translation of Boethius's "De Consolatione Philosophiæ,"
iii. 9, 27.

[368-1] See Bacon, page 168.

[368-2] The italics and the word "forget" would seem to imply that
the saying was not his own.

[368-3] Sir William Jones gives a similar saying in India: "Words
are the daughters of earth, and deeds are the sons of heaven."

See Herbert, page 206. Sir THOMAS BODLEY: _Letter to his
Librarian, 1604._

[369-1] From the London edition, 10 volumes, 1835.

Dr. Johnson, it is said, when he first heard of Boswell's
intention to write a life of him, announced, with decision enough,
that if he thought Boswell really meant to _write his life_ he
would prevent it by _taking Boswell's!_--CARLYLE: _Miscellanies,
Jean Paul Frederic Richter._

[369-2] See Pope, page 331.

[370-1] I do not find that the age or country makes the least
difference; no, nor the language the actor spoke, nor the religion
which they professed,--whether Arab in the desert, or Frenchman in
the Academy. I see that sensible men and conscientious men all
over the world were of one religion of well-doing and
daring.--EMERSON: _The Preacher. Lectures and Biographical
Sketches, p. 215._

[371-1] Every investigation which is guided by principles of
nature fixes its ultimate aim entirely on gratifying the
stomach.--ATHENÆUS: _Book vii. chap. ii._

[371-2] Mr. Kremlin was distinguished for ignorance; for he had
only one idea, and that was wrong.--DISRAELI: _Sybil, book iv.
chap. 5._

[372-1] See Herbert, page 205.

Do not be troubled by Saint Bernard's saying that hell is full of
good intentions and wills.--FRANCIS DE SALES: _Spiritual Letters.
Letter xii._ (Translated by the author of "A Dominican Artist.")
1605.

[372-2] Scire ubi aliquid invenire possis, ea demum maxima pars
eruditionis est (To know where you can find anything, that in
short is the largest part of learning).--ANONYMOUS.

[372-3]
Whoe'er has travell'd 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.

SHENSTONE: _Written on a Window of an Inn._

[373-1] Chapter xlii. is still shorter: "There are no owls of any
kind in the whole island."

[374-1] I am rich beyond the dreams of avarice.--EDWARD MOORE:
_The Gamester, act ii. sc. 2._ 1753.

[374-2] Usually quoted as "When a nobleman writes a book, he ought
to be encouraged."

[374-3] I have not loved the world, nor the world me.--BYRON:
_Childe Harold, canto iii. stanza 113._

[374-4] See Shakespeare, page 88.

[375-1] A parody on "Who rules o'er freemen should himself be
free," from Brooke's "Gustavus Vasa," first edition.

[375-2] Carried about with every wind of doctrine.--_Ephesians iv.
14._

[375-3] Elsewhere found, "I put my hat."

[375-4] A parody on Percy's "Hermit of Warkworth."

[376-1] This is the composition of Johnson, founded on some note
or statement of the actual speech. Johnson said, "That speech I
wrote in a garret, in Exeter Street." BOSWELL: _Life of Johnson,
1741._




LORD LYTTLETON. 1709-1773.

For his chaste Muse employ'd her heaven-taught lyre
None but the noblest passions to inspire,
Not one immoral, one corrupted thought,
One line which, dying, he could wish to blot.

_Prologue to Thomson's Coriolanus._


Women, like princes, find few real friends.

_Advice to a Lady._


What is your sex's earliest, latest care,
Your heart's supreme ambition? To be fair.

_Advice to a Lady._


The lover in the husband may be lost.

_Advice to a Lady._


How much the wife is dearer than the bride.

_An Irregular Ode._


None without hope e'er lov'd the brightest fair,
But love can hope where reason would despair.

_Epigram._


Where none admire, 't is useless to excel;
Where none are beaux, 't is vain to be a belle.

_Soliloquy on a Beauty in the Country._


Alas! by some degree of woe
We every bliss must gain;
The heart can ne'er a transport know
That never feels a pain.

_Song._





EDWARD MOORE. 1712-1757.

Can't I another's face commend,
And to her virtues be a friend,
But instantly your forehead lowers,
As if _her_ merit lessen'd _yours_?



_The Farmer, the Spaniel, and the Cat. Fable ix._


The maid who modestly conceals
Her beauties, while she hides, reveals;
Give but a glimpse, and fancy draws
Whate'er the Grecian Venus was.

_The Spider and the Bee. Fable x._


But from the hoop's bewitching round,
Her very shoe has power to wound.

_The Spider and the Bee. Fable x._


Time still, as he flies, brings increase to her truth,
And gives to her mind what he steals from her youth.

_The Happy Marriage._


I am rich beyond the dreams of avarice.[378-1]

_The Gamester. Act ii. Sc. 2._


'T is now the summer of your youth. Time has not cropt the roses
from your cheek, though sorrow long has washed them.

_The Gamester. Act iii. Sc. 4._


Labour for his pains.[378-2]

_The Boy and the Rainbow._


FOOTNOTES:

[378-1] See Johnson, page 374.

[378-2] See Shakespeare, page 101.




LAURENCE STERNE. 1713-1768.

Go, poor devil, get thee gone! Why should I hurt thee? This world
surely is wide enough to hold both thee and me.

_Tristram Shandy_ (orig. ed.). _Vol. ii. chap. xii._


Great wits jump.[378-3]

_Tristram Shandy_ (orig. ed.). _Vol. iii. Chap. ix._


"Our armies swore terribly in Flanders," cried my Uncle Toby,
"but nothing to this."

_Tristram Shandy_ (orig. ed.). _Vol. iii. Chap. xi._


Of all the cants which are canted in this canting world, though
the cant of hypocrites may be the worst, the cant of criticism is
the most tormenting!

_Tristram Shandy_ (orig. ed.). _Vol. iii. Chap. xii._


The accusing spirit, which flew up to heaven's chancery with the
oath, blushed as he gave it in; and the recording angel as he
wrote it down dropped a tear upon the word and blotted it out
forever.[379-1]

_Tristram Shandy_ (orig. ed.). _Vol. vi. Chap. viii._


I am sick as a horse.

_Tristram Shandy_ (orig. ed.). _Vol. vii. Chap. xi._


"They order," said I, "this matter better in France."

_Sentimental Journey. Page 1._


I pity the man who can travel from Dan to Beersheba and cry, "'T
is all barren!"

_In the Street. Calais._


God tempers the wind to the shorn lamb.[379-2]

_Maria._


"Disguise thyself as thou wilt, still, Slavery," said I, "still
thou art a bitter draught."

_The Passport. The Hotel at Paris._


The sad vicissitude of things.[379-3]

_Sermon xvi._


Trust that man in nothing who has not a conscience in everything.

_Sermon xxvii._


FOOTNOTES:

[378-3] Great wits jump.--BYROM: _The Nimmers._ BUCKINGHAM: _The
Chances, act. iv. sc. 1._

Good wits jump.--CERVANTES: _Don Quixote, part ii. Chap. xxxviii._

[379-1]
But sad as angels for the good man's sin,
Weep to record, and blush to give it in.

CAMPBELL: _Pleasures of Hope, part ii. line 357._

[379-2] Dieu mésure le froid à la brebis tondue (God measures the
cold to the shorn lamb).--HENRI ESTIENNE (1594): _Prémices, etc.
p. 47._

See Herbert, page 206.

[379-3] Revolves the sad vicissitudes of things.--R. GIFFORD:
_Contemplation._




WILLIAM SHENSTONE. 1714-1763.

Whoe'er has travell'd 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.[379-4]

_Written on a Window of an Inn._


So sweetly she bade me adieu,
I thought that she bade me return.

_A Pastoral. Part i._


I have found out a gift for my fair;
I have found where the wood-pigeons breed.

_A Pastoral. Part i._


My banks they are furnish'd with bees,
Whose murmur invites one to sleep.

_A Pastoral. Part ii. Hope._


For seldom shall she hear a tale
So sad, so tender, and so true.

_Jemmy Dawson._


Her cap, far whiter than the driven snow,
Emblems right meet of decency does yield.

_The Schoolmistress. Stanza 6._


Pun-provoking thyme.

_The Schoolmistress. Stanza 11._


A little bench of heedless bishops here,
And there a chancellor in embryo.

_The Schoolmistress. Stanza 28._


FOOTNOTES:

[379-4] See Johnson, page 372.

Archbishop Leighton often said that if he were to choose a place
to die in, it should be an inn.--_Works, vol. i. p. 76._




JOHN BROWN. 1715-1766.

Now let us thank the Eternal Power: convinced
That Heaven but tries our virtue by affliction,--
That oft the cloud which wraps the present hour
Serves but to brighten all our future days.

_Barbarossa. Act v. Sc. 3._


And coxcombs vanquish Berkeley by a grin.

_An Essay on Satire, occasioned by the Death of Mr. Pope._[380-1]


FOOTNOTES:

[380-1] ANDERSON: _British Poets, vol. x. p. 879._ See note in
"Contemporary Review," September, 1867, p. 4.




JAMES TOWNLEY. 1715-1778.

