Dr. Johnson_. 1745.

Words are men's daughters, but God's sons are things.

_Basselas_. Chapter i.

Ye who listen with credulity to the whispers
of fancy, and pursue with eagerness the phantoms
of hope; who expect that age will perform
the promises of youth, and that the deficiencies
of the present day will be supplied by
the morrow; attend to the history of Rasselas,
Prince of Abyssinia.

* * * * *

_Epitaph on Robert Levett_.

In Misery's darkest cavern known,
His useful care was ever nigh,
Where hopeless Anguish poured his groan,
And lonely Want retired to die.

* * * * *

_Epitaph on Claudius Phillips, the Musician_.

Phillips, whose touch harmonious could remove
The pangs of guilty power or hapless love;
Rest here, distressed by poverty no more,
Here find that calm thou gav'st so oft before;
Sleep, undisturbed, within this peaceful shrine,
Till angels wake thee with a note like thine.

* * * * *

LORD LYTTELTON
1709-1773.

_Prologue to Thomson's Coriolanus_.

For his chaste Muse employed her heaven-taught lyre
None but the noblest passions to inspire,
Not one immoral, one corrupted thought,
One line, which dying he could wish to blot.

_Epigram_.

None without hope e'er loved the brightest fair,
But love can hope where reason would despair.

* * * * *

_Soliloquy on a Beauty in the Country_.

Where none admire, 'tis useless to excel;
Where none are beaux, 'tis vain to be a belle.

* * * * *

_Song_.

Alas! by some degree of woe
We every bliss must gain;
The heart can ne'er a transport know,
That never feels a pain.

* * * * *

EDWARD MOORE.
1712-1757.

_Fable IX. The Farmer, the Spaniel, and the Cat_.

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 X. The Spider and the Bee_.

The maid who modestly conceals
Her beauties, while she hides, reveals;
Give but a glimpse, and fancy draws
Whate'er the Grecian Venus was.

* * * * *

But from the hoop's bewitching round,
Her very shoe has power to wound.

* * * * *

_The Happy Marriage_.

Time still, as he flies, adds increase to her truth,
And g