Aikin Barbauld

Forgotten rimes, and college themes, Worm-eaten plans, and embryo schemes; A mass of heterogeneous matter. A chaos dark, nor land nor water.

Society than solitude is worse, And man to man is still the greatest curse.

When one by one our ties are torn, And friend from friend is snatched forlorn; When man is left alone to mourn, Oh! then how sweet it is to die!

We neither laugh alone, nor weep alone, why then should we pray alone?

We can only love what we know.

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

The most characteristic mark of a great mind is to choose some one important object, and pursue it for life.

This dead of midnight is the noon of thought, And Wisdom mounts her zenith with the stars.

It would be difficult to determine whether the age is growing better or worse; for I think our plays are growing like sermons, and our sermons like plays.

Of her scorn the maid repented, And the shepherd - of his love.