Eche sticke a pen, eche man a scrivener able,
Not coud thei writin woman's treacherie,
Beware, therefore, the blind eteth many a flie."
Again in the "Remedie of Love," the same lines occur with a few slight alterations.
In vol. x. of the Modern Universal History, p. 430. note, I meet with this sentence:
"He was succeeded by Jochanan; not in right of descent, but of his extraordinary merits; which the Rabbies, according to custom, have raised to so surprising a height, that, according to them, if the whole heavens were paper, all the trees in the world pens, and all the men writers, they would not suffice to pen down all his lessons."
In later times, in Miss C. Sinclair's Hill and Valley, p. 25., we have:
"If the lake could be transformed into an ink-stand, the mountains into paper; and if all the birds that hover on high were to subscribe their wings for quills, it would be still insufficient to write half the praise and admiration that are justly due."
C. I. R.
These lines are by Dr. Watts. I cannot just now distinctly recollect where they are to be found, but I think in Milner's Life of Watts. My recollection of them is that they were impromptu, given at an evening party.