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.1 From The Preface to his Dictionary. Words are men's daughters, but God's sons are things.2 From Dr. Madden's "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. Ibid. 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. 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. Boswell's Life of Johnson. An. 1763. Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it. Ibid. An. 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. Ibid. An. 1776. Claret is the liquor for boys; port for men; but he who aspires to be a hero must drink brandy. Who drives fat oxen should himself be fat.3 If the man who turnips cries Ibid. An. 1779. Ibid. An. 1784. Johnsoniana. Piozzi, 30. 1 The italics and the word "forget" would seem to imply that the saving was not his own. Sir William Jones gives a similar saying in India: "Words are the daughters of earth and deeds are the sons of heaven." 2 Words are women, deeds are men.-Herbert, Jacula Prudentum. Sir Thomas Bodley, Letter to his Librarian, 1604. 3 Parody on Who rules o'er freemen should himself be free."-From Brooke's Gustavus Vasa, First edition. JOHNSON.-PITT.—LYTTELTON. 189 A good hater. Johnsoniana. Piozzi, 39. Books that you may carry to the fire, and hold readily in your hand, are the most useful after all. Ibid. Hawkins, 197. WILLIAM PITT, EARL OF CHATHAM. The atrocious crime of being a young man. 1708-1778. Speech, March 6, 1741. Confidence is a plant of slow growth in an aged bosom. Speech, January 14, 1766. A long train of these practices has at length unwillingly convinced me that there is something behind the Throne greater than the King himself.1 Speech, March 2, 1770. (Chatham Correspondence.) Where law ends, tyranny begins. Speech, Jan. 9, 1770. Case of Wilkes. 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 Speech, Nov. 18, 1777. -never. Necessity is the argument of tyrants, it is the creed of slaves. Speech on the India Bill, Nov. 1783. The poorest man may in his cottage bid defiance to all the force of the 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.3 Speech on the Excise Bill. crown. Indemnity for the past and security for the future.* The Church of England hath a Popish liturgy, a Calvinistic creed, and an Arminian clergy. Ascribed to Pitt. LORD LYTTELTON. 1709-1773. For his chaste Muse employed her heaven-taught lyre One line which, dying, he could wish to blot. Women, like princes, find few real friends. Prologue to Thomson's Coriolanus. Ibid. 1 Quoted by Lord Mahon, "greater than the Throne itself."—History of England, Vol. v. p. 258. 2 Necessity, the tyrant's plea. Milton, Par. Lost, Book iv. Line 393. 3 From Brougham's Statesmen of George III., First Series, p. 41. See 4 Mr. Pitt's phrase. De Quincey, Theol. Essays, Vol. ii. p. 170. also Russell's Memoir of Fox, Vol. iii. p. 345. Letter to the Hon. T. Maitland. 190 LYTTELTON.-MOORE.-DYER.-sterne. ADVICE TO A LADY-continued.] The lover in the husband may be lost. Ibid. An Irregular Ode. 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 lessened yours? Fable ix. The Farmer, the Spaniel, and the Cat. The maid who modestly conceals Her beauties, while she hides, reveals; Give but a glimpse, and fancy draws Fable x. The Spider and the Bee. Ibid. But from the hoop's bewitching round, Her very shoe has power to wound. Time still, as he flies, adds increase to her truth, And gives to her mind what he steals from her youth. The Happy Marriage. '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. DYER. And he that will this health deny, Down among the dead men let him lie. Published in the early part of the reign of George 1. 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. Vol. ii. Ch. xii. TRISTRAM SHANDY-continued.] "Our armies swore terribly in Flanders," cried my uncle Toby, "but nothing to this." Ibid. Vol. iii. Ch. xi. 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 for ever.1 Ibid. Vol. vi. Ch. viii. "They order," said I, "this matter better in France." Sentimental Journey. Page 1. 'T is all Calais. Ibid. Maria. God tempers the wind to the shorn lamb.2 "Disguise thyself as thou wilt, still, Slavery," said I, "still thou art a Ibid. The Passport. The Hotel at Paris. bitter draught." A little bench of heedless bishops here, 1 Cf. Campbell, Pleasures of Hope, ii. Line 357: Ibid. St. 11. Ibid. St. 28. 2 Dieu mesure le froid à la brebis tondue.-Henri Estienne, Prémices, etc., p. 47. (1594.) To a close-shorn sheep God gives wind by measure.-Herbert, Jacula Prudentum. 3 There is nothing which has yet been contrived by man by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern or inn.-Johnson, Boswell's Life, 1766. 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. Ye distant spires, ye antique towers. On a Distant Prospect of Eton College. Stanza 1. Ah, happy hills! ah, pleasing shade! Ah, fields belov'd in vain ! Where once my careless childhood stray'd, A stranger yet to pain! 1 From ignorance our comfort flows. Prior, To the Hon. Charles Montague. He that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.-Ecclesiastes i. 18. |