Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 11.djvu/47

 most judicious author, whom (as I take it) you have vouchsafed to immortalize by your learned lucubrations. And as proverbs are the wisdom of a nation, so I take the naturalizing such a quantity of very expressive ones, as we did by the act of union, to be one of the considerablest advantages we shall reap from it: and I do not question but the nation will be the wiser for the future.

But I have digressed too far, and therefore resume my thread. I know my own unworthiness to deserve your favour; but let this attempt pass on any account for some merit.

In magnis voluisse sat est.

And though all cannot be sprightly like F—d, wise like Trs, agreeable like Bth, polite like Prde, or, to sum up all, though there be but one phœnix, and one lepidissimus homuncio, T—p—m; yet since a cup of cold water was not an unacceptable present to a thirsty emperor, I may flatter myself, that this tender of my services (how mean soever) may not be contemned; and, though I fall from my great attempt,

Spero trovar pieta non che perdono,

as that mellifluous ornament of Italy, Franciscus Petrarcha, sweetly has it.

Mr. Crowder I have often heard affirm, and the fine thinkers of all ages have constantly held, that much good may be attained by reading of history.