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Oliver Goldsmith. (1730?–1774) (continued)

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    When lovely woman stoops to folly,
  And finds too late that men betray,
What charm can soothe her melancholy?
  What art can wash her guilt away?

On Woman. Chap. xxiv.

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    The only art her guilt to cover,
  To hide her shame from every eye,
To give repentance to her lover,
  And wring his bosom, is—to die.

On Woman. Chap. xxiv.

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To what fortuitous occurrence do we not owe every pleasure and convenience of our lives.

On Woman. Chap. xxi.

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For he who fights and runs away
May live to fight another day;
But he who is in battle slain
Can never rise and fight again. 1

The Art of Poetry on a New Plan (1761). Vol. ii. p. 147.

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One writer, for instance, excels at a plan or a title-page, another works away the body of the book, and a third is a dab at an index. 2

The Bee. No. 1, Oct. 6, 1759.

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The true use of speech is not so much to express our wants as to conceal them. 3

The Bee. No. iii. Oct. 20, 1759.

Thomas Warton. (1728–1790)

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All human race, from China to Peru, 4
Pleasure, howe’er disguis’d by art, pursue.

Universal Love of Pleasure.

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Nor rough, nor barren, are the winding ways
Of hoar antiquity, but strewn with flowers.

Written on a Blank Leaf of Dugdale’s Monasticon.

Note 1.
See Butler, Quotation 68. [back]

Note 2.
There are two things which I am confident I can do very well: one is an introduction to any literary work, stating what it is to contain, and how it should be executed in the most perfect manner.
Boswell: Life of Johnson, An. 1775. [back]

Note 3.
See Young, Quotation 64. [back]

Note 4.
See Johnson, Quotation 1. [back]

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