Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine - Volume 61, No. 376, February, 1847

But the fair guerdon when we hope to find, And think to burst out into sudden blaze, Comes the blind Fury with the abhorred shears, And slits the thin-spun life.
Milton.— Lycidas .
Compositum jus, fasque animi, sanctosque recessus Mentis, et incoctum generoso pectus honesto,
Hæc cedo ut admoveam templis, et farre litabo.
During this period, namely, from his eighth to his twelfth year, he became passionately fond of writing verses: and I have now before me, kindly forwarded by one of his relatives in Ireland, two small quarto MS. volumes, containing exclusively what he wrote during this period, extending to upwards of seventy or eighty pieces, some of considerable length, and in every kind of English verse. Their genuineness is unquestionable; and I shall quote from them in the state in which they were originally collected at the time, without the alteration of a single letter. Having completely satisfied myself on this point, and I hope the reader also, what will he think of the following evidence of the creative perception of humour professed by a child scarce thirteen years of age? I have transcribed it verbatim . It is prefixed to a satirical poem of some length, entitled Practical Morality.
Preface loquitur —
Hezekiah Shortcut, O tempora! O mores!
The poem is in two cantos: the first of which thus opens,—
Long have I viewed the folly and the sin That fill this wicked globe of ours, call'd earth, And once a secret impulse felt within My bosom, to convert it into mirth; But then the voice of pity, softly sighing, Hinted the subject was more fit for crying.
Democritus was once a Grecian sage— A famous man, as every one must know— But rather fond of sneering at the age, And turning into laughter human wo; Another sage, Heraclitus to wit, Considered it more wise to weep for it. I can't determine which of them was right, Nor can I their respective merits see; The subject, disputation may invite, But that belongs to wiser men than me. It has already been discuss'd by one, A better judge by far (see Fenelon.)