Attempt > Volume 1 and Select writings

THE ATTEMPT
227
The following describes a suit in Chancery—
“ Mr Leach made a speech,
Angry, neat, and wrong ;
Mr Hart, on the other part,
Was prosing, dull, and long.
Mr Parker made the case darker,
Which was dark enough without;
Mr Cook cited a book,
And the Chancellor said I doubt. ”
Here is a description of a good epigram—
“ The qualities all in a bee that we meet,
In an epigram never should fail;
The body should always be little and sweet,
And a sting should be felt in the tail.”
Garrick was once accused by a Dr Hill of mispronouncing some words, including
the letter I, as furra for firm, vurtue for virtue. He retorted in the following epigram—
“ If ’tis trae, as you say, that I’ve injured a letter,
I ’ll change my notes soon, and I hope for the better;
May the just right of letters, as well as of men,
Hereafter be fixed by the tongue and the pen !
Most devoutly I wish that they both have their due,
And that I may be never mistaken for U."
We shall conclude this little paper with Sir William Jones’ translation of the Persian
epigram on “ a newly-born child ”—
“ On parent knees a naked, new-born child,
Weeping thou sat’st, while all around thee smiled ;
So live, that, sinking in thy last long sleep,
Calm, thou may’st smile, while all around thee weep.”
Veronica.