Who, if some blockhead should be willing
To lend him on his soul a shilling,
A well-made bargain would esteem it,
And have more sense than to redeem it.
Churchill, “The Ghost.”
Many witty authors compare the present time to an isthmus or narrow neck of land, that rises in the midst of an ocean, immeasurably diffused on either side of it.
—Spectator, 590.
Lo, on a narrow neck of land,
’Twixt two unbounded seas I stand
Secure, insensible. Wesley.