FUGITIVE PIECES. THOUGHTS SUGGESTED BY A COLLEGE EXAMINATION*. HIGH in the midst, surrounded by his peers, Happy the youth in Euclid's axioms tried, Though little versed in any art beside; No reflection is here intended against the person mentioned under the name of Magnus. He is merely represented as performing an unavoidable function of his office. Indeed, such an attempt could only recoil upon myself; as that gentleman is now as much distinguished by his eloquence, and the dignified propriety with which he fills his situation, as he was in his younger days for wit and conviviality. The above note was added in the first edition of the Hours of Idleness.-ED. VOL. V. K Who, scarcely skill'd an English line to pen, What though he knows not how his fathers bled Such is the youth whose scientific pate We speak to please ourselves, not move the crowd: A proper mixture of the squeak and groan: The man who hopes t' obtain the promised cup The sons of science these, who, thus repaid, Yet prizing BENTLEY'S *, BRUNCK's*, or PORSON's † note, More than the verse on which the critic wrote: Vain as their honours, heavy as their ale, Sad as their wit, and tedious as their tale; To friendship dead, though not untaught to feel * Celebrated critics. †The present Greek professor at Trinity College, Cambridge; a man whose powers of mind and writings may perhaps justify their preference. The concluding clause of the foregoing note was added in the first edition of Hours of Idleness.-ED. Vain as their honours, &c.--The four ensuing lines were inserted in the second edition of Hours of Idleness.- ED. power, With eager haste they court the lord of 1806. TO THE EARL OF ‡。 "Tu semper amoris Sis memor, et cari comitis ne abscedat imago." Valerius Flaccus. 1. FRIEND of my youth! when young we roved, With friendship's purest glow, The bliss which wing'd those rosy hours Was such as pleasure seldom showers On mortals here below. * Since this was written, Lord H. P- —y has lost his place, and subsequently (I had almost said consequently) the honour of representing the University. A fact so glaring requires no comment. + While distant mitres, &c. In the private volume, While mitres, prebends, to their eyes are spread.-ED. These stanzas were first published in the second edition of Hours of Idleness.-ED. |