C. DE D.
"O Leoline," &c. (Vol. v., p. 78.).
—If no one sends in better information, I beg to inform H. B. C. that I have had the lines he alludes to for many years in MS. as the composition of Aaron Hill. He was a dramatist, but I observe that the Cyclopædia says only two of his dramatic pieces are now remembered, Algira and Zara, both of them adaptations from Voltaire. He was born 1684, and died 1750. My verses differ slightly from the version of H. B. C.
"Let never man be bold enough to say,
Thus, and no farther, shall my footsteps stray.
The first crime past compels us into more,
And guilt grows fate, that was but choice before."
HERMES.
[O. P. W. has forwarded a similar reference to Aaron Hill.]