ISAAC NEWTON.

1642 - 1727.

I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble, or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.1

Brewster's Memoirs of Newton.

Vol. ii. Ch. 27.

NATHANIEL LEE.

1655-1692.

Then he will talk - good gods! how he will talk!" Alexander the Great. Act i. Sc. 3. When Greeks joined Greeks, then was the tug of war.

Ibid. Act iv. Sc. 2.

'Tis beauty calls, and glory shows the way.3

Ibid. Act iv. Sc. 2.

Man, false man, smiling, destructive man.

Theodosius. Act iii. Sc. 2.

1 Cf. Milton, Paradise Reg., Book iv. Lines 327-330. 2 It would talk,

Lord! how it talked!

Beaumont and Fletcher, The Scornful Lady, Act v. Sc. 1. 'leads the way,' in the stage editions, which contain various interpolations, among them

"See the conquering hero comes,
Sound the trumpet, beat the drums."

238

Norris. Pope. - Southerne.

JOHN NORRIS.

1657-1711.

How fading are the joys we dote upon !
Like apparitions seen and gone;
But those which soonest take their flight
Are the most exquisite and strong;

Like angels' visits, short and bright,'
Mortality 's too weak to bear them long.
The Parting.

DR. WALTER POPE.

1630-1714.

May I govern my passion with absolute sway, And grow wiser and better as my strength wears

away.

The Old Man's Wish.

THOMAS SOUTHERNE.

Pity 's akin to love.2

1 Cf. Campbell, p. 440.

2 Vio. I pity you.

Oli.

Oroonoka

1660-1746.

Act ii. Sc. 1.

That's a degree to Love.

Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, Act iii. Sc. 1.

Of all the paths that lead to woman's love
Pity 's the straightest.

Beaumont and Fletcher, Knight of Malta, Acti. Sc. 1.

JOHN DENNIS.

1657-1734.

A man who could make so vile a pun would not scruple to pick a pocket.'

They will not let my play run; and yet they steal my thunder.2

JOHN POMFRET. 1667-1703.

We bear it calmly, though a ponderous woe, And still adore the hand that gives the blow.3 Verses to his Friend under Affliction.

Heaven is not always angry when he strikes, But most chastises those whom most he likes. Ibid.

1 This on the authority of The Gentleman's Magazine, Vol. li. p. 324.

2 Our author, for the advantage of this play [Appius and Virginia], had invented a new species of thunder, which was approved of by the actors, and is the very sort that at present is used in the theatre. The tragedy, however, was coldly received notwithstanding such assistance, and was acted but a short time. Some nights after, Mr. Dennis being in the pit, at the representation of Macbeth, heard his own thunder made use of; upon which he rose in a violent passion, and exclaimed, with an oath, that it was his thunder. "See," said he, "how the rascals use me! They will not let my play run; and yet they steal my thunder.". Biog. Britannica, Vol. v. p. 103.

3 Bless the hand that gave the blow.

Dryden, The Spanish Friar, Act ii. Sc. 1.

240 Defoe. -Bentley. - Brown.

DANIEL DEFOE. 1663-1731.

1

Wherever God erects a house of prayer,
The Devil always builds a chapel there ;1
And 't will be found, upon examination,
The latter has the largest congregation.

The True-Born Englishman. Part i. Line 1.
Great families of yesterday we show,
And lords, whose parents were the Lord knows
who.

Ibid. Lin. ult.

RICHARD BENTLEY.

1662 – 1742.

It is a maxim with me that no man was ever written out of reputation but by himself.

Monk's Life of Bentley. p. 90.

TOM BROWN.

1663–1704.

I do not love thee, Doctor Fell,
The reason why I cannot tell;
But this alone I know full well,

I do not love thee, Doctor Fell."

1 See Proverbs, p. 612.

2 A slightly different version is found in Brown's Works collected and published after his death.

Non amo te, Sabidi, nec possum dicere quare;
Hoc tantum possum dicere, non amo te.

Martial, Ep. 1. xxxiii.
Je ne vous aime pas, Hylas;
Je n'en saurois dire la cause,
Je sais seulement un chose;
C'est que je ne vous aime pas.

Bussy, Comte de Rabutin, Epistle 33, Book i.

MATTHEW PRIOR. 1664 – 1721.

Be to her virtues very kind;
Be to her faults a little blind.
An English Padlock.

Abra was ready ere I call'd her name;
And, though I call'd another, Abra came.
Solomon on the Vanity of the World. Book ii. Line 364.
For hope is but the dream of those that wake.1

Ibid. Book iii. Line 102.

Who breathes, must suffer, and who thinks, must

mourn;

And he alone is bless'd who ne'er was born. Ibid. Book iii. Line 240.

Now fitted the halter, now travers'd the cart, And often took leave; but was loth to depart. The Thief and the Cordelier. Till their own dreams at length deceive 'em, And, oft repeating, they believe 'em.

Alma. Canto iii. Line 13. And thought the nation ne'er would thrive Till all the whores were burnt alive.

Paulo Purganti.

1 This thought is ascribed to Aristotle by Diogenes Laertius, Lib. v. g 18. ̓Ερωτηθεὶς τί ἐστιν ἐλπίς; Εγρηγορότος, εἶπεν, ἐνύπνιον.

Menage, in his Observations upon Laertius, says that Stobæus (Serm. cix.) ascribes it to Pindar, whilst Ælian (Var. Hist. xiii. 29) refers it to Plato : "Eλeyev ó IIλátwv, τὰς ἐλπίδας ἐγρηγορότων ἀνθρώπων ὀνείρους εἶναι.