232

L'Estrange. Tillotson.

EARL OF ROSCOMMON. 1633-1684.

Remember Milo's end,

Wedged in that timber which he strove to rend. Essay on Translated Verse. Line 87.

Choose an author as you choose a friend.

Ibid. Line 96.

Immodest words admit of no defence,
For want of decency is want of sense.

Ibid. Line 113.

The multitude is always in the wrong.

Ibid.

My God, my Father, and my Friend,
Do not forsake me at my end.

Line 184.

Translation of Dies Ira.

ROGER L'ESTRANGE. 1616-1740.

Though this may be play to you,
'Tis death to us.

Fables from Several Authors. Fable 398.

JOHN TILLOTSON. 1630-1694.

If God were not a necessary Being of himself, he might almost seem to be made for the use and benefit of men.1 Sermon 93, 1712.

1 Si Dieu n'existait pas, il faudroit l'inventer. — Voltaire, A l'Auteur du livre des trois imposteurs, Epit. cxi.

To their own second and sober thoughts.1

Exposition, Job vi. 29. (London, 1710.)

SIR JOHN POWELL.

- 1713.

Let us consider the reason of the case. For

nothing is law that is not reason.2

Coggs vs. Bernard, 2 Ld. Raym. 911.

RICHARD RUMBOLD.

1685.

I never could believe that Providence had sent a few men into the world, ready booted and spurred to ride, and millions ready saddled and bridled to be ridden.

When on the Scaffold (1685). Macaulay, Hist. of England.

1 I consider biennial elections as a security that the sober, second thought of the people shall be law. Fisher Ames, Speech on Biennial Elections, 1788.

2 Reason is the life of the law; nay, the common law itself is nothing else but reason.... The law, which is perfection of reason. - Coke, Institute, Book i. Fol. 976.

234

Rochester. Sedley.

EARL OF ROCHESTER. 1647-1680.

Angels listen when she speaks :

She's my delight, all mankind's wonder ; But my jealous heart would break, Should we live one day asunder.

Here lies our sovereign lord the king,

Whose word no man relies on ;

He never says a foolish thing,

Nor ever does a wise one.

Song.

Written on the Bedchamber Door of Charles II.

And ever since the conquest have been fools. Artemisia in the Town to Chloe in the Country.

For pointed satire I would Buckhurst choose, The best good man with the worst-natured muse. An Allusion to Satire x. Horace. Book i.

A merry monarch, scandalous and poor.

On the King.

SIR CHARLES SEDLEY. 1639-1701.

When change itself can give no more,

'T is easy to be true.

Reasons for Constancy.

SHEFFIELD, DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM-
SHIRE. 1649 – 1720.

Of all those arts in which the wise excel,
Nature's chief masterpiece is writing well.
Essay on Poetry.
There's no such thing in nature, and you'll draw
A faultless monster which the world ne'er saw.

Ibid.

Read Homer once, and you can read no more, For all books else appear so mean, so poor; Verse will seem prose; but still persist to read, And Homer will be all the books you need.

Ibid.

HENRY ALDRICH. 1647 – 1710.

If on my theme I rightly think,
There are five reasons why men drink :
Good wine, a friend, because I'm dry,
Or least I should be by and by,

Or any other reason why.1

Biog. Britannica.

Vol. i. p. 131.

1 These lines are a translation of a Latin epigram (erroneously ascribed to Aldrich in the Biog. Brit.) which Menage and De la Monnoye attribute to Père Sirmond. Si bene commemini, causæ sunt quinque bibendi ; Hospitis adventus; præsens sitis atque futura; Et vini bonitas, et quælibet altera causa.

Menagiana, Vol. i. p. 172.

O woman! lovely woman! nature made thee To temper man; we had been brutes without you. Angels are painted fair, to look like you: There's in you all that we believe of heaven; Amazing brightness, purity, and truth,

Eternal joy, and everlasting love.

Venice Preserved. Acti. Sc. I.

Dear as the vital warmth that feeds my life;
Dear as these eyes, that weep in fondness o'er thee.1
Ibid. Act v. Sc. I.

What mighty ills have not been done by woman ?
Who was 't betray'd the Capitol? A woman!
Who lost Mark Antony the world? A woman !
Who was the cause of a long ten years' war,
And laid at last old Troy in ashes? Woman!
Destructive, damnable, deceitful woman!

The Orphan. Act iii. Sc. 1.

ANDREW FLETCHER OF SALTOUN. 1653-1716.

I knew a very wise man that believed that, if a man were permitted to make all the ballads, he need not care who should make the laws of a nation.

Letter to the Marquis of Montrose, the Earl of Rothes, etc.

1 Cf. Gray, The Bard, Part i. St. 3.