HINTS FROM HORACE.
425
Babe of a city birth! from sixpence take[1]
The third, how much will the remainder make?—
"A groat."—"Ah, bravo! Dick hath done the sum![2]
He'll swell my fifty thousand to a Plum."[3]520
They whose young souls receive this rust betimes,
'Tis clear, are fit for anything but rhymes;
And Locke will tell you, that the father's right
Who hides all verses from his children's sight;
For Poets (says this Sage,[4] and many more,)
Make sad mechanics with their lyric lore:[5]
And Delphi now, however rich of old,
- ↑ Babe of old Thelusson[i] .—[MS. L. (a and b).]
↑ i. [Peter Isaac Thellusson, banker (died July 21,1797), by his will directed that his property should accumulate for the benefit of the unborn heir of an unborn grandson. The will was, finally, upheld, but, meanwhile, on July 28, 1800, an act (39 and 40 Geo. III. c. 98) was passed limiting such executory devises.] - ↑
A groat—ah bravo! Dick's the boy for sums
He'll swell my fifty thousand into plums.—[MS. L. (a).] - ↑ [Cant term for £100,000.]
- ↑ I have not the original by me, but the Italian translation runs as follows:—"E una cosa a mio credere molto stravagante, che un Padre desideri, o permetta, che suo figliuolo coltivi e perfezioni questo talento." A little further on: "Si trovano di rado nel Parnaso le miniere d' oro e d' argento,"—Educazione dei Fanciulli del Signor Locke (Venice, 1782), ii. 87. ["If the child have a poetic vein, it is to me the strangest thing in the world, that the father should desire or suffer it to be cherished or improved." It is very seldom seen, that any one discovers mines of gold or silver on Parnassus."—Some Thoughts concerning Education, by John Locke (1880), p. 152.]
- ↑ Are idle dogs and (damn them!) always poor.—[MS. L. (a and b).]