_Kitty._ Shikspur? Shikspur? Who wrote it? No, I never read
Shikspur.

_Lady Bab._ Then you have an immense pleasure to come.

_High Life below Stairs. Act ii. Sc. 1._


From humble Port to imperial Tokay.



_High Life below Stairs. Act ii. Sc. 1._





THOMAS GRAY. 1716-1771.

What female heart can gold despise?
What cat 's averse to fish?

_On the death of a Favourite Cat._


A fav'rite has no friend!

_On the death of a Favourite Cat._


Ye distant spires, ye antique towers.

_On a Distant Prospect of Eton College. Stanza 1._


Ah, happy hills! ah, pleasing shade!
Ah, fields beloved in vain!
Where once my careless childhood stray'd,
A stranger yet to pain!
I feel the gales that from ye blow
A momentary bliss bestow.

_On a Distant Prospect of Eton College. Stanza 2._


They hear a voice in every wind,
And snatch a fearful joy.

_On a Distant Prospect of Eton College. Stanza 4._


Gay hope is theirs by fancy fed,
Less pleasing when possest;
The tear forgot as soon as shed,
The sunshine of the breast.

_On a Distant Prospect of Eton College. Stanza 5._


Alas! regardless of their doom,
The little victims play;
No sense have they of ills to come,
Nor care beyond to-day.

_On a Distant Prospect of Eton College. Stanza 6._


Ah, tell them they are men!

_On a Distant Prospect of Eton College. Stanza 6._


And moody madness laughing wild
Amid severest woe.

_On a Distant Prospect of Eton College. Stanza 8._


To each his suff'rings; all are men,
Condemn'd alike to groan,--
The tender for another's pain,
Th' unfeeling for his own.
Yet ah! why should they know their fate,
Since sorrow never comes too late,
And happiness too swiftly flies?
Thought would destroy their paradise.
No more; where ignorance is bliss,
'T is folly to be wise.[382-1]

_On a Distant Prospect of Eton College. Stanza 10._


Daughter of Jove, relentless power,
Thou tamer of the human breast,
Whose iron scourge and tort'ring hour
The bad affright, afflict the best!

_Hymn to Adversity._


From Helicon's harmonious springs
A thousand rills their mazy progress take.

_The Progress of Poesy. I. 1, Line 3._


Glance their many-twinkling feet.

_The Progress of Poesy. I. 3, Line 11._


O'er her warm cheek and rising bosom move
The bloom of young Desire and purple light of Love.[382-2]

_The Progress of Poesy. I. 3, Line 16._


Her track, where'er the goddess roves,
Glory pursue, and gen'rous shame,
Th' unconquerable mind,[382-3] and freedom's holy flame.

_The Progress of Poesy. II. 2, Line 10._


Or ope the sacred source of sympathetic tears.

_The Progress of Poesy. III. 1, Line 12._


He pass'd the flaming bounds of place and time:
The living throne, the sapphire blaze,
Where angels tremble while they gaze,
He saw; but blasted with excess of light,
Closed his eyes in endless night.

_The Progress of Poesy. III. 2, Line 4._


Bright-eyed Fancy, hov'ring o'er,
Scatters from her pictured urn
Thoughts that breathe and words that burn.[382-4]

_The Progress of Poesy. III. 3, Line 2._


Beyond the limits of a vulgar fate,
Beneath the good how far,--but far above the great.

_The Progress of Poesy. III. 3, Line 16._


Ruin seize thee, ruthless king!
Confusion on thy banners wait!
Though fann'd by Conquest's crimson wing,
They mock the air with idle state.

_The Bard. I. 1, Line 1._


Loose his beard, and hoary hair
Stream'd like a meteor to the troubled air.[383-1]

_The Bard. I. 2, Line 5._


To high-born Hoel's harp, or soft Llewellyn's lay.

_The Bard. I. 2, Line 14._


Dear as the light that visits these sad eyes;
Dear as the ruddy drops that warm my heart.[383-2]

_The Bard. I. 3, Line 12._


Weave the warp, and weave the woof,
The winding-sheet of Edward's race.
Give ample room and verge enough[383-3]
The characters of hell to trace.

_The Bard. II. 1, Line 1._


Fair laughs the morn, and soft the zephyr blows;
While proudly riding o'er the azure realm
In gallant trim the gilded vessel goes,
Youth on the prow, and Pleasure at the helm;
Regardless of the sweeping whirlwind's sway,
That hush'd in grim repose expects his evening prey.

_The Bard. II. 2, Line 9._


Ye towers of Julius, London's lasting shame,
With many a foul and midnight murder fed.

_The Bard. II. 3, Line 11._


Visions of glory, spare my aching sight!
Ye unborn ages, crowd not on my soul!

_The Bard. III. 1, Line 11._


And truth severe, by fairy fiction drest.

_The Bard. III. 3, Line 3._


Comus and his midnight crew.

_Ode for Music. Line 2._


While bright-eyed Science watches round.

_Ode for Music. Chorus. Line 3._


The still small voice of gratitude.

_Ode for Music. V. Line 8._


Iron sleet of arrowy shower
Hurtles in the darken'd air.

_The Fatal Sisters. Line 3._


The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,
The lowing herd winds slowly o'er the lea,[384-1]
The ploughman homeward plods his weary way,
And leaves the world to darkness and to me.

_Elegy in a Country Churchyard. Stanza 1._


Each in his narrow cell forever laid,
The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep.

_Elegy in a Country Churchyard. Stanza 4._


The breezy call of incense-breathing morn.

_Elegy in a Country Churchyard. Stanza 5._


Nor grandeur hear with a disdainful smile
The short and simple annals of the poor.

_Elegy in a Country Churchyard. Stanza 8._


The boast of heraldry, the pomp of pow'r,
And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave,
Await alike the inevitable hour.
The paths of glory lead but to the grave.

_Elegy in a Country Churchyard. Stanza 9._


Where through the long-drawn aisle and fretted vault,
The pealing anthem swells the note of praise.

_Elegy in a Country Churchyard. Stanza 10._


Can storied urn, or animated bust,
Back to its mansion call the fleeting breath?
Can honour's voice provoke the silent dust,
Or flatt'ry soothe the dull cold ear of death?

_Elegy in a Country Churchyard. Stanza 11._


Hands that the rod of empire might have sway'd,
Or waked to ecstasy the living lyre.

_Elegy in a Country Churchyard. Stanza 12._


But Knowledge to their eyes her ample page,
Rich with the spoils of time, did ne'er unroll;[384-2]
Chill penury repress'd their noble rage,
And froze the genial current of the soul.

_Elegy in a Country Churchyard. Stanza 13._


Full many a gem of purest ray serene
The dark unfathom'd caves of ocean bear;
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air.[385-1]

_Elegy in a Country Churchyard. Stanza 14._


Some village Hampden, that with dauntless breast
The little tyrant of his fields withstood,
Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest,
Some Cromwell guiltless of his country's blood.

_Elegy in a Country Churchyard. Stanza 15._


The applause of list'ning senates to command,
The threats of pain and ruin to despise,
To scatter plenty o'er a smiling land,
And read their history in a nation's eyes.

_Elegy in a Country Churchyard. Stanza 16._


Forbade to wade through slaughter to a throne,
And shut the gates of mercy on mankind.

_Elegy in a Country Churchyard. Stanza 17._


Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife
Their sober wishes never learn'd to stray;
Along the cool sequester'd vale of life
They kept the noiseless tenor of their way.[385-2]

_Elegy in a Country Churchyard. Stanza 19._


Implores the passing tribute of a sigh.

_Elegy in a Country Churchyard. Stanza 20._


And many a holy text around she strews,
That teach the rustic moralist to die.

_Elegy in a Country Churchyard. Stanza 21._


For who, to dumb forgetfulness a prey,
This pleasing anxious being e'er resign'd,
Left the warm precincts of the cheerful day,
Nor cast one longing ling'ring look behind?

_Elegy in a Country Churchyard. Stanza 22._


E'en from the tomb the voice of nature cries,
E'en in our ashes live their wonted fires.[385-3]

_Elegy in a Country Churchyard. Stanza 23._


Brushing with hasty steps the dews away,
To meet the sun upon the upland lawn.

_Elegy in a Country Churchyard. Stanza 25._


One morn I miss'd him on the custom'd hill,
Along the heath, and near his fav'rite tree:
Another came; nor yet beside the rill,
Nor up the lawn, nor at the wood was he.

_Elegy in a Country Churchyard. Stanza 28._


Here rests his head upon the lap of earth,
A youth to fortune and to fame unknown:
Fair Science frown'd not on his humble birth,
And Melancholy mark'd him for her own.[386-1]

_The Epitaph._


Large was his bounty, and his soul sincere,
Heaven did a recompense as largely send:
He gave to mis'ry (all he had) a tear,
He gained from Heav'n ('t was all he wish'd) a friend.

_The Epitaph._


No further seek his merits to disclose,
Or draw his frailties from their dread abode
(There they alike in trembling hope repose),
The bosom of his Father and his God.

_The Epitaph._


And weep the more, because I weep in vain.

