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Pray, goody, please to moderate the rancour of your tongue;

Why flash those sparks of fury from your eyes? Remember, when the judgment's weak, the prejuMidas. Acti. Sc. 4.

dice is strong.

CHARLES MACKLIN.

1690-1797.

The law is a sort of hocus-pocus science, that smiles in yer face while it picks yer pocket; and the glorious uncertainty of it is of mair use to the professors than the justice of it.

Love à la Mode. Act ii. Sc. I.

MATTHEW GREEN. 1696-1737.

Fling but a stone, the giant dies.

The Spleen. Line 93.

LOUIS THEOBALD. 1691-1744.

None but himself can be his parallel.1

The Double Falsehood.

1 Quæris Alcidæ parem?

Nemo est nisi ipse.

Seneca, Hercules Furens, Act i. Sc. 1.

And but herself admits no parallel.

Massinger, Duke of Milan, Act iv. Sc. 3.

JOHN BYROM.

1691-1763.

God bless the King, I mean the faith's defender; God bless-no harm in blessing-the pretender; But who pretender is, or who is king,

God bless us all,

- that's quite another thing. To an Officer of the Army, extempore.

Take time enough: all other graces
Will soon fill up their proper places.1

Advice to Preach Slow.

Some say, compar'd 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.
On the Feuds between Handel and Bononcini.2

As clear as a whistle.

Epistle to Lloyd.

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.

Epigram on Two Monopolists.

1 Learn to read slow: all other graces

Will follow in their proper places.

Walker, Art of Reading. 2 "Nourse asked me if I had seen the verses upon Handel and Bononcini, not knowing that they were mine." Byrom's Remains (Chetham Soc.), Vel. i. p. 173. The last two lines have been attributed to Swift and Pope. See Scott's edition of Swift, and Dyce's edition of Pope.

T

306

Chesterfield. Mallett.

EARL OF CHESTERFIELD. 1694-1773.

Sacrifice to the Graces.' Letter. March 9, 1748.

Manners must adorn knowledge, and smooth its way through the world. Like a great rough diamond, it well in a closet by way do may very of curiosity, and also for its intrinsic value.

Letter. July 1, 1748.

Style is the dress of thoughts.

Letter. Nov. 24, 1749.

I assisted at the birth of that most significant word "flirtation," which dropped from the most beautiful mouth in the world.

The World. No. 101.

Unlike my subject now shall be my song,
It shall be witty, and it sha'n't be long.

Impromptu Lines.

The dews of the evening most carefully shun,Those tears of the sky for the loss of the sun. Advice to a Lady in Autumn.

DAVID MALLETT.

1700-1765.

While tumbling down the turbid stream,
Lord love us, how we apples swim!2 Tyburn.

1 Literally from the Greek Θύε ταῖς Χάρισι. — Diog. Laert. Lib. IV. §6, Xenocrates

2 Cf. Swift, Brother Protestants, etc.

ROBERT BLAIR. 1699– 1747 ·

The Grave, dread thing!

Men shiver when thou'rt nam'd: Nature, appall'd, Shakes off her wonted firmness.

The Grave. Line 9.

The school-boy, with his satchel in his hand,
Whistling aloud to bear his courage up.1

1

Ibid. Line 58.

Friendship! mysterious cement of the soul!
Sweet'ner of life! and solder of society!

Ibid. Line 88.

Of joys departed,

Not to return, how painful the remembrance !

Ibid. Line 109.

The good he scorn'd

Stalk'd off reluctant, like an ill-us'd ghost,

Not to return; or, if it did, in visits

Like those of angels, short and far between.2

Ibid. Part ii. Line 586.

RICHARD SAVAGE.

1698-1743.

He lives to build, not boast, a generous race;

No tenth transmitter of a foolish face.

The Bastard. Line 7.

1 Whistling to keep myself from being afraid. Dryden, Amphitryon, Act iii. Sc. 1.

2 Cf. Campbell, p. 440.

JAMES THOMSON.

1700-1748.

Come, gentle Spring! ethereal Mildness! come. The Seasons. Spring. Line 1.

Base envy withers at another's joy,

And hates that excellence it cannot reach.

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Delightful task! to rear the tender thought,
To teach the young idea how to shoot.

Line 1149.

An elegant sufficiency, content,
Retirement, rural quiet, friendship, books,
Ease and alternate labour, useful life,
Progressive virtue, and approving Heaven!

Line 1158.

The meek-ey'd Morn appears, mother of dews. Summer. Line 47.

Falsely luxurious, will not man awake?

Line 67.

But yonder comes the powerful King of Day

Rejoicing in the east.

Line 81.

Ships, dim-discover'd, dropping from the clouds.

Line 946.

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