previous next

Epilogue To Eutychus.

I yet have stock in hand to spare,
And could write on-but will forbear-
First, lest I tire a friend, whose state
And avocations are so great:
And then, if other pens should try
This morals cheme as well as I,
They may have something to pursue:--
Yet if the spacious field we view,
More men are wanting for the plan,
Rather than matter for the man.
Now for that prize I make my plea
You promised to my brevity.
Keep your kind word; for life, my friend,
Is daily nearer to its end;
And I shall share your love the less
The longer you your hand repress:
The sooner you the boon insure,
The more the tenure must endure;
And if I quick possession take,
The greater profit must I make,
While yet declining age subsists,
A room for friendly aid exists.
Anon with tasteless years grown weak,
In vain benevolence will seek
To do me good-when Death at hand
Shall come and urge his last demand.
'Tis folly, you'll be apt to say,
A thousand times to beg and pray
Of one with so much worth and sense,
Whose gen'rous bounty is propense.
If e'er a miscreant succeeds,
By fair confession of his deeds,
An innocent offender's case
Is far more worthy of your grace.
You for example sake begin,
Then others to the lure you'll win,
And in rotation more and more
Will soon communicate their stoic.
Consider in your mind how far
At stake your word and honour are;
And let your closing the debate
By what I may congratulate.
I have been guilty of excess
Beyond my thought in this address
But 'tis not easy to refrain
A spirit work'd up to disdain
By wretches insolent and vile,
With a clear conscience all the while.
You'll ask me, sir, at whom I hint-
In time they may appear in print.
But give me leave to cite a phrase
I met with in my boyish days.
"'Tis dangerous for the mean and low
Too plain their grievances to show."
This is advice I shall retain
While life and sanity remain.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.

load focus Latin (L. Mueller, 1876)
hide Places (automatically extracted)

View a map of the most frequently mentioned places in this document.

Download Pleiades ancient places geospacial dataset for this text.

hide Display Preferences
Greek Display:
Arabic Display:
View by Default:
Browse Bar: