[ANOTHER VERSION]
If the guilt of all lying consists in deceit,
Lie on—'tis your duty, sweet youth!
For believe me, then only we find you a cheat
When you cunningly tell us the truth.
1800. First published in Annual Anthology, 1800. First collected P. and D. W., 1877, ii. 163.
11
ON AN INSIGNIFICANT[954:1]
No doleful faces here, no sighing—
Here rots a thing that won by dying:
'Tis Cypher lies beneath this crust—
Whom Death created into dust.
1799. First published from an MS. in 1893. The two last lines were printed for the first time in 1834. Adapted from Lessing's Sinngedicht No. 52. Grabschrift des Nitulus.
'Hier modert Nitulus, jungfräuliches Gesichts,
Der durch den Tod gewann: er wurde Staub aus Nichts.'