FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   283   284   285   286   287   288   289   290   291   292   293   294   295   296   297   298   299   300   301   302   303   304   305   306   307  
308   309   310   311   312   313   314   315   316   317   318   319   320   321   322   323   324   325   326   327   328   329   330   331   332   >>   >|  
e sex are always seeking: But how to fill up that same vacant part? There lies the rub--and this they are but weak in. Frail mariners afloat without a chart, They run before the wind through high seas breaking; And when they have made the shore through every shock, 'T is odd, or odds, it may turn out a rock. There is a flower call'd 'Love in Idleness,' For which see Shakspeare's everblooming garden;-- I will not make his great description less, And beg his British godship's humble pardon, If in my extremity of rhyme's distress, I touch a single leaf where he is warden;-- But though the flower is different, with the French Or Swiss Rousseau, cry 'Voila la Pervenche!' Eureka! I have found it! What I mean To say is, not that love is idleness, But that in love such idleness has been An accessory, as I have cause to guess. Hard labour's an indifferent go-between; Your men of business are not apt to express Much passion, since the merchant-ship, the Argo, Convey'd Medea as her supercargo. 'Beatus ille procul!' from 'negotiis,' Saith Horace; the great little poet 's wrong; His other maxim, 'Noscitur a sociis,' Is much more to the purpose of his song; Though even that were sometimes too ferocious, Unless good company be kept too long; But, in his teeth, whate'er their state or station, Thrice happy they who have an occupation! Adam exchanged his Paradise for ploughing, Eve made up millinery with fig leaves-- The earliest knowledge from the tree so knowing, As far as I know, that the church receives: And since that time it need not cost much showing, That many of the ills o'er which man grieves, And still more women, spring from not employing Some hours to make the remnant worth enjoying. And hence high life is oft a dreary void, A rack of pleasures, where we must invent A something wherewithal to be annoy'd. Bards may sing what they please about Content; Contented, when translated, means but cloy'd; And hence arise the woes of sentiment, Blue devils, and blue-stockings, and romances Reduced to practice, and perform'd like dances. I do declare, upon an affidavit, Romances I ne'er read like those I have seen; Nor, if unto the worl
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   283   284   285   286   287   288   289   290   291   292   293   294   295   296   297   298   299   300   301   302   303   304   305   306   307  
308   309   310   311   312   313   314   315   316   317   318   319   320   321   322   323   324   325   326   327   328   329   330   331   332   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

flower

 

idleness

 

knowing

 

knowledge

 

ferocious

 
Though
 

showing

 

Unless

 
church
 

receives


purpose
 
occupation
 

station

 

Thrice

 
exchanged
 

Paradise

 

leaves

 

company

 

millinery

 
ploughing

earliest

 

devils

 
stockings
 

romances

 

practice

 

Reduced

 
sentiment
 

translated

 
perform
 
dances

declare

 

affidavit

 
Romances
 

Contented

 

Content

 

remnant

 

enjoying

 

employing

 

grieves

 
spring

dreary

 

wherewithal

 

pleasures

 

invent

 

Shakspeare

 
everblooming
 

garden

 

Idleness

 

description

 
extremity