[[970]] Dear Candle, burnt down to a finger-joint,
Thy own flame is an epigram of sight;
'Tis short, and pointed, and all over light,
Yet gives most light and burns the keenest at the point.

Valete et Plaudite.

First published in Morning Post, Oct. 11, 1802.

61

EPITAPH

ON HIMSELF

Here sleeps at length poor Col., and without screaming—
Who died as he had always lived, a-dreaming:
Shot dead, while sleeping, by the Gout within—
Alone, and all unknown, at E'nbro' in an Inn.

'Composed in my sleep for myself while dreaming that I was dying' . . . at the Black Bull, Edinburgh, Tuesday, Sept. 13, 1803. Sent in a letter to Thomas Wedgwood, Sept. 16, 1803. First published Cottle's Reminiscences, 1848, p. 467. First collected in 1893.