Alike all ages. Dames of ancient days Have led their children through the mirthful maze, And the gay grandsire, skill'd in gestic lore, Has frisk'd beneath the burden of threescore.

Wisdom makes a slow defense against trouble, though a sure one in the end.

While Resignation gently slopes away, And all his prospects brightening to the last, His heaven commences ere the world be past.

To the last moment of his breath, On hope the wretch relies; And even the pang preceding death Bids expectation rise.

Romance and novel paint beauty in colors more charming than nature, and describe a happiness that humans never taste. How deceptive and destructive are those pictures of consummate bliss!

We are all sure of two things, at least; we shall suffer and we shall all die.

I fancy the character of a poet is in every country the same,--fond of enjoying the present, careless of the future; his conversation that of a man of sense, his actions those of a fool.