T ADDENDA I EPIGRAMS, ETC. [A few 'Epigrams' which had gained a place in Coleridge's collected works have been omitted, being found not to belong to him. A few others have been excluded as too trivial. But the omissions have been more than compensated by additions of better quality from MSS. hitherto unprinted. It is difficult at this time of day to deal quite adequately with a certain class of these effusions. To exclude all, would be to mask one side of a man exceptionally many-sided: to include only one or two would equally convey a false impression. Already they have been included in so many editions of Coleridge's works as to have become part and parcel of them, and will always have to be taken into account in any estimate of his genius and character. Few of the less serious of the 'Epigrams' are entirely original: many are translated from Lessing, and as a rule, rendered with no great felicity.] B. Why, then we and the Gods are equally blest, And Olympus an Ale-house as good as the best! M. Post, Sep. 18, 1801. 24 EPITAPH ON A BAD MAN OF him that in this gorgeous tomb doth lie This sad brief tale is all that Truth can give He lived like one who never thought to die, With a sadness at heart, and an earnest hope grounded on his misanthropic sadness, when I first knew him in his 20th or 21st year, that a something existed in his bodily organism that in the sight of the All-Merciful lessened his responsibility, and the moral imputation of his acts and feelings. MS. 26 DRINKING versus THINKING OR, A SONG AGAINST THE NEW My Merry men all, that drink with glee Pray tell me what good is it? He died like one who dared not hope If antient Nick should come and take to live ! The same across the Stygian Lake, To Pallas we resign such fowls- And spicy bishop, drink divine ! Let's live while we are able. While Mirth and Sense sit, hand in glove, This Don Philosophy we'll shove Dead drunk beneath the table! M. Post, Sep. 25, 1801. 27 A HINT TO PREMIERS AND FIRST CONSULS FROM AN OLD TRAGEDY, VIZ. AGATHA TO KING ARCHELAUS THREE truths should make thee often think and pause; The first is, that thou govern'st over men; |