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John Bartlett (1820–1905). Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. 1919.

Page 462

 
 
Sydney Smith. (1771–1845) (continued)
 
4876
    The schoolboy whips his taxed top; the beardless youth manages his taxed horse with a taxