WRITTEN UPON THE COVER OF A BLOTTING BOOK
Reading edition
Blank tho' I be, within you'll find Relics of th' enraptured mind: Where truth and fable, mirth and wit, Are safely here deposited. The placid, furious, envious, wise, Impart to me their secresies; Here hidden thoughts in blotted line Nor sybil can the sense divine; Lethe and I twin sisters be— Then, stranger, open me and see.
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POLITICAL AND OTHER EPIGRAMS
TO SIR JAMES MACKINTOSH
(1801)
Though thou'rt like Judas, an apostate black, In the resemblance one thing thou dost lack: When he had gotten his ill-purchased pelf, He went away, and wisely hanged himself. This thou may'st do at last; yet much I doubt, If thou hast any bowels to gush out!
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TWELFTH NIGHT
Characters That Might Have Been Drawn on the Above Evening
(1802)
MR. A[DDINGTON]
I put my night-cap on my head, And went, as usual, to my bed; And, most surprising to relate, I woke—a Minister of State!
MESSRS. C[ANNIN]G AND F[RER]E
At Eton School brought up with dull boys, We shone like men among the school-boys; But since we in the world have been, We are but school-boys among men.
COUNT RUMFORD
I deal in aliments fictitious And teaze the poor with soups nutritious. Of bones and flesh I make dilution And belong to the National Institution.