Whate'er deserves attention now;
For when 'tis gone you know not how,
Too late you'll find that, to your cost,
So much of human life is lost.
Were it not for the written letter,
Pray what were living men the better
For all the labours of the dead?
For all that Socrates e'er said?
The morals brought from Heav'n to men
He would have carry'd back again;