The tree of deepest root is found
Least willing still to quit the ground;
'Twas therefore said, by ancient sages,

That love of life increased with years
So much, that in our latter stages,
When pains grow sharp, and sickness rages,
The greatest love of life appears.

CHARLES DIBDIN.

Three Warnings.

1745 – 1814.

There's a sweet little cherub that sits up aloft, To keep watch for the life of poor Jack.

Poor Jack.

Did you ever hear of Captain Wattle?
He was all for love and a little for the bottle.

Captain Wattle and Miss Roe.

HANNAH MORE.

1745-1833.

To those who know thee not, no words can paint! And those who know thee know all words are

faint!

In men this blunder still you find,
All think their little set mankind.

Small habits well pursued betimes
May reach the dignity of crimes.

Sensibility.

Florio. Part i.

Ibid.

SIR WILLIAM JONES. 1746-1794.

Go boldly forth, my simple lay,
Whose accents flow with artless ease,
Like orient pearls at random strung.

A Persian Song of Hafiz.

On parent knees, a naked new-born child
Weeping thou sat'st while all around thee smiled;
So live, that, sinking in thy last long sleep,
Calm thou mayst smile, while all around thee

weep.

What constitutes a state?

From the Persian.

Men who their duties know,

But know their rights, and, knowing, dare maintain.

And sovereign law, that state's collected will, O'er thrones and globes elate,

Sits empress, crowning good, repressing ill.

Ode in Imitation of Alcæus.

Seven hours to law, to soothing slumber seven, Ten to the world allot, and all to heaven.1

JOHN LOGAN.

1748-1788.

Thou hast no sorrow in thy song,

No winter in thy year.

To the Cuckoo.

1 Six hours in sleep, in law's grave study six,
Four spend in prayer, the rest on nature fix.
Translation of lines quoted by Sir Edward Coke.

1739 – 1832.

CHARLES MORRIS.

Solid men of Boston, make no long orations; Solid men of Boston, banish strong potations.1 Billy Pitt and the Farmer.

Oh give me the sweet shady side of Pall Mall. Town and Country.

JOHN TRUMBULL.

1750-1831.

But optics sharp it needs, I ween,

To see what is not to be seen.

McFingal. Canto i. Line 67.

But as some muskets so contrive it,

As oft to miss the mark they drive at,

And though well aimed at duck or plover,

Bear wide, and kick their owners over.

Canto i. Line 93.

As though there were a tie,

And obligation to posterity.

We get them, bear them, breed and nurse.
What has posterity done for us,

That we, lest they their rights should lose,
Should trust our necks to gripe of noose.

Canto ii. Line 121.

No man e'er felt the halter draw,

With good opinion of the law.

Canto iii. Line 489.

1 From Debrett's Asylum for Fugitive Pieces, Vol. ii.

p. 250.

RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN.

1751-1816.

of learning. The Rivals. Act i. Sc. 2.

You are not like Cerberus, three gentlemen at once, are you? Ibid. Act iv. Sc. 2.

The quarrel is a very pretty quarrel as it stands; we should only spoil it by trying to explain it. Ibid. Act iv. Sc. 3. As headstrong as an allegory on the banks of the Nile. Ibid. Act v. Sc. 3.

My valour is certainly going! it is sneaking off! I feel it oozing out, as it were, at the palm of my hands. Ibid. Act v. Sc. 3.

I own the soft impeachment.

Ibid. Act v. Sc. 3.

Steal! to be sure they may, and, egad, serve your best thoughts as gypsies do stolen children, - disfigure them to make 'em pass for their own.1

The Critic. Act i. Sc. 1.

No scandal about Queen Elizabeth, I hope.

Ibid. Act ii. Sc. 1.

1 Still pilfers wretched plans, and makes them worse; Like gypsies, lest the stolen brat be known, Defacing first, then claiming for his own.

Churchill, The Apology, Line 233.

Where they do agree on the stage, their una

nimity is wonderful.

The Critic. Act ii. Sc. 2.

An oyster may be crossed in love.

Ibid. Act iii.

You shall see them on a beautiful quarto page, where a neat rivulet of text shall meander through a meadow of margin.

School for Scandal. Act i. Sc. I.

I leave my character behind me.

Ibid. Act ii. Sc. 2.

Here's to the maiden of bashful fifteen ;

Here's to the widow of fifty;

Here's to the flaunting, extravagant quean,
And here's to the housewife that 's thrifty.
Let the toast pass;

Drink to the lass;

I'll warrant she 'll prove an excuse for the glass.

Ibid. Act iii. Sc. 3.

An unforgiving eye, and a damned disinherit

ing countenance.

Ibid. Act iv. Sc. I.

I ne'er could any lustre see

In eyes that would not look on me;
I ne'er saw nectar on a lip

But where my own did hope to sip.

The Duenna. Act i. Sc. 2.

Had I a heart for falsehood framed,

I ne'er could injure you.

Ibid. Acti. Sc. 5.

Ibid. Act ii. Sc. 4.

Conscience has no more to do with gallantry

than it has with politics.