WRITTEN UPON THE COVER OF A BLOTTING BOOK
Blank tho' I be, within you'll find
Relics of th' enraptured mind:
Where truth and fable, mirth and wit,
Are safely here deposited.
The placid, furious, envious, wise,
Impart to me their secresies;
Here hidden thoughts in blotted line
Nor sybil can the sense divine;
Lethe and I twin sisters be—
Then, stranger, open me and see.
* * * * *
POLITICAL AND OTHER EPIGRAMS
TO SIR JAMES MACKINTOSH
(1801)
Though thou'rt like Judas, an apostate black,
In the resemblance one thing thou dost lack:
When he had gotten his ill-purchased pelf,
He went away, and wisely hanged himself.
This thou may'st do at last; yet much I doubt,
If thou hast any bowels to gush out!
* * * * *
TWELFTH NIGHT
Characters That Might Have Been Drawn on the Above Evening
(1802)
MR. A[DDINGTON]
I put my night-cap on my head,
And went, as usual, to my bed;
And, most surprising to relate,
I woke—a Minister of State!
MESSRS. C[ANNIN]G AND F[RER]E
At Eton School brought up with dull boys,
We shone like men among the school-boys;
But since we in the world have been,
We are but school-boys among men.
COUNT RUMFORD
I deal in aliments fictitious
And teaze the poor with soups nutritious.
Of bones and flesh I make dilution
And belong to the National Institution.