Chapter 385
Is this that gallant, gay Lothario?
* * * * *
JOHN PHILIPS. 1676-1708.
_Splendid Shilling_.
Line 121.
My galligaskins, that have long withstood The winter's fury and encroaching frosts, By time subdued (what will not time subdue?) A horrid chasm disclosed.
* * * * *
THOMAS PARNELL. 1679-1718.
_The Hermit_. Line 5.
Remote from men, with God he passed his days, Prayer all his business, all his pleasure praise.
BARTON BOOTH. 1681-1733.
_Song_.
True as the needle to the pole, Or as the dial to the sun.
* * * * *
MATTHEW GREEN. 1696-1737.
_The Spleen_. Line 93.
Fling but a stone, the giant dies.
* * * * *
JOHN BYROM. 1691-1763.
_'On the Feuds between Handel and Bononcini_.[13]
Some say, compared to Bononcini, That Mynheer Handel's but a ninny; Others aver that he to Handel Is scarcely fit to hold a candle. Strange all this difference should be 'Twixt Tweedledum and Tweedledee.
[Note 13: "Nourse asked me if I had seen the verses upon Handel and Bononcini, not knowing that they were mine." Byrom's Remains (Cheltenham Soc), Vol. I. p 173. The last two lines have been attributed to Switt and Pope. _Vide_ Scott's edition of Swift, and Dyce's edition of Pope.]
* * * * *
_The Astrologer_.
As clear as a whistle.
* * * * *
_Epigram on Two Monopolists_.
Bone and skin, two millers thin, Would starve us all, or near it; But be it known to Skin and Bone That Flesh and Blood can't bear it.
* * * * *
BISHOP BERKELEY. 1684-1753.
_On the Prospect of Planting Arts and Learning in America_.
Westward the course of empire takes its way; The four first acts already past, A fifth shall close the drama with the day; Time's noblest offspring is the last.
* * * * *
ROBERT BLAIR. 1699-1746.
_The Grave_. Part ii. Line 586.
The good he scorned, Stalked off reluctant, like an ill-used ghost, Not to return; or if it did, in visits Like those of angels, short and far between.
* * * * *
EDWARD YOUNG. 1681-1765.
NIGHT THOUGHTS.
Night i. Line 1.
Tired Nature's sweet restorer, balmy sleep!
Night i. Line 55.
The bell strikes one. We take no note of time But from its loss.
Night i. Line 154.
To waft a feather or to drown a fly.
Night i. Line 390.
Be wise to-day; 'tis madness to defer.
Night i. Line 393.
Procrastination is the thief of time.
Night i. Line 417.
At thirty man suspects himself a fool; Knows it at forty, and reforms his plan.
Night i. Line 424.
All men think all men mortal but themselves.
Night ii. Line 376.
'Tis greatly wise to talk with our past hours, And ask them what report they bore to heaven.
Night ii. Line 602.
How blessings brighten as they take their flight!
Night ii. Line 633.
The chamber where the good man meets his fate Is privileged beyond the common walk Of virtuous life, quite in the verge of heaven.
Night iii. Line 81.
Beautiful as sweet! And young as beautiful! and soft as young! And gay as soft! and innocent as gay!
Night iii. Line 104
Lovely in death the beauteous ruin lay.
Night iv. Line 10.
The knell, the shroud, the mattock, and the grave, The deep, damp vault, the darkness, and the worm.
Night iv. Line 15.
Man makes a death, which nature never made.
Night iv. Line 118.
Man wants but little, nor that little long.
Night v. Line 775.
The man of wisdom is the man of years.
Night v. Line 1011.
Death loves a shining mark, a signal blow.
Night vi. Line 309.
Pygmies are pygmies still, though perched on Alps. And pyramids are pyramids in vales.
Night vi. Line 606.
And all may do what has by man been done.
Night vii. Line 496.
The man that blushes is not quite a brute.
Night ix. Line 771.
An undevout astronomer is mad.
Night ix. Line 1660.
Emblazed to seize the sight; who runs, may read.
* * * * *
LOVE OF FAME.
Satire i. Line 89.
Some, for renown, on scraps of learning dote, And think they grow immortal as they quote.
Satire i. Line 238.
None think the great unhappy, but the great.
Satire ii. Line 207.
Where nature's end of language is declined, And men talk only to conceal their mind.[14]
[Note 14: "Ils n'emploient les paroles que pour deguiser leurs pensées "--_Voltaire_.]
Satire vii. Line 97.
How commentators each dark passage shun, And hold their farthing candle to the sun.[15]
[Note 15: Imitated by Crabbe in the Parish Register, Part I., Introduction, and taken originally from Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy,