Nay, dearest Anna! why so grave?
I said you had no soul,'tis true:
For what you are, you cannot have
'Tis I, that have one, since I first had you.
[Party Passion]
"Well, Sir!" exclaimed a lady, the vehement and impassionate partizan of Mr. Wilkes, in the day of his glory, and during the broad blaze of his patriotism, "Well, Sir! and will you dare deny that Mr. Wilkes is a great man, and an eloquent man?" "Oh! by no means, Madam! I have not a doubt respecting Mr. Wilkes's talents!" "Well, but, Sir! and is he not a fine man, too, and a handsome man?" "Why, Madam! he squints, doesn't he?" "Squints! yes to be sure he does, Sir! but not a bit more than a gentleman and a man of sense ought to squint!"
[Goodness of Heart Indispensable to a Man of Genius]
If men will impartially, and not asquint, look toward the offices and function of a poet, they will easily conclude to themselves the impossibility of any man's being the good poet without being first a good man.
(Dedication to the Fox).
Ben Jonson has borrowed this just and noble sentiment from Strabo.