_Sonnet. On the Death of Mr. West._


Rich windows that exclude the light,
And passages that lead to nothing.

_A Long Story._


The hues of bliss more brightly glow,
Chastised by sabler tints of woe.

_Ode on the Pleasure arising from Vicissitude. Line 45._


The meanest floweret of the vale,
The simplest note that swells the gale,
The common sun, the air, the skies,
To him are opening paradise.

_Ode on the Pleasure arising from Vicissitude. Line 53._


And hie him home, at evening's close,
To sweet repast and calm repose.

_Ode on the Pleasure arising from Vicissitude. Line 87._


From toil he wins his spirits light,
From busy day the peaceful night;
Rich, from the very want of wealth,
In heaven's best treasures, peace and health.

_Ode on the Pleasure arising from Vicissitude. Line 93._


The social smile, the sympathetic tear.

_Education and Government._


When love could teach a monarch to be wise,
And gospel-light first dawn'd from Bullen's eyes.[387-1]

Too poor for a bribe, and too proud to importune;
He had not the method of making a fortune.

_On his own Character._


Now as the Paradisiacal pleasures of the Mahometans consist in
playing upon the flute and lying with Houris, be mine to read
eternal new romances of Marivaux and Crebillon.

_To Mr. West. Letter iv. Third Series._


FOOTNOTES:

[382-1] See Davenant, page 217.

He that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.--_Ecclesiastes i.
18._

[382-2] The light of love.--BYRON: _Bride of Abydos, canto i.
stanza 6._

[382-3] Unconquerable mind.--WORDSWORTH: _To Toussaint L'
Ouverture._

[382-4] See Cowley, page 262.

[383-1] See Cowley, page 261. Milton, page 224.

[383-2] See Shakespeare, page 112. Otway, page 280.

[383-3] See Dryden, page 277.

[384-1] The first edition reads,--

"The lowing herds wind slowly o'er the lea."

[384-2] See Sir Thomas Browne, page 217.

[385-1] See Young, page 311.

Nor waste their sweetness in the desert air.--CHURCHILL: _Gotham,
book ii. line 20._

[385-2] Usually quoted "even tenor of their way."

[385-3] See Chaucer, page 3.

[386-1] See Walton, page 208.

[387-1] This was intended to be introduced in the "Alliance of
Education and Government."--_Mason's edition of Gray, vol. iii. p.
114._




DAVID GARRICK. 1716-1779.

Corrupted freemen are the worst of slaves.

_Prologue to the Gamesters._


Their cause I plead,--plead it in heart and mind;
A fellow-feeling makes one wondrous kind.[387-2]

_Prologue on Quitting the Stage in 1776._


Prologues like compliments are loss of time;
'T is penning bows and making legs in rhyme.

_Prologue to Crisp's Tragedy of Virginia._


Let others hail the rising sun:
I bow to that whose course is run.[387-3]

_On the Death of Mr. Pelham._


This scholar, rake, Christian, dupe, gamester, and poet.

_Jupiter and Mercury._


Hearts of oak are our ships,
Hearts of oak are our men.[388-1]

_Hearts of Oak._


Here lies James Quinn. Deign, reader, to be taught,
Whate'er thy strength of body, force of thought,
In Nature's happiest mould however cast,
To this complexion thou must come at last.

_Epitaph on Quinn. Murphy's Life of Garrick, Vol. ii. p. 38._


Are these the choice dishes the Doctor has sent us?
Is this the great poet whose works so content us?
This Goldsmith's fine feast, who has written fine books?
Heaven sends us good meat, but the Devil sends cooks?[388-2]

_Epigram on Goldsmith's Retaliation. Vol. ii. p. 157._


Here lies Nolly Goldsmith, for shortness called Noll,
Who wrote like an angel, and talk'd like poor Poll.

_Impromptu Epitaph on Goldsmith._


FOOTNOTES:

[387-2] See Burton, page 185.

[387-3] Pompey bade Sylla recollect that more worshipped the
rising than the setting sun.--PLUTARCH: _Life of Pompey._

[388-1]
Our ships were British oak,
And hearts of oak our men.

S. J. ARNOLD: _Death of Nelson._

[388-2] See Tusser, page 20.




WILLIAM B. RHODES. _Circa_ 1790.

Who dares this pair of boots displace,
Must meet Bombastes face to face.[388-3]

_Bombastes Furioso. Act i. Sc. 4._


_Bom._ So have I heard on Afric's burning shore
A hungry lion give a grievous roar;
The grievous roar echoed along the shore.

_Artax._ So have I heard on Afric's burning shore
Another lion give a grievous roar;
And the first lion thought the last a bore.

_Bombastes Furioso. Act i. Sc. 4._


FOOTNOTES:

[388-3]
Let none but he these arms displace,
Who dares Orlando's fury face.

CERVANTES: _Don Quixote, part ii. chap. lxvi._


RAY: _Proverbs._ THOMAS: _English Prose Romance, page 85._




MRS. GREVILLE.[389-1] _Circa_ 1793.

Nor peace nor ease the heart can know
Which, like the needle true,
Turns at the touch of joy or woe,
But turning, trembles too.

_A Prayer for Indifference._


FOOTNOTES:

[389-1] The pretty Fanny Macartney.--WALPOLE: _Memoirs._




HORACE WALPOLE. 1717-1797.

Harry Vane, Pulteney's toad-eater,

_Letter to Sir Horace Mann, 1742._


The world is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those who
feel.

_Letter to Sir Horace Mann, 1770._


A careless song, with a little nonsense in it now and then, does
not misbecome a monarch.[389-2]

_Letter to Sir Horace Mann, 1774._


The whole [Scotch] nation hitherto has been void of wit and
humour, and even incapable of relishing it.[389-3]

_Letter to Sir Horace Mann, 1778._


FOOTNOTES:

[389-2]
A little nonsense now and then
Is relished by the wisest men.

ANONYMOUS.

[389-3] It requires a surgical operation to get a joke well into a
Scotch understanding.--SYDNEY SMITH: _Lady Holland's Memoir, vol
i. p. 15._




WILLIAM COLLINS. 1720-1756.

In numbers warmly pure and sweetly strong.

_Ode to Simplicity._


Well may your hearts believe the truths I tell:
'T is virtue makes the bliss, where'er we dwell.[389-4]

_Oriental Eclogues. 1, Line 5._


How sleep the brave who sink to rest
By all their country's wishes bless'd!

_Ode written in the year 1746._


By fairy hands their knell is rung;[389-5]
By forms unseen their dirge is sung;
There Honour comes, a pilgrim gray,
To bless the turf that wraps their clay;
And Freedom shall awhile repair,
To dwell a weeping hermit there!

_Ode written in the year 1746._


When Music, heavenly maid, was young,
While yet in early Greece she sung.

_The Passions. Line 1._


Fill'd with fury, rapt, inspired.

_The Passions. Line 10._


'T was sad by fits, by starts 't was wild.

_The Passions. Line 28._


In notes by distance made more sweet.[390-1]

_The Passions. Line 60._


In hollow murmurs died away.

_The Passions. Line 68._


O Music! sphere-descended maid,
Friend of Pleasure, Wisdom's aid!

_The Passions. Line 95._


In yonder grave a Druid lies.

_Death of Thomson._


Too nicely Jonson knew the critic's part;
Nature in him was almost lost in Art.

_To Sir Thomas Hammer on his Edition of Shakespeare._


Each lonely scene shall thee restore;
For thee the tear be duly shed,
Belov'd till life can charm no more,
And mourn'd till Pity's self be dead.

_Dirge in Cymbeline._


FOOTNOTES:

[389-4] See Pope, page 320.

[389-5]
_Var._ By hands unseen the knell is rung;
By fairy forms their dirge is sung.

[390-1]
Sweetest melodies
Are those that are by distance made more sweet.

WORDSWORTH: _Personal Talk, stanza 2._




JAMES MERRICK. 1720-1769.

Not what we wish, but what we want,
Oh, let thy grace supply![390-2]

_Hymn._


Oft has it been my lot to mark
A proud, conceited, talking spark.

_The Chameleon._


FOOTNOTES:

[390-2] Mê moi genoith' a boulom' all' a sympherei (Let not that
happen which I wish, but that which is right).--MENANDER:
_Fragment._




SAMUEL FOOTE. 1720-1777.

He made him a hut, wherein he did put
The carcass of Robinson Crusoe.
O poor Robinson Crusoe!

_The Mayor of Garratt. Act i. Sc. 1._


Born in a cellar, and living in a garret.[391-1]

_The Author. Act ii._


FOOTNOTES:

[391-1] See Congreve, page 294.

Born in the garret, in the kitchen bred.--BYRON: _A Sketch._




JAMES FORDYCE. 1720-1796.

Henceforth the majesty of God revere;
Fear Him, and you have nothing else to fear.[391-2]

_Answer to a Gentleman who apologized to the Author for Swearing._


FOOTNOTES:

[391-2] Je crains Dieu, cher Abner, et n'ai point d'autre crainte
(I fear God, dear Abner, and I have no other fear).--RACINE:
_Athalie, act i. sc. 1_ (1639-1699).

