Tobias Smollett

To send the injur'd unredress'd away, How great soe'er th' offender, or the wrong'd Howe'er obscure, is wicked—weak and vile: Degrades, denies, and should dethrone a king!

True courage scorns To vent her prowess in a storm of words; And, to the valiant, actions speak alone.

To exult Ev'n o'er an enemy oppress'd, and heap Affliction on the afflicted, is the mark And the mean triumph of a dastard soul.

To-day, in snow array'd, stern winter rules The ravag'd plain—Anon the teeming earth Unlocks her stores, and spring adorns the year: And shall not we—while fate, like winter, frowns, Expect revolving bliss?

Keen are the pangs Of hapless love, and passion unapprov'd: But where consenting wishes meet, and vows Reciprocally breath'd, confirm the tie, Joy rolls on joy, an inexhausted stream! And virtue crowns the sacred scene.

Thy fatal shafts unerring move, I bow before thine altar, Love!

Writing is all a lottery -- I have been a loser by the works of the greatest men of the age.

Those sculptur'd halls my feet shall never tread, Where varnish'd vice and vanity combin'd, To dazzle and seduce, their banners spread, And forge vile shackles for the free-born mind.

Thy spirit, Independence, let me share, Lord of the lion-heart and eagle-eye. Thy steps I follow with my bosom bare,Nor heed the storm that howls along the sky.

Facts are stubborn things.