most judicious author, whom (as I take it) you have vouchsafed to immortalize by your learned lucubrations[1]. And as proverbs are the wisdom of a nation, so I take the naturalizing such a quantity of very expressive ones, as we did by the act of union, to be one of the considerablest advantages we shall reap from it: and I do not question but the nation will be the wiser for the future.
But I have digressed too far, and therefore resume my thread. I know my own unworthiness to deserve your favour; but let this attempt pass on any account for some merit.
In magnis voluisse sat est.
And though all cannot be sprightly like F—d, wise like T rs, agreeable like B th, polite like P r de, or, to sum up all, though there be but one phœnix, and one lepidissimus homuncio, T—p—m; yet since a cup of cold water was not an unacceptable present to a thirsty emperor, I may flatter myself, that this tender of my services (how mean soever) may not be contemned; and, though I fall from my great attempt,
Spero trovar pieta non che perdono,
as that mellifluous ornament of Italy, Franciscus Petrarcha, sweetly has it.
Mr. Crowder I have often heard affirm, and the fine thinkers of all ages have constantly held, that much good may be attained by reading of history.
- ↑ The lucubrations of Isaac Bickerstaff, in the Tatler.