THE NOBILITY OF AMBITION.

AMBITION is the stamp impress'd by Heaven

To mark the noblest minds; with active heat
Inform'd, they mount the precipice of power,
Grasp at command, and tower in quest of empire;
While vulgar souls compassionate their cares,
Gaze at their height and tremble at their danger.
Thus meaner spirits with amazement mark
The varying seasons, and revolving skies,
And ask, what guilty power's rebellious hand
Rolls with eternal toil the pond'rous orbs?
While some archangel, nearer to perfection,
In easy state presides o'er all their motions,
Directs the planets with a careless nod,
Conducts the sun, and regulates the spheres.

THE HEIGHT OF HONOUR.

NO man to offend

Ne'er to reveal the secrets of a friend;
Rather to suffer, than to do a wrong,

To make the heart no stranger to the tongue;
Provoked, not to betray an enemy,

Nor at his meat I choke with flattery;
Blushless to tell wherefore I wear my scars,
Or for my conscience, or my country's wars;
To aim at just things, if we've wildly run
Into offences, wish them all undone,
'Tis poor, in grief for a wrong done, to die,
Honour to dare to live, and satisfy.

Johnson.

Massinger.

A GOOD WORD FOR PUBLISHERS.

"I PROTEST against that wretch of a middle-man whom I see between

Genius and his great landlord, the Public, and who stops more than

half of the labourer's earnings and fame."

"I am a prose labourer," Warrington said: "you, my boy, are a poet in a small way, and so, I suppose, consider you are authorised to be flighty. What is it you want? Do you want a body of capitalists that shall be forced to purchase the works of all authors, who may present themselves, manuscript in hand? Everybody who writes his epic, every driveller who can or can't spell, and produces his novel or his tragedy,are they all to come and find a bag of sovereigns in exchange for their worthless reams of paper? Who is to settle what is good or bad, saleable or otherwise? Will you give the buyer leave, in fine, to purchase or not? Why, sir, when Johnson sate behind the screen at Saint John's Gate, and took his dinner apart, because he was too shabby and poor to join the literary bigwigs who were regaling themselves round Mr Cave's best tablecloth, the tradesman was doing him no wrong. You couldn't force the publisher to recognise the man of genius in the young man who presented himself before him, ragged, gaunt, and hungry. Rags are not a proof of genius; whereas capital is absolute, as times go, and is perforce the bargain-master. It has a right to deal with the literary inventor as with any other; if I produce a novelty in the book trade, I must do the best I can with it; but I can no more force Mr Murray to purchase my book of travels or sermons, than I can compel Mr Tattersall to give me a hundred guineas for my horse. I may have my own ideas of the value of my Pegasus, and think him the most wonderful of animals; but the dealer has a right to his opinion, too, and may want a lady's horse, or a cob for a heavy timid rider, or a sound hack for the road, and my beast won't suit him.'

Thackeray.

L'ALLEGRO.

COME

OME, thou goddess fair and free,
In heaven yclep'd Euphrosyne,
And, by men, heart-easing Mirth,
Whom lovely Venus, at a birth,
With two sister Graces more,
To ivy-crowned Bacchus bore:
Or whether (as some sages sing)

The frolic wind that breathes the spring,
Zephyr, with Aurora playing,

As he met her once a-Maying,

There, on beds of violets blue,

And fresh-blown roses wash'd in dew,

Fill'd her with thee, a daughter fair,

So buxom, blithe, and debonair.

Haste thee, nymph, and bring with thee

Jest, and youthful jollity,

Quips, and cranks, and wanton wiles,

Nods, and becks, and wreathed smiles,

Such as hang on Hebe's cheek,

And love to live in dimple sleek ;

Sport that wrinkled Care derides,

And Laughter holding both his sides.
Come, and trip it, as you go,

On the light fantastic toe;

And in thy right hand lead with thee
The mountain nymph, sweet Liberty;
And, if I give thee honour due,

Mirth, admit me of thy crew,

To live with her, and live with thee,

In unreproved pleasures free;