From Piety, whose soul sincere
Fears God, and knows no other fear.

W. SMYTH: _Ode for the Installation of the Duke of Gloucester as
Chancellor of Cambridge._




MARK AKENSIDE. 1721-1770.

Such and so various are the tastes of men.

_Pleasures of the Imagination. Book iii. Line 567._


Than Timoleon's arms require,
And Tully's curule chair, and Milton's golden lyre.

_Ode. On a Sermon against Glory. Stanza ii._


The man forget not, though in rags he lies,
And know the mortal through a crown's disguise.

_Epistle to Curio._


Seeks painted trifles and fantastic toys,
And eagerly pursues imaginary joys.



_The Virtuoso. Stanza x._





TOBIAS SMOLLETT. 1721-1771.

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.

_Ode to Independence._


Thy fatal shafts unerring move,
I bow before thine altar, Love!

_Roderick Random. Chap. xl._


Facts are stubborn things.[392-1]

_Translation of Gil Blas. Book x. Chap. 1._


FOOTNOTES:

[392-1] Facts are stubborn things.--ELLIOT: _Essay on Field
Husbandry, p. 35_ (1747).




SIR WILLIAM BLACKSTONE. 1723-1780.

The royal navy of England hath ever been its greatest defence and
ornament; it is its ancient and natural strength,--the floating
bulwark of our island.

_Commentaries. Vol. i. Book i. Chap. xiii. § 418._


Time whereof the memory of man runneth not to the contrary.

_Commentaries. Vol. i. Book i. Chap. xviii. § 472._





JOHN HOME. 1724-1808.

In the first days
Of my distracting grief, I found myself
As women wish to be who love their lords.

_Douglas. Act i. Sc. 1._


I 'll woo her as the lion wooes his brides.

_Douglas. Act i. Sc. 1._


My name is Norval; on the Grampian hills
My father feeds his flocks; a frugal swain,
Whose constant cares were to increase his store,
And keep his only son, myself, at home.

_Douglas. Act ii. Sc. 1._


A rude and boisterous captain of the sea.

_Douglas. Act iv. Sc. 1._


Like Douglas conquer, or like Douglas die.

_Douglas. Act v. Sc. 1._





WILLIAM MASON. 1725-1797.

The fattest hog in Epicurus' sty.[393-1]

_Heroic Epistle._


FOOTNOTES:

[393-1]
Me pinguem et nitidum bene curata cute vises,
. . . Epicuri de grege porcum

(You may see me, fat and shining, with well-cared for hide,-- . . . a
hog from Epicurus' herd).--HORACE: _Epistolæ, lib. i. iv. 15, 16._




RICHARD GIFFORD. 1725-1807.

Verse sweetens toil, however rude the sound;
She feels no biting pang the while she sings;
Nor, as she turns the giddy wheel around,[393-2]
Revolves the sad vicissitudes of things.[393-3]

_Contemplation._


FOOTNOTES:

[393-2] Thus altered by Johnson,--

All at her work the village maiden sings,
Nor, while she turns the giddy wheel around.

[393-3] See Sterne, page 379.




ARTHUR MURPHY. 1727-1805.

Thus far we run before the wind.

_The Apprentice. Act v. Sc. 1._


Above the vulgar flight of common souls.

_Zenobia. Act v._


Picked up his crumbs.

_The Upholsterer. Act i._





JANE ELLIOTT. 1727-1805.

The flowers of the forest are a' wide awae.[393-4]

_The Flowers of the Forest._


FOOTNOTES:

[393-4] This line appears in the "Flowers of the Forest," part
second, a later poem by Mrs. Cockburn. See Dyce's "Specimens of
British Poetesses," p. 374.




OLIVER GOLDSMITH. 1728-1774.

Remote, unfriended, melancholy, slow,
Or by the lazy Scheld or wandering Po.

_The Traveller. Line 1._


Where'er I roam, whatever realms to see,
My heart untravell'd fondly turns to thee;
Still to my brother turns with ceaseless pain,
And drags at each remove a lengthening chain.

_The Traveller. Line 7._


And learn the luxury of doing good.[394-1]

_The Traveller. Line 22._


Some fleeting good, that mocks me with the view.

_The Traveller. Line 26._


These little things are great to little man.

_The Traveller. Line 42._


Creation's heir, the world, the world is mine!

_The Traveller. Line 50._


Such is the patriot's boast, where'er we roam,--
His first, best country ever is at home.

_The Traveller. Line 73._


Where wealth and freedom reign contentment fails,
And honour sinks where commerce long prevails.

_The Traveller. Line 91._


Man seems the only growth that dwindles here.

_The Traveller. Line 126._


The canvas glow'd beyond ev'n Nature warm,
The pregnant quarry teem'd with human form.[394-2]

_The Traveller. Line 137._


By sports like these are all their cares beguil'd;
The sports of children satisfy the child.

_The Traveller. Line 153._


But winter lingering chills the lap of May.

_The Traveller. Line 172._


Cheerful at morn, he wakes from short repose,
Breasts the keen air, and carols as he goes.

_The Traveller. Line 185._


So the loud torrent and the whirlwind's roar
But bind him to his native mountains more.

_The Traveller. Line 217._


Alike all ages. Dames of ancient days
Have led their children through the mirthful maze,
And the gay grandsire, skill'd in gestic lore,
Has frisk'd beneath the burden of threescore.

_The Traveller. Line 251._


They please, are pleas'd; they give to get esteem,
Till seeming blest, they grow to what they seem.[395-1]

_The Traveller. Line 266._


Embosom'd in the deep where Holland lies.
Methinks her patient sons before me stand,
Where the broad ocean leans against the land.

_The Traveller. Line 282._


Pride in their port, defiance in their eye,
I see the lords of humankind pass by.[395-2]

_The Traveller. Line 327._


The land of scholars and the nurse of arms.

_The Traveller. Line 356._


For just experience tells, in every soil,
That those that think must govern those that toil.

_The Traveller. Line 372._


Laws grind the poor, and rich men rule the law.

_The Traveller. Line 386._


Forc'd from their homes, a melancholy train,
To traverse climes beyond the western main;
Where wild Oswego spreads her swamps around,
And Niagara stuns with thundering sound.

_The Traveller. Line 409._


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

_The Traveller. Line 423._


Luke's iron crown, and Damien's bed of steel.[395-3]

_The Traveller. Line 436._


Sweet Auburn! loveliest village of the plain.

_The Deserted Village. Line 1._


The hawthorn bush, with seats beneath the shade,
For talking age and whispering lovers made.

_The Deserted Village. Line 13._


The bashful virgin's sidelong looks of love.

_The Deserted Village. Line 29._


Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey,
Where wealth accumulates, and men decay.
Princes and lords may flourish or may fade,--
A breath can make them, as a breath has made;[396-1]
But a bold peasantry, their country's pride,
When once destroy'd, can never be supplied.

_The Deserted Village. Line 51._


His best companions, innocence and health;
And his best riches, ignorance of wealth.

_The Deserted Village. Line 61._


How blest is he who crowns in shades like these
A youth of labour with an age of ease!

_The Deserted Village. Line 99._


While Resignation gently slopes away,
And all his prospects brightening to the last,
His heaven commences ere the world be past.

_The Deserted Village. Line 110._


The watch-dog's voice that bay'd the whispering wind,
And the loud laugh that spoke the vacant mind.

_The Deserted Village. Line 121._


A man he was to all the country dear,
And passing rich with forty pounds a year.

_The Deserted Village. Line 141._


Wept o'er his wounds, or tales of sorrow done,
Shoulder'd his crutch, and shew'd how fields were won.

_The Deserted Village. Line 157._


Careless their merits or their faults to scan,
His pity gave ere charity began.
Thus to relieve the wretched was his pride,
And even his failings lean'd to Virtue's side.

_The Deserted Village. Line 161._


And as a bird each fond endearment tries
To tempt its new-fledg'd offspring to the skies,
He tried each art, reprov'd each dull delay,
Allur'd to brighter worlds, and led the way.

_The Deserted Village. Line 167._


Truth from his lips prevail'd with double sway,
And fools who came to scoff, remain'd to pray.[397-1]

_The Deserted Village. Line 179._


Even children follow'd with endearing wile,
And pluck'd his gown, to share the good man's smile.

_The Deserted Village. Line 183._


As some tall cliff that lifts its awful form,
Swells from the vale, and midway leaves the storm,--
Though round its breast the rolling clouds are spread,
Eternal sunshine settles on its head.

_The Deserted Village. Line 189._


Well had the boding tremblers learn'd to trace
The day's disasters in his morning face;
Full well they laugh'd with counterfeited glee
At all his jokes, for many a joke had he;
Full well the busy whisper circling round
Convey'd the dismal tidings when he frown'd.
Yet was he kind, or if severe in aught,
The love he bore to learning was in fault;
The village all declar'd how much he knew,
'T was certain he could write and cipher too.

