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We mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honour.

A Declaration by the Representatives of the United
States of America.

Error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it. Inaugural Address.

Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever state or persuasion, religious or political; peace, commerce, and honest friendship, with all nations, entangling alliances with none; the support of the State governments in all their rights, as the most competent administrations for our domestic concerns, and the surest bulwarks against anti-republican tendencies; the preservation of the General Government in its whole constitutional vigour, as the sheet anchor of our peace at home and safety abroad ; . . . . freedom of religion; freedom of the press; freedom of person under the protection of habeas corpus; and trial by juries impartially selected, - these principles form the bright constellation which has gone before us, and guided our steps through an age of revolution and reformation.

Ibid.

If a due participation of office is a matter of right, how are vacancies to be obtained? Those by death are few: by resignation none.1 Letter to a Committee of the Merchants of New Haven, 1801.

Usually quoted, "Few die, and none resign."

PATRICK HENRY. 1736-1799.

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Cæsar had his Brutus Charles the First, his Cromwell and George the Third ("Treason!" cried the speaker)—may profit by their example. If this be treason, make the most of Speech, 1765.

it.

Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but, as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!

Speech, March, 1775.

THOMAS PAINE.

And the final event to

1737-1809.

himself (Mr. Burke)

has been that, as he rose like a rocket, he fell

like the stick.

Letter to the Addressers.

These are the times that try men's souls.

The American Crisis. No. 1.

The sublime and the ridiculous are often so nearly related, that it is difficult to class them separately. One step above the sublime makes the ridiculous, and one step above the ridicu lous makes the sublime again.1

Age of Reason. Part ii. ad fin. (note.)

1 Probably the original of Napoleon's celebrated mot, "Du sublime au ridicule il n'y a qu'un pas."

JOHN LANGHORNE.

1735-1779.

Cold on Canadian hills or Minden's plain,
Perhaps that parent mourned her soldier slain ;
Bent o'er her babe, her eye dissolved in dew;
The big drops, mingling with the milk he drew,
Gave the sad presage of his future years,
The child of misery, baptized in tears.1

The Country Justice. Parti

JOHN WOLCOT.2 1738-1819.

What
rage for fame attends both great and small !
Better be d-d than mentioned not at all.
To the Royal Academicians.
Care to our coffin adds a nail, no doubt,
And every grin, so merry, draws one out.
Expostulatory Odes. Ode xv.

A fellow in a market town,

Most musical, cried razors up and down.

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1 This allusion to the dead soldier and his widow, on the field of battle, was made the subject of a print by Bunbury, under which were engraved the pathetic lines of Langhorne. Sir Walter Scott has mentioned that the only time he saw Burns this picture was in the room. Burns shed tears over it; and Scott, then a lad of fifteen, was the only person present who could tell him where the lines were to be found. — Chambers's Cyc. of Literature, Vol. ii. p. 10.

2 "Peter Pindar." In a note to The Royal Town an epigram is quoted ending, "Twas a lucky escape for the stone," referring to a stone being flung at George III. and narrowly missing his head.

MRS. BARBAULD.

1743-1825.

Man is the nobler growth our realms supply, And souls are ripened in our northern sky.

The Invitation.

This dead of midnight is the noon of thought, And Wisdom mounts her zenith with the stars. A Summer's Evening Meditation.

Life! we 've been long together

Through pleasant and through cloudy weather; 'T is hard to part when friends are dear; Perhaps 't will cost a sigh, a tear;

Then steal away, give little warning,

Choose thine own time;

Say not "Good night," but in some brighter clime

Bid me "Good morning."

It is to hope, though hope were lost.1

Life.

Come here, Fond Youth.

JOHN LOGAN. 1748-1788.

Thou hast no sorrow in thy song,
No winter in thy year.

To the Cuckoo.

O, could I fly, I 'd fly with thee!
We 'd make, with joyful wing,
Our annual visit o'er the globe,

Companions of the spring.

Ibid.

1 Who against hope believed in hope. - Romans iv. 18.

MRS. THRALE.

1739-1821.

The tree of deepest root is found
Least willing still to quit the ground;
'T was therefore said, by ancient sages,
That love of life increased with years
So much, that in our latter stages,
When pains grow sharp, and sickness rages,
The greatest love of life appears.

Three Warnings.

CHARLES DIBDIN. 1745 – 1814.

There's a sweet little cherub that sits up aloft, To keep watch for the life of poor Jack.

Poor Jack.

Did you ever hear of Captain Wattle?

He was all for love and a little for the bottle.

Captain Wattle and Miss Roe.

His form was of the manliest beauty,

His heart was kind and soft;

Faithful below he did his duty,

But now he 's gone aloft.

Tom Bowling.

For though his body 's under hatches,

His soul has gone aloft.

Ibid.

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