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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.

Ibid. Vol. iii. p. 334

Learning will be cast into the mire and trodden down under the hoofs of a swinish multitude.1 Ibid. 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.

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He that wrestles with us

Ibid. Vol. iii. p. 344.

strengthens our

Our antagonist

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nerves, and sharpens our skill.

is our helper.

The cold neutrality of an impartial judge.
Preface to Brissot's Address. Vol. v. p. 67.

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.

And having looked to government for bread, on the very first scarcity they will turn and bite the hand that fed them.1

Thoughts and Details on Scarcity. Vol. v. p. 156.

All men that are ruined are

side of their natural propensities.

ruined on the

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. Ibid. p. 311.

Early and provident fear is the mother of safety. Speech on the Petition of the Unitarians. Vol. vii. p. 50.

I would rather sleep in the southern corner of a little country churchyard, than in the tomb of the Capulets.2

Letter to Matthew Smith.

It has all the contortions of the sibyl, without the inspiration. Prior's Life of Burke.

Vol. i. p. 439.

1 We set ourselves to bite the hand that feeds us. Cause of the Present Discontents. 2 Family vault of "all the Capulets."― Reflections on the Revolution in France. Vol. iii. p. 349.

3 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's Life of Burke, p. 468.

356

Blackstone. - Porteus.

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. Ch. xiii. § 418. Time whereof the memory of man runneth not Ibid. Book i. Ch. xviii. § 472.

to the contrary.

BEILBY PORTEUS.

1731-1808.

In sober state,

Through the sequester'd vale of rural life,

The venerable patriarch guileless held

The tenor of his way.1

Death. Line 108.

One murder made a villain,

Millions a hero. Princes were privileged

To kill, and numbers sanctified the crime.2

Ibid. Line 154.

War its thousands slays, Peace its ten thousands.

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Teach him how to live,

And oh! still harder lesson, how to die.3

Ibid. Line 316.

1 Along the cool sequester'd vale of life
They kept the noiseless tenor of their way.

2 Cf. Young, p. 267.

Gray, Elegy, Stanza 19.

3 There taught us how to live; and (oh! too high

The price for knowledge) taught us how to die.

Tickell, On the Death of Addison,

Churchill

Bickerstaff.

357

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 them

selves.1

Ibid. Line 861.

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

Be England what she will,

With all her faults she is my country still.

Apt alliteration's artful aid.

The Farewell.

Prophecy of Famine.

Men the most infamous are fond of fame,

And those who fear not guilt yet start at shame.

The Author.

ISAAC BICKERSTAFF.

Circa 1735-1787.

Hope! thou nurse of young desire.

Love in a Village. Act i. Sc. I.

There was a jolly miller once,

Lived on the river Dee;

He work'd and sung from morn till night:

No lark more blithe than he.

Ibid. Acti. Sc. 2.

1 Si vis me flere, dolendum est

Primum ipsi tibi. - Horace, Ars Poetica, 102.

[Bickerstaff continued.

And this the burthen of his song

For ever used to be:-

I care for nobody, no, not I,

If no one cares for me.1 Ibid. Act i. Sc. 2.

Young fellows will be young fellows.

Ibid. Act ii. Sc. 2.

Ay, do despise me. I'm the prouder for it; I like to be despised.

The Hypocrite. Act v. Sc. I.

EDWARD GIBBON.

1737-1794.

History, which is, indeed, little more than the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind.2

Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Ch. iii.

A heart to resolve, a head to contrive, and a hand to execute.3 Ibid. Ch. xlviii.

1 If naebody care for me,

I'll care for naebody.

Burns, I hae a Wife o' my Ain.

2 L'histoire n'est que le tableau des crimes et des mal

heurs. Voltaire, L'Ingénu, Ch. x.

3 Heart to conceive, the understanding to direct, or the hand to execute. - Junius, Letter xxxvii., Feb. 14, 1770.

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