Note 322 — MISCELLANEOUS RECOLLECTIONS A SUPPLEMENTARY CHAPTER BEGUN IN 1826
Reading edition
Dr. George, however, seems to have been an elegant scholar, and a good writer of Greek and Latin verse. Some of the best specimens in the Musa Anglicana and Musæ Etonenses are, if I recollect right, of his composition. In one addressed to the Prince of Wales,
Tu destinatus imperare liberis Parere primum,
are lines happily imitated from the Greek adage,
οὐκ ἔστιν ἄρχειν, μὴ ἀρχθέντα:
a maxim Dryden might have introduced in a tragedy and rhymed thus,
“Stoop then to rise; Ambition’s sons, they say, Are taught to rule by learning to obey.”—V.H.
[William George, D.D., Headmaster of Eton; and Provost of King’s College, Cambridge, in 1743. He died in 1756. His wife was Miss Bland, daughter of his predecessor at Eton.
Lord Holland’s quotation is obscure, and is, besides, scarcely legible. It is suggested that ἄρχε πρῶτον μυθὼν ἄρχεσθαι was the line which he had in mind.]