Every thing is in a state of perpetual motion. “Nulla quies intus (nor outus indeed for the matter of that), nullâque silentia parte” We drink our tea exactly as Tantalus did in the infernal regions; we keep bobbing at the basin for half an hour together without being able to get a drop; and certainly nobody on ship-board can doubt the truth of the proverb, “Many things fall out between the cup and the lip.”
NOVEMBER 23.
PANDORA’S BOX. (Iliad A.)
Prometheus once (in Tooke the tale you’ll see)
In one vast box enclosed all human evils;
But curious Woman needs the inside would see,
And out came twenty thousand million devils.
The story’s spoil’d, and Tooke should well be chid;
The fact, sir, happen’d thus, and I’ve no doubt of it:
’Twas not that Woman raised the coffer’s lid,