When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves,
Ye know that the summer is nigh.—Matthew, xxiv. 32.
UNINTENTIONAL RHYMES OF PROSERS.
The delicate ear of Addison, who would stop the press to add a conjunction, or erase a comma, allowed this inelegant jingle to escape his detection:—
What I am going to mention, will perhaps deserve your attention.
Dr. Whewell, when Master of Trinity College, fell into a similar trap, to the great amusement of his readers. In his work on Mechanics, he happened to write literatim and verbatim, though not lincatim, the following tetrastich:—
There is no force, however great,
Can stretch a cord, however fine,
Into a horizontal line,
Which is accurately straight.