_The Deserted Village. Line 199._


In arguing too, the parson own'd his skill,
For e'en though vanquish'd he could argue still;
While words of learned length and thundering sound
Amaz'd the gazing rustics rang'd around;
And still they gaz'd, and still the wonder grew
That one small head could carry all he knew.

_The Deserted Village. Line 209._


Where village statesmen talk'd with looks profound,
And news much older than their ale went round.

_The Deserted Village. Line 223._


The whitewash'd wall, the nicely sanded floor,
The varnish'd clock that click'd behind the door;
The chest, contriv'd a double debt to pay,--
A bed by night, a chest of drawers by day.[397-2]

_The Deserted Village. Line 227._


The twelve good rules, the royal game of goose.[398-1]

_The Deserted Village. Line 232._


To me more dear, congenial to my heart,
One native charm, than all the gloss of art.

_The Deserted Village. Line 253._


And e'en while fashion's brightest arts decoy,
The heart distrusting asks if this be joy.

_The Deserted Village. Line 263._


Her modest looks the cottage might adorn,
Sweet as the primrose peeps beneath the thorn.

_The Deserted Village. Line 329._


Through torrid tracts with fainting steps they go,
Where wild Altama murmurs to their woe.

_The Deserted Village. Line 344._


In all the silent manliness of grief.

_The Deserted Village. Line 384._


O Luxury! thou curst by Heaven's decree!

_The Deserted Village. Line 385._


Thou source of all my bliss and all my woe,
That found'st me poor at first, and keep'st me so.

_The Deserted Village. Line 413._


Such dainties to them, their health it might hurt;
It 's like sending them ruffles when wanting a shirt.[398-2]

_The Haunch of Venison._


As aromatic plants bestow
No spicy fragrance while they grow;
But crush'd or trodden to the ground,
Diffuse their balmy sweets around.[398-3]

_The Captivity. Act i._


To the last moment of his breath,
On hope the wretch relies;
And even the pang preceding death
Bids expectation rise.[398-4]

_The Captivity. Act ii._


Hope, like the gleaming taper's light,
Adorns and cheers our way;[399-1]
And still, as darker grows the night,
Emits a brighter ray.

_The Captivity. Act ii._


Our Garrick 's a salad; for in him we see
Oil, vinegar, sugar, and saltness agree!

_Retaliation. Line 11._


Who mix'd reason with pleasure, and wisdom with mirth:
If he had any faults, he has left us in doubt.

_Retaliation. Line 24._


Who, born for the universe, narrow'd his mind,
And to party gave up what was meant for mankind;
Though fraught with all learning, yet straining his throat
To persuade Tommy Townshend to lend him a vote.
Who too deep for his hearers still went on refining,
And thought of convincing while they thought of dining:
Though equal to all things, for all things unfit;
Too nice for a statesman, too proud for a wit.

_Retaliation. Line 31._


His conduct still right, with his argument wrong.

_Retaliation. Line 46._


A flattering painter, who made it his care
To draw men as they ought to be, not as they are.

_Retaliation. Line 63._


Here lies David Garrick, describe me who can,
An abridgment of all that was pleasant in man.

_Retaliation. Line 93._


As a wit, if not first, in the very first line.

_Retaliation. Line 96._


On the stage he was natural, simple, affecting;
'T was only that when he was off he was acting.

_Retaliation. Line 101._


He cast off his friends as a huntsman his pack,
For he knew when he pleas'd he could whistle them back.

_Retaliation. Line 107._


Who pepper'd the highest was surest to please.

_Retaliation. Line 112._


When they talk'd of their Raphaels, Correggios, and stuff,
He shifted his trumpet and only took snuff.

_Retaliation. Line 145._


The best-humour'd man, with the worst-humour'd Muse.[400-1]

_Postscript._


Good people all, with one accord,
Lament for Madam Blaize,
Who never wanted a good word
From those who spoke her praise.

_Elegy on Mrs. Mary Blaize._[400-2]


The king himself has followed her
When she has walk'd before.

_Elegy on Mrs. Mary Blaize._


A kind and gentle heart he had,
To comfort friends and foes;
The naked every day he clad
When he put on his clothes.

_Elegy on the Death of a Mad Dog._


And in that town a dog was found,
As many dogs there be,
Both mongrel, puppy, whelp, and hound,
And curs of low degree.

_Elegy on the Death of a Mad Dog._


The dog, to gain his private ends,
Went mad, and bit the man.

_Elegy on the Death of a Mad Dog._


The man recovered of the bite,
The dog it was that died.[400-3]

_Elegy on the Death of a Mad Dog._


A night-cap deck'd his brows instead of bay,--
A cap by night, a stocking all the day.[401-1]

_Description of an Author's Bed-chamber._


This same philosophy is a good horse in the stable, but an arrant
jade on a journey.[401-2]

_The Good-Natured Man. Act i._


All his faults are such that one loves him still the better for
them.

_The Good-Natured Man. Act i._


Silence gives consent.[401-3]

_The Good-Natured Man. Act ii._


Measures, not men, have always been my mark.[401-4]

_The Good-Natured Man. Act ii._


I love everything that 's old: old friends, old times, old
manners, old books, old wine.[401-5]

_She Stoops to Conquer. Act i._


The very pink of perfection.

_She Stoops to Conquer. Act i._


The genteel thing is the genteel thing any time, if as be that a
gentleman bees in a concatenation accordingly.

_She Stoops to Conquer. Act i._


I 'll be with you in the squeezing of a lemon.

_She Stoops to Conquer. Act i._


Ask me no questions, and I 'll tell you no fibs.

_She Stoops to Conquer. Act iii._


We sometimes had those little rubs which Providence sends to
enhance the value of its favours.

_Vicar of Wakefield. Chap. i._


Handsome is that handsome does.[401-6]

_Vicar of Wakefield. Chap. i._


The premises being thus settled, I proceed to observe that the
concatenation of self-existence, proceeding in a reciprocal
duplicate ratio, naturally produces a problematical dialogism,
which in some measure proves that the essence of spirituality may
be referred to the second predicable.

_Vicar of Wakefield. Chap. vii._


I find you want me to furnish you with argument and intellect
too.

_Vicar of Wakefield. Chap. vii._


Turn, gentle Hermit of the Dale,
And guide my lonely way
To where yon taper cheers the vale
With hospitable ray.

_The Hermit. Chap. viii. Stanza 1._


Taught by that Power that pities me,
I learn to pity them.[402-1]

_The Hermit. Chap. viii. Stanza 6._


Man wants but little here below,
Nor wants that little long.[402-2]

_The Hermit. Chap. viii. Stanza 8._


And what is friendship but a name,
A charm that lulls to sleep,
A shade that follows wealth or fame,
And leaves the wretch to weep?

_The Hermit. Chap. viii. Stanza 19._


The sigh that rends thy constant heart
Shall break thy Edwin's too.

_The Hermit. Chap. viii. Stanza 33._


By the living jingo, she was all of a muck of sweat.

_The Hermit. Chap. ix._


They would talk of nothing but high life, and high-lived company,
with other fashionable topics, such as pictures, taste,
Shakespeare, and the musical glasses.

_The Hermit. Chap. ix._


It has been a thousand times observed, and I must observe it once
more, that the hours we pass with happy prospects in view are
more pleasing than those crowned with fruition.[402-3]

_The Hermit. Chap. x._


To what happy accident[402-4] is it that we owe so unexpected a
visit?

_The Hermit. Chap. xix._


When lovely woman stoops to folly,
And finds too late that men betray,
What charm can soothe her melancholy?
What art can wash her guilt away?

_The Hermit. On Woman. Chap. xxiv._


The only art her guilt to cover,
To hide her shame from every eye,
To give repentance to her lover,
And wring his bosom, is--to die.

_The Hermit. On Woman. Chap. xxiv._


To what fortuitous occurrence do we not owe every pleasure and
convenience of our lives.

_The Hermit. On Woman. Chap. xxi._


For he who fights and runs away
May live to fight another day;
But he who is in battle slain
Can never rise and fight again.[403-1]

_The Art of Poetry on a New Plan_ (1761). _Vol. ii. p. 147._


One writer, for instance, excels at a plan or a title-page,
another works away the body of the book, and a third is a dab at
an index.[403-2]

_The Bee. No. 1, Oct. 6, 1759._


The true use of speech is not so much to express our wants as to
conceal them.[403-3]

_The Bee. No. iii. Oct. 20, 1759._


FOOTNOTES:

[394-1] See Garth, page 295.

CRABBE: _Tales of the Hall, book iii._ GRAVES: _The Epicure._

[394-2] See Pope, page 329.

[395-1] The character of the French.

[395-2] See Dryden, page 277.

[395-3] When Davies asked for an explanation of "Luke's iron
crown," Goldsmith referred him to a book called "Géographie
Curieuse," and added that by "Damien's bed of steel" he meant the
rack.--GRANGER: _Letters_, (1805), _p. 52._

[396-1] See Pope, page 329.

C'est un verre qui luit,
Qu'un souffle peut détruire, et qu'un souffle a produit

(It is a shining glass, which a breath may destroy, and which a
breath has produced).--DE CAUX (comparing the world to his
hour-glass).

