ON OBSERVING SOME NAMES OF LITTLE

NOTE RECORDED IN THE BIOGRAPHIA

BRITANNICA.*

H, fond attempt to give a deathless lot
To names ignoble, born to be forgot!
In vain recorded in historic page,

They court the notice of a future age:

Those twinkling, tiny lustres of the land
Drop one by one from Fame's neglecting hand;
Lethæan gulfs receive them as they fall,
And dark oblivion soon absorbs them all.

So when a child, as playful children use,
Has burnt to tinder a stale last year's news,
The flame extinct, he views the roving fire-
There goes my lady, and there goes the squire,
There goes the parson-O illustrious spark!
And there, scarce less illustrious, goes the clerk.

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* Poems, 1782, 8vo. p. 314. Written in 1780, and sent to the Rev. W. Unwin in a letter dated Sept. 3, in that year.

REPORT OF AN ADJUDGED CASE,

NOT TO BE FOUND IN ANY OF THE BOOKS."

B

ETWEEN Nose and Eyes a strange con

test arose,

The spectacles set them unhappily

wrong;

The point in dispute was, as all the world knows, To which the said spectacles ought to belong.

So Tongue was the lawyer, and argued the cause & With a great deal of skill, and a wig full of

learning;

While Chief Baron Ear sat to balance the laws,
So famed for his talent in nicely discerning.

"In behalf of the Nose it will quickly appear, And your lordship," he said, " will undoubtedly

find,

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That the Nose has had spectacles always in wear, Which amounts to possession time out of mind."

Then holding the spectacles up to the court"Your lordship observes they are made with a straddle,

As wide as the bridge of the Nose is; in short, 15 Designed to sit close to it, just like a saddle.

*Poems, 1782, 8vo. p. 315. Sent in a letter to Joseph Hill, on Christmas Day, 1780, and to the Rev. W. Unwin, in a letter written in the same month.

214 REPORT OF AN ADJUDGED CASE.

"Again, would your lordship a moment suppose ("Tis a case that has happened, and may be again) That the visage or countenance had not a Nose, Pray who would, or who could, wear spectacles then?

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"On the whole it appears, and my argument shows, With a reasoning the court will never condemn, That the spectacles plainly were made for the Nose,

And the Nose was as plainly intended for them."

Then shifting his side, as a lawyer knows how, 25
He pleaded again in behalf of the Eyes;
But what were his arguments few people know,
For the court did not think they were equally
wise.

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So his lordship decreed, with a grave solemn tone,
Decisive and clear, without one if or but—
That, whenever the Nose put his spectacles on,
By daylight or candlelight-Eyes should be shut.

ON THE

PROMOTION OF EDWARD THURLOW, ESQ.

TO THE LORD HIGH CHANCELLORSHIP

R

OF ENGLAND.*

OUND Thurlow's head in early youth,
And in his sportive days,

Fair Science poured the light of truth,
And Genius shed his rays.

"See!" with united wonder, cried
The experienced and the sage,
"Ambition in a boy supplied
With all the skill of age.

"Discernment, Eloquence, and Grace,

Proclaim him born to sway
The balance in the highest place,

And bear the palm away."

The praise bestowed was just and wise,

He sprang impetuous forth,

Secure of conquest where the prize
Attends superior worth.

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* Poems, 1782, 8vo. p. 309. Written for Joseph Hill, and sent to him in a letter dated Nov. 14, 1779.

So the best courser on the plain
Ere yet he starts is known,
And does but at the goal obtain
What all had deemed his own.

ODE TO PEACE.*

OME, peace of mind, delightful guest!
Return and make thy downy nest

Once more in this sad heart:
Nor riches I, nor power pursue,

Nor hold forbidden joys in view,

We therefore need not part.

Where wilt thou dwell, if not with me,
From Avarice and Ambition free,

And Pleasure's fatal wiles?
For whom, alas! dost thou prepare
The sweets that I was wont to share,
The banquet of thy smiles?

The great, the gay, shall they partake
The Heaven that thou alone canst make?
And wilt thou quit the stream
That murmurs through the dewy mead,
The grove, and the sequestered shed,
To be a guest with them?

* Poems, 1782, 8vo. p. 310

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