Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death! Speech in the Virginia Convention, March, 1775. EDWARD GIBBON. 1737–1794. The reign of Antoninus is marked by the rare advantage of furnishing very few materials for history, which is indeed little more than the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind.1 Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776). Revenge is profitable, gratitude is expensive. Amiable weaknesses of human nature.2 Chap. iii. Chap. xi. Chap. xiv. In every deed of mischief he had a heart to resolve, a head to contrive, and a hand to execute.3 Chap. xlviii. Our sympathy is cold to the relation of distant misery. Chap. xlix. The winds and waves are always on the side of the ablest navigators.1 Chap. lxviii. Vicissitudes of fortune, which spares neither man nor the proudest of his works, which buries empires and cities in a common grave. Chap. Izzi. All that is human must retrograde if it do not advance. I saw and loved." Ibid. Memoirs. Vol. i. p. 106. 1 L'histoire n'est que le tableau des crimes et des malheurs (History is but the record of crimes and misfortunes). — VOLTAIRE: L'Ingénu, chap. z. 2 See Fielding, page 364. 8 See Clarendon, page 255. On dit que Dieu est toujours pour les gros bataillons (It is said that God is always on the side of the heaviest battalions). — VOLTAIRE: Letter to M. le Riche. 1770. J'ai toujours vu Dieu du coté des gros bataillons (I have always noticed that God is on the side of the heaviest battalions). De la Ferté to Anne of Austria. 5 See Chapman, page 35. On the approach of spring I withdraw without reluctance from the noisy and extensive scene of crowds without company, and dissipation without pleasure. I Memoirs. Vol. i. p. 116. was never less alone than when by myself.1 P. 117. THOMAS PAINE. 1737-1809. And the final event to himself [Mr. Burke] has been, that, as he rose like a rocket, he fell like the stick. Letter to the Addressers. These are the times that try men's souls. The American Crisis. No. 1. The sublime and the ridiculous are often so nearly related, that it is difficult to class them separately. One step above the sublime makes the ridiculous, and one step above the ridiculous makes the sublime again.2 Age of Reason. Part ii. note. JOHN WOLCOT. 1738-1819. What rage for fame attends both great and small! To the Royal Academicians. No, let the monarch's bags and others hold 1 8 To Kien Long. Ode iv. re to our coffin adds a nail, no doubt. Expostulatory Odes. Ode xr. Never less alone than when alone.-ROGERS: Human Life. ? Probably this is the original of Napoleon's celebrated mot, "Du sublime au ridicule il n'y a qu'un pas" (From the sublime to the ridiculous there is but one step). a See Jonson, page 178. 432 WOLCOT. THRALE. MORRIS. TOPLADY. A fellow in a market town, Most musical, cried razors up and down. Farewell Odes. Ode sii. MRS. THRALE. 1739-1821. The tree of deepest root is found Three Warnings. CHARLES MORRIS. 1739-1832. Solid men of Boston, banish long potations! O give me the sweet shady side of Pall Mall! Town and Country.. A. M. TOPLADY. 1740–1778. Rock of Ages, cleft for me, Let me hide myself in thee. Salvation through Christ. 1 Solid men of Boston, make no long orations! Solid men of Boston, banish strong potations! Billy Pitt and the Farmer. From Debrett's Asylum for Fugitive Pieces, vol. ii. p. 250. THOMAS MOSS. 1740-1808. Pity the sorrows of a poor old man, Whose trembling limbs have borne him to your door, Whose days are dwindled to the shortest span; Oh give relief, and Heaven will bless your store. A pampered menial drove me from the door.1 The Beggar. Ibid. MRS. BARBAULD. 1743-1825. Man is the nobler growth our realms supply, The Invitation. This dead of midnight is the noon of thought, A Summer's Evening Meditation. It is to hope, though hope were lost.2 Life! we've been long together Come here, Fond Youth. Through pleasant and through cloudy weather; 'Tis hard to part when friends are dear, Perhaps 't will cost a sigh, a tear; ᎢᏂ Then steal away, give little warning, Say Choose thine own time; not "Good night," but in some brighter clime Bid me "Good morning." Life. This line stood originally, "A liveried servant," etc., and was altered as aboe by Goldsmith.-FORSTER: Life of Goldsmith, vol. i. p. 215 (fifth edition 1871). 2 Wo against hope believed in hope. — Romans iv. 18. Hope against hope, and ask till ye receive. - MONTGOMERY: The So fades a summer cloud away; So sinks the gale when storms are o'er; So dies a wave along the shore. The Death of the Virtuous. Child of mortality, whence comest thou? Why is thy countenance sad, and why are thine eyes red with weeping? Hymns in Prose. ziii. THOMAS JEFFERSON. 1743-1826. The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time. Summary View of the Rights of British America. When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. Declaration of Independence. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. among these Ibid. We mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honour. Ibid. Error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it. 1 See Chaucer, page 6. First Inaugural Address. March 4, 1801. 2 See Bolingbroke, page 304. 8 All men are born free and equal, and have certain natural, essential, and unalienable rights.- Constitution of Massachusetts. |