[397-1] See Dryden, page 269.

[397-2] A cap by night, a stocking all the day--GOLDSMITH: _A
Description of an Author's Bed-Chamber._

[398-1] The twelve good rules were ascribed to King Charles I.: 1.
Urge no healths. 2. Profane no divine ordinances. 3. Touch no
state matters. 4. Reveal no secrets. 5. Pick no quarrels. 6. Make
no comparisons. 7. Maintain no ill opinions. 8. Keep no bad
company. 9. Encourage no vice. 10. Make no long meals. 11. Repeat
no grievances. 12. Lay no wagers.

[398-2] See Tom Brown, page 286.

[398-3] See Bacon, page 165.

[398-4]
The wretch condemn'd with life to part
Still, still on hope relies;
And every pang that rends the heart
Bid expectation rise.

_Original MS._

[399-1]
Hope, like the taper's gleamy light,
Adorns the wretch's way.

_Original MS._

[400-1] See Rochester, page 279.

[400-2] Written in imitation of "Chanson sur le fameux La
Palisse," which is attributed to Bernard de la Monnoye:--

On dit que dans ses amours
Il fut caressé des belles,
Qui le suivirent toujours,
Tant qu'il marcha devant elles

(They say that in his love affairs he was petted by beauties, who
always followed him as long as he walked before them).

[400-3]
While Fell was reposing himself in the hay,
A reptile concealed bit his leg as he lay;
But, all venom himself, of the wound he made light,
And got well, while the scorpion died of the bite.

LESSING: _Paraphrase of a Greek Epigram by Demodocus._

[401-1] See page 397.

[401-2] Philosophy triumphs easily over past evils and future
evils, but present evils triumph over it.--ROCHEFOUCAULD: _Maxim
22._

[401-3] RAY: _Proverbs._ FULLER: _Wise Sentences._ Auto de to
sigan omologountos esti sou.--EURIPIDES: _Iph. Aul., 1142._

[401-4] Measures, not men.--CHESTERFIELD: _Letter, Mar. 6, 1742._
Not men, but measures.--BURKE: _Present Discontents._

[401-5] See Bacon, page 171.

[401-6] See Chaucer, page 4.

[402-1] See Burton, page 185.

[402-2] See Young, page 308.

[402-3] An object in possession seldom retains the same charm that
it had in pursuit.--PLINY THE YOUNGER: _Letters, book ii. letter
xv. 1._

[402-4] See Middleton, page 174.

[403-1] See Butler, pages 215, 216.

[403-2] There are two things which I am confident I can do very
well: one is an introduction to any literary work, stating what it
is to contain, and how it should be executed in the most perfect
manner.

BOSWELL: _Life of Johnson, An. 1775._

[403-3] See Young, page 310.




THOMAS WARTON. 1728-1790.

All human race, from China to Peru,[403-4]
Pleasure, howe'er disguis'd by art, pursue.

_Universal Love of Pleasure._


Nor rough, nor barren, are the winding ways
Of hoar antiquity, but strewn with flowers.

_Written on a Blank Leaf of Dugdale's Monasticon._


FOOTNOTES:

[403-4] See Johnson, page 365.




THOMAS PERCY. 1728-1811.

Every white will have its blacke,
And every sweet its soure.

_Reliques of Ancient Poetry. Sir Cauline._


Late, late yestreen I saw the new moone,
Wi' the auld moon in hir arme.[404-1]

_Sir Patrick Spens._


He that had neyther been kith nor kin
Might have seen a full fayre sight.

_Guy of Gisborne._


Have you not heard these many years ago
Jeptha was judge of Israel?
He had one only daughter and no mo,
The which he loved passing well;
And as by lott,
God wot,
It so came to pass,
As God's will was.[404-2]

_Jepthah, Judge of Israel._


A Robyn,
Jolly Robyn,
Tell me how thy leman does.[404-3]

_A Robyn, Jolly Robyn._


Where gripinge grefes the hart wounde,
And dolefulle dumps the mynde oppresse,
There music with her silver sound[404-4]
With spede is wont to send redresse.

_A Song to the Lute in Musicke._


The blinded boy that shootes so trim,
From heaven downe did hie.[405-1]

_King Cophetua and the Beggar-maid._


"What is thy name, faire maid?" quoth he.
"Penelophon, O King!" quoth she.[405-2]

_King Cophetua and the Beggar-maid._


And how should I know your true love
From many another one?
Oh, by his cockle hat and staff,
And by his sandal shoone.

_The Friar of Orders Gray._


O Lady, he is dead and gone!
Lady, he 's dead and gone!
And at his head a green grass turfe,
And at his heels a stone.[405-3]

_The Friar of Orders Gray._


Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more!
Men were deceivers ever;
One foot in sea and one on shore,
To one thing constant never.[405-4]

_The Friar of Orders Gray._


Weep no more, lady, weep no more,
Thy sorrowe is in vaine;
For violets pluckt, the sweetest showers
Will ne'er make grow againe.[405-5]

_The Friar of Orders Gray._


He that would not when he might,
He shall not when he wolda.[405-6]

_The Friar of Orders Gray._


We 'll shine in more substantial honours,
And to be noble we 'll be good.[406-1]

_Winifreda_ (1720).


And when with envy Time, transported,
Shall think to rob us of our joys,
You 'll in your girls again be courted,
And I 'll go wooing in my boys.

_Winifreda_ (1720).


King Stephen was a worthy peere,
His breeches cost him but a croune;
He held them sixpence all too deere,
Therefore he call'd the taylor loune.

He was a wight of high renowne,
And those but of a low degree;
Itt 's pride that putts the countrye doune,
Then take thine old cloake about thee.[406-2]

_Take thy old Cloak about Thee._


A poore soule sat sighing under a sycamore tree;
Oh willow, willow, willow!
With his hand on his bosom, his head on his knee,
Oh willow, willow, willow![406-3]

_Willow, willow, willow._


When Arthur first in court began,
And was approved king.[406-4]

_Sir Launcelot du Lake._


Shall I bid her goe? What if I doe?
Shall I bid her goe and spare not?
Oh no, no, no! I dare not.[406-5]

_Corydon's Farewell to Phillis._


But in vayne shee did conjure him
To depart her presence soe;
Having a thousand tongues to allure him,
And but one to bid him goe.

_Dulcina._


FOOTNOTES:

[404-1]
I saw the new moon late yestreen,
Wi' the auld moon in her arm.

_From Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border._

[404-2] "As by lot, God wot;" and then you know, "It came to pass,
as most like it was."--SHAKESPEARE: _Hamlet, act ii. sc. 2._

[404-3]
Hey, Robin, Jolly Robin,
Tell me how thy lady does.

SHAKESPEARE: _Twelfth Night, act iv. sc. 2._

[404-4]
When griping grief heart doth wound,
And doleful dumps the mind oppress,
Then music with her silver sound.

SHAKESPEARE: _Romeo and Juliet, act iv. sc. 5._

[405-1]
Young Adam Cupid, he that shot so trim,
When King Cophetua loved the beggar-maid!

SHAKESPEARE: _Romeo and Juliet, act ii. sc. 1._

[405-2] Shakespeare, who alludes to this ballad in "Love's
Labour's Lost," act iv. sc. 1, gives the beggar's name Zenelophon.
The story of the king and the beggar is also alluded to in "King
Richard II.," act v. sc. 3.

[405-3] Quoted in "Hamlet," act iv. sc. 3.

[405-4] See Shakespeare, page 51.

[405-5] See John Fletcher, page 183.

[405-6] See Heywood, page 9.

He that will not when he may,
When he would, he should have nay.

CERVANTES: _Don Quixote, part i. book iii. chap. iv._

[406-1] See Chapman, page 37.

Nobilitas sola est atque unica virtus (Nobility is the one only
virtue).--JUVENAL: _Satire viii. line 20._

[406-2] The first stanza is quoted in full, and the last line of
the second, by Shakespeare in "Othello," act ii. sc. 3.

[406-3]
The poor soul sat sighing by a sycamore tree,
Sing all a green willow;
Her hand on her bosom, her head on her knee,
Sing willow, willow, willow.

_Othello, act iv. sc. 3._

[406-4] Quoted by Shakespeare in Second Part of "Henry IV.," act
ii. sc. 4.

[406-5] Quoted by Shakespeare in "Twelfth Night," act ii. sc. 3.




EDMUND BURKE. 1729-1797.

The writers against religion, whilst they oppose every system,
are wisely careful never to set up any of their own.

_A Vindication of Natural Society._[407-1] _Preface, vol. i. p. 7._


"War," says Machiavel, "ought to be the only study of a prince;"
and by a prince he means every sort of state, however
constituted. "He ought," says this great political doctor, "to
consider peace only as a breathing-time, which gives him leisure
to contrive, and furnishes ability to execute military plans." A
meditation on the conduct of political societies made old Hobbes
imagine that war was the state of nature.

_A Vindication of Natural Society. Vol. i. p. 15._


I am convinced that we have a degree of delight, and that no
small one, in the real misfortunes and pains of others.[407-2]

_On the Sublime and Beautiful. Sect. xiv. vol. 1. p. 118._


Custom reconciles us to everything.

