. . . . . .

. . . . . .

. . . . . . .

Methinks too little cost

For a moment so found, so lost!

 

The Isle

There was a little lawny islet

By anemone and violet,

Like mosaic, paven:

And its roof was flowers and leaves

Which the summer's breath enweaves,

 

Where nor sun nor showers nor breeze

Pierce the pines and tallest trees,

Each a gem engraven; –

 

Girt by many an azure wave

With which the clouds and mountains pave

A lake's blue chasm.

 

Fragment: To the Moon

Bright wanderer, fair coquette of Heaven,

To whom alone it has been given

To change and be adored for ever,

Envy not this dim world, for never

But once within its shadow grew

One fair as –

 

Epitaph

These are two friends whose lives were undivided;

So let their memory be, now they have glided

Under the grave; let not their bones be parted,

For their two hearts in life were single-hearted.

Notes

 

1 Conduct ed. 1816. See notes at end.

 

2 roots ed. 1816: query stumps or trunks. See note at end.

 

3 The Author was pursuing a fuller development of the ideal character of Athanase, when it struck him that in an attempt at extreme refinement and analysis, his conceptions might be betrayed into the assuming a morbid character. The reader will judge whether he is a loser or gainer by the difference.

 

4 The oldest scholiasts read –

 

A dodecagamic Potter.

 

This is at once more descriptive and more megalophonous, – but the alliteration of the text had captivated the vulgar ear of the herd of later commentators.

 

5 To those who have not duly appreciated the distinction between Whale and Russia oil, this attribute might rather seem to belong to the Dandy than the Evangelic. The effect, when to the windward, is indeed so similar, that it requires a subtle naturalist to discriminate the animals. They belong, however, to distinct genera.

 

6 One of the attributes in Linnaeus's description of the Cat. To a similar cause the caterwauling of more than one species of this genus is to be referred; – except, indeed, that the poor quadruped is compelled to quarrel with its own pleasures, whilst the biped is supposed only to quarrel with those of others.

 

7 What would this husk and excuse for a virtue be without its kernal prostitution, or the kernal prostitution without this husk of a virtue? I wonder the women of the town do not form an association, like the Society for the Suppression of Vice, for the support of what may be called the »King, Church, and Constitution« of their order. But this subject is almost too horrible for a joke.

 

8 This libel on our national oath, and this accusation of all our countrymen of being in the daily practice of solemnly asseverating the most enormous falsehood, I fear deserves the notice of a more active Attorney General than that here alluded to.

 

9 Vox populi, vox dei. As Mr. Godwin truly observes of a more famous saying, of some merit as a popular maxim, but totally destitute of philosophical accuracy.

 

10 Quasi, Qui valet verba: – i.e. all the words which have been, are, or may be expended by, for, against, with, or on him. A sufficient proof of the utility of this history.