ON OBSERVING SOME NAMES OF LITTLE NOTE RECORDED IN THE BIOGRAPHIA BRITANNICA. Оn, fond attempt to give a deathless lot So when a child, as playful children use, BETWEEN Nose and Eyes a strange contest arose, The spectacles set them unhappily wrong: The point in dispute was, as all the world knows, To which the said spectacles ought to belong. So Tongue was the lawyer, and argued the cause With a great deal of skill, and a wig full of learning; While chief baron Ear sat to balance the laws, So famed for his talent in nicely discerning. In behalf of the Nose it will quickly appear, And your lordship, he said, will undoubtedly find That the Nose has had spectacles always in wear, Which amounts to possession time out of mind. Then holding the spectacles up to the courtYour lordship observes they are made with a straddle, As wide as the ridge of the Nose is; in short, Again; would your lordship a moment suppose, ('Tis a case that has happened, and may be again) That the visage or countenance had not a Nose, Pray who would or who could wear spectacles then? On the whole it appears, and my argument shows, With a reasoning the court will never condemn, That the spectacles plainly were made for the Nose, And the Nose was as plainly intended for them. Then shifting his side, (as a lawyer knows how) For the court did not think they were equally wise. So his lordship decreed with a grave solemn tone, Decisive and clear, without one if or butThat, whenever the Nose put his spectacles on, By day-light or candle-light-Eyes should be shut! ON THE BURNING. OF LORD MANSFIELD'S LIBRARY, TOGETHER WITH HIS MSS., BY THE MOB, IN THE MONTH of June 1780. So then the Vandals of our isle, Sworn foes to sense and law, Have burnt to dust a nobler pile Than ever Roman saw! And MURRAY sighs o'er Pope and Swift, And many a treasure more, The well-judged purchase and the gift, That graced his lettered store. Their pages mangled, burnt, and torn, Their loss was his alone; But ages yet to come shall mourn The burning of his own. |