_On the Sublime and Beautiful. Sect. xviii. vol. i. p. 231._


There is, however, a limit at which forbearance ceases to be a
virtue.

_Observations on a Late Publication on the Present State of the Nation.
Vol. i. p. 273._


The wisdom of our ancestors.[407-3]

_Observations on a Late Publication on the Present State of the Nation.
Vol. i. p. 516. Also in the Discussion on the Traitorous Correspondence
Bill, 1793._


Illustrious predecessor.[408-1]

_Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents. Vol. i. p. 456._


In such a strait the wisest may well be perplexed and the boldest
staggered.

_Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents. Vol. i. p. 516._


When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will
fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible
struggle.

_Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents. Vol. i. p. 526._


Of this stamp is the cant of, Not men, but measures.[408-2]

_Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents. Vol. i. p. 531._


The concessions of the weak are the concessions of fear.

_Speech on the Conciliation of America. Vol. ii. p. 108._


There is America, which at this day serves for little more than
to amuse you with stories of savage men and uncouth manners, yet
shall, before you taste of death, show itself equal to the whole
of that commerce which now attracts the envy of the world.

_Speech on the Conciliation of America. Vol. ii. p. 115._


Fiction lags after truth, invention is unfruitful, and
imagination cold and barren.

_Speech on the Conciliation of America. Vol. ii. p. 116._


A people who are still, as it were, but in the gristle, and not
yet hardened into the bone of manhood.

_Speech on the Conciliation of America. Vol. ii. p. 117._


A wise and salutary neglect.

_Speech on the Conciliation of America. Vol. ii. p. 117._


My vigour relents,--I pardon something to the spirit of liberty.

_Speech on the Conciliation of America. Vol. ii. p. 118._


The religion most prevalent in our northern colonies is a
refinement on the principles of resistance: it is the dissidence
of dissent, and the protestantism of the Protestant religion.

_Speech on the Conciliation of America. Vol. ii. p. 123._


I do not know the method of drawing up an indictment against a
whole people.

_Speech on the Conciliation of America. Vol. ii. p. 136._


The march of the human mind is slow.[408-3]

_Speech on the Conciliation of America. Vol. ii. p. 149._


All government,--indeed, every human benefit and enjoyment, every
virtue and every prudent act,--is founded on compromise and
barter.

_Speech on the Conciliation of America. Vol. ii. p. 169._


The worthy gentleman who has been snatched from us at the moment
of the election, and in the middle of the contest, whilst his
desires were as warm and his hopes as eager as ours, has
feelingly told us what shadows we are, and what shadows we
pursue.

_Speech at Bristol on Declining the Poll. Vol. ii. p. 420._


They made and recorded a sort of institute and digest of anarchy,
called the Rights of Man.

_On the Army Estimates. Vol iii. p. 221._


People will not look forward to posterity who never look backward
to their ancestors.

_Reflections on the Revolution in France. Vol. iii. p. 274._


You had that action and counteraction which, in the natural and
in the political world, from the reciprocal struggle of
discordant powers draws out the harmony of the universe.[409-1]

_Reflections on the Revolution in France. Vol. iii. p. 277._


It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the Queen of
France, then the Dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely never
lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more
delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating
and cheering the elevated sphere she just began to move
in,--glittering like the morning star full of life and splendour
and joy. . . . Little did I dream that I should have lived to see
such disasters fallen upon her in a nation of gallant men,--in a
nation of men of honour and of cavaliers. I thought ten thousand
swords must have leaped from their scabbards to avenge even a
look that threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is
gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has
succeeded.

_Reflections on the Revolution in France. Vol. iii. p. 331._


The unbought grace of life, the cheap defence of nations, the
nurse of manly sentiment and heroic enterprise is gone.

_Reflections on the Revolution in France. Vol. iii. p. 331._


That chastity of honour which felt a stain like a wound.

_Reflections on the Revolution in France. Vol. iii. p. 332._


Vice itself lost half its evil by losing all its grossness.

_Reflections on the Revolution in France. Vol. iii. p. 332._


Kings will be tyrants from policy, when subjects are rebels from
principle.

_Reflections on the Revolution in France. Vol. iii. p. 334._


Learning will be cast into the mire and trodden down under the
hoofs of a swinish multitude.[410-1]

_Reflections on the Revolution in France. Vol. iii. p. 335._


Because half-a-dozen grasshoppers under a fern make the field
ring with their importunate chink, whilst thousands of great
cattle, reposed beneath the shadow of the British oak, chew the
cud and are silent, pray do not imagine that those who make the
noise are the only inhabitants of the field; that of course they
are many in number; or that, after all, they are other than the
little shrivelled, meagre, hopping, though loud and troublesome
insects of the hour.

_Reflections on the Revolution in France. Vol. iii. p. 344._


In their nomination to office they will not appoint to the
exercise of authority as to a pitiful job, but as to a holy
function.

_Reflections on the Revolution in France. Vol. iii. p. 356._


The men of England,--the men, I mean, of light and leading in
England.

_Reflections on the Revolution in France. Vol. iii. p. 365._


He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves and sharpens our
skill. Our antagonist is our helper.

_Reflections on the Revolution in France. Vol. iii. p. 453._


To execute laws is a royal office; to execute orders is not to be
a king. However, a political executive magistracy, though merely
such, is a great trust.[411-1]

_Reflections on the Revolution in France. Vol. iii. p. 497._


You can never plan the future by the past.[411-2]

_Letter to a Member of the National Assembly. Vol. iv. p. 55._


The cold neutrality of an impartial judge.

_Preface to Brissot's Address. Vol. v. p. 67._


And having looked to Government for bread, on the very first
scarcity they will turn and bite the hand that fed them.[411-3]

_Thoughts and Details on Scarcity. Vol. v. p. 156._


All men that are ruined, are ruined on the side of their natural
propensities.

_Letter i. On a Regicide Peace. Vol. v. p. 286._


All those instances to be found in history, whether real or
fabulous, of a doubtful public spirit, at which morality is
perplexed, reason is staggered, and from which affrighted Nature
recoils, are their chosen and almost sole examples for the
instruction of their youth.

_Letter i. On a Regicide Peace. Vol. v. p. 311._


Example is the school of mankind, and they will learn at no
other.

_Letter i. On a Regicide Peace. Vol. v. p. 331._


Early and provident fear is the mother of safety.

_Speech on the Petition of the Unitarians. Vol. vii. p. 50._


There never was a bad man that had ability for good service.

_Speech in opening the Impeachment of Warren Hastings. Third Day. Vol. x.
p. 54._


The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion.

_Speech at County Meeting of Bucks, 1784._


I would rather sleep in the southern corner of a little country
churchyard than in the tomb of the Capulets.[412-1]

_Letter to Matthew Smith._


It has all the contortions of the sibyl without the
inspiration.[412-2]

_Prior's Life of Burke._[412-3]


He was not merely a chip of the old block, but the old block
itself.[412-4]

_On Pitt's First Speech, Feb. 26, 1781. From Wraxall's Memoirs, First
Series, vol. i. p. 342._


FOOTNOTES:

[407-1] Boston edition. 1865-1867.

[407-2] In the adversity of our best friends we always find
something which is not wholly displeasing to us.--ROCHEFOUCAULD:
_Reflections, xv._

[407-3] Lord Brougham says of Bacon, "He it was who first employed
the well-known phrase of 'the wisdom of our ancestors.'"

SYDNEY SMITH: _Plymley's Letters, letter v._ LORD ELDON: _On Sir
Samuel Romilly's Bill, 1815._ CICERO: _De Legibus, ii. 2, 3._

[408-1] See Fielding, page 364.

[408-2] See Goldsmith, page 401.

[408-3] The march of intellect.--SOUTHEY: _Progress and Prospects
of Society, vol. ii. p. 360._

[409-1] Quid velit et possit rerum concordia discors (What the
discordant harmony of circumstances would and could
effect).--HORACE: _Epistle i. 12, 19._

Mr. Breen, in his "Modern English Literature," says: "This
remarkable thought Alison the historian has turned to good
account; it occurs so often in his disquisitions that he seems to
have made it the staple of all wisdom and the basis of every
truth."

[410-1] This expression was tortured to mean that he actually
thought the people no better than swine; and the phrase "the
swinish multitude" was bruited about in every form of speech and
writing, in order to excite popular indignation.

[411-1] See Appendix, page 859.

[411-2] I know no way of judging of the future but by the
past.--PATRICK HENRY: _Speech in the Virginia Convention, March,
1775._

[411-3] We set ourselves to bite the hand that feeds us.--_Cause
of the Present Discontents, vol. i. p. 439._

[412-1] Family vault of "all the Capulets."--_Reflections on the
Revolution in France, vol. iii. p. 349._

[412-2] When Croft's "Life of Dr. Young" was spoken of as a good
imitation of Dr. Johnson's style, "No, no," said he, "it is not a
good imitation of Johnson; it has all his pomp without his force;
it has all the nodosities of the oak, without its strength; it has
all the contortions of the sibyl, without the
inspiration."--PRIOR: _Life of Burke._

The gloomy comparisons of a disturbed imagination, the melancholy
madness of poetry without the inspiration.--JUNIUS: _Letter No.
viii. To Sir W. Draper._

[412-3] At the conclusion of one of Mr. Burke's eloquent
harangues, Mr. Cruger, finding nothing to add, or perhaps as he
thought to add with effect, exclaimed earnestly, in the language
of the counting-house, "I say ditto to Mr. Burke! I say ditto to
Mr. Burke!"--PRIOR: _Life of Burke, p. 152._

[412-4] See Sir Thomas Browne, page 219.




CHARLES CHURCHILL. 1731-1764.

He mouths a sentence as curs mouth a bone.

_The Rosciad. Line 322._


But, spite of all the criticising elves,
Those who would make us feel--must feel themselves.[412-5]

_The Rosciad. Line 961._


Who to patch up his fame, or fill his purse,
Still pilfers wretched plans, and makes them worse;
Like gypsies, lest the stolen brat be known,
Defacing first, then claiming for his own.[413-1]

_The Apology. Line 232._


No statesman e'er will find it worth his pains
To tax our labours and excise our brains.

_Night. Line 271._


Apt alliteration 's artful aid.

_The Prophecy of Famine. Line 86._


There webs were spread of more than common size,
And half-starved spiders prey'd on half-starved flies.

_The Prophecy of Famine. Line 327._


With curious art the brain, too finely wrought,
Preys on herself, and is destroyed by thought.

_Epistle to William Hogarth. Line 645._


Men the most infamous are fond of fame,
And those who fear not guilt yet start at shame.

_The Author. Line 233._


Be England what she will,
With all her faults she is my country still.[413-2]

_The Farewell. Line 27._


Wherever waves can roll, and winds can blow.[413-3]

_The Farewell. Line 38._


FOOTNOTES:

[412-5]
Si vis me flere, dolendum est
Primum ipsi tibi

(If you wish me to weep, you yourself must first feel grief).

HORACE: _Ars Poetica, v. 102._

[413-1] Steal! to be sure they may; and, egad, serve your best
thoughts as gypsies do stolen children,--disguise them to make 'em
pass for their own.--SHERIDAN: _The Critic, act. i. sc. i._

[413-2]
England, with all thy faults I love thee still,
My country!

COWPER: _The Task, book ii. The Timepiece, line 206._

[413-3] Far as the breeze can bear, the billows foam.--BYRON: _The
Corsair, canto i. stanza 1._




WILLIAM COWPER. 1731-1800.

Is base in kind, and born to be a slave.

_Table Talk. Line 28._


As if the world and they were hand and glove.

_Table Talk. Line 173._


Happiness depends, as Nature shows,
Less on exterior things than most suppose.

_Table Talk. Line 246._


Freedom has a thousand charms to show,
That slaves, howe'er contented, never know.

_Table Talk. Line 260._


Manner is all in all, whate'er is writ,
The substitute for genius, sense, and wit.

_Table Talk. Line 542._


Ages elapsed ere Homer's lamp appear'd,
And ages ere the Mantuan swan was heard:
To carry nature lengths unknown before,
To give a Milton birth, ask'd ages more.

_Table Talk. Line 556._


Elegant as simplicity, and warm
As ecstasy.

_Table Talk. Line 588._


Low ambition and the thirst of praise.[414-1]

_Table Talk. Line 591._


Made poetry a mere mechanic art.

_Table Talk. Line 654._


Nature, exerting an unwearied power,
Forms, opens, and gives scent to every flower;
Spreads the fresh verdure of the field, and leads
The dancing Naiads through the dewy meads.

_Table Talk. Line 690._


Lights of the world, and stars of human race.

_The Progress of Error. Line 97._


How much a dunce that has been sent to roam
Excels a dunce that has been kept at home!

_The Progress of Error. Line 415._


Just knows, and knows no more, her Bible true,--
A truth the brilliant Frenchman never knew.

_Truth. Line 327._


The sounding jargon of the schools.[414-2]

_Truth. Line 367._


When one that holds communion with the skies
Has fill'd his urn where these pure waters rise,
And once more mingles with us meaner things,
'T is e'en as if an angel shook his wings.

_Charity. Line 435._


A fool must now and then be right by chance.

_Conversation. Line 96._


He would not, with a peremptory tone,
Assert the nose upon his face his own.

_Conversation. Line 121._


A moral, sensible, and well-bred man
Will not affront me,--and no other can.

_Conversation. Line 193._


Pernicious weed! whose scent the fair annoys,
Unfriendly to society's chief joys:
Thy worst effect is banishing for hours
The sex whose presence civilizes ours.

_Conversation. Line 251._


I cannot talk with civet in the room,
A fine puss-gentleman that 's all perfume.

_Conversation. Line 283._


The solemn fop; significant and budge;
A fool with judges, amongst fools a judge.[415-1]

_Conversation. Line 299._


His wit invites you by his looks to come,
But when you knock, it never is at home.[415-2]

_Conversation. Line 303._


Our wasted oil unprofitably burns,
Like hidden lamps in old sepulchral urns.[415-3]

_Conversation. Line 357._


That good diffused may more abundant grow.

_Conversation. Line 443._


A business with an income at its heels
Furnishes always oil for its own wheels.

_Retirement. Line 614._


Absence of occupation is not rest,
A mind quite vacant is a mind distress'd.

_Retirement. Line 623._


An idler is a watch that wants both hands,
As useless if it goes as if it stands.

_Retirement. Line 681._


Built God a church, and laugh'd his word to scorn.

_Retirement. Line 688._


Philologists, who chase
A panting syllable through time and space,
Start it at home, and hunt it in the dark
To Gaul, to Greece, and into Noah's ark.

_Retirement. Line 691._


I praise the Frenchman,[416-1] his remark was shrewd,--
How sweet, how passing sweet, is solitude!
But grant me still a friend in my retreat,
Whom I may whisper, Solitude is sweet.

_Retirement. Line 739._


A kick that scarce would move a horse
May kill a sound divine.

_The Yearly Distress._


I am monarch of all I survey,
My right there is none to dispute.

_Verses supposed to be written by Alexander Selkirk._


O Solitude! where are the charms
That sages have seen in thy face?

_Verses supposed to be written by Alexander Selkirk._


But the sound of the church-going bell
These valleys and rocks never heard;
Ne'er sigh'd at the sound of a knell,
Or smiled when a Sabbath appear'd.

_Verses supposed to be written by Alexander Selkirk._


How fleet is a glance of the mind!
Compared with the speed of its flight
The tempest itself lags behind,
And the swift-winged, arrows of light.

_Verses supposed to be written by Alexander Selkirk._


There goes the parson, O illustrious spark!
And there, scarce less illustrious, goes the clerk.

_On observing some Names of Little Note._


But oars alone can ne'er prevail
To reach the distant coast;
The breath of heaven must swell the sail,
Or all the toil is lost.

_Human Frailty._


And the tear that is wiped with a little address,
May be follow'd perhaps by a smile.

_The Rose._


'T is Providence alone secures
In every change both mine and yours.

_A Fable. Moral._


I shall not ask Jean Jacques Rousseau
If birds confabulate or no.

_Pairing Time Anticipated._


Misses! the tale that I relate
This lesson seems to carry,--
Choose not alone a proper mate,
But proper time to marry.

_Pairing Time Anticipated._


That though on pleasure she was bent,
She had a frugal mind.

_History of John Gilpin._


A hat not much the worse for wear.

_History of John Gilpin._


Now let us sing, Long live the king!
And Gilpin, Long live he!
And when he next doth ride abroad,
May I be there to see!

_History of John Gilpin._


The path of sorrow, and that path alone,
Leads to the land where sorrow is unknown.

_To an Afflicted Protestant Lady._


United yet divided, twain at once:
So sit two kings of Brentford on one throne.[417-1]

_The Task. Book i. The Sofa. Line 77._


Nor rural sights alone, but rural sounds,
Exhilarate the spirit, and restore
The tone of languid nature.

_The Task. Book i. The Sofa. Line 181._


The earth was made so various, that the mind
Of desultory man, studious of change
And pleased with novelty, might be indulged.

_The Task. Book i. The Sofa. Line 506._


Doing good,
Disinterested good, is not our trade.

_The Task. Book i. The Sofa. Line 673._


God made the country, and man made the town.[417-2]

_The Task. Book i. The Sofa. Line 749._


Oh for a lodge in some vast wilderness,[418-1]
Some boundless contiguity of shade,
Where rumour of oppression and deceit,
Of unsuccessful or successful war,
Might never reach me more.

_The Task. Book ii. The Timepiece. Line 1._


Mountains interposed
Make enemies of nations who had else,
Like kindred drops, been mingled into one.

_The Task. Book ii. The Timepiece. Line 17._


I would not have a slave to till my ground,
To carry me, to fan me while I sleep
And tremble when I wake, for all the wealth
That sinews bought and sold have ever earn'd.

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