"Read, ye that run, the awful truth
With which I charge my page;
A worm is in the bud of youth,
And at the root of age."
I know not with whom the idea originated. The imagery is frequently used by Shakspeare, but with him never indicates disease or death.
I can call to mind no similar expression in the classics.
H. E. H.
Moore's Almanack (Vol. iv., p. 74.).
—Your correspondent FRANCIS is in error as to the MSS. and correspondence of Henry Andrews being in the possession of his son, Mr. Wm. Henry Andrews. Mr. W. H. Andrews some time ago sold to me the whole of his father's MSS. correspondence, astronomical and astrological calculations, with a mass of very curious letters from persons desirous of having their "nativities cast." I have also some copies of Andrews' portrait, one of which shall be much at your service.
Moore's Almanack was known by that name long before Andrews had any connection with it, but he was for upwards of forty years its compiler for the Company of Stationers, whose liberal (?) treatment of Andrews may be collected from the following postscript to a letter addressed to me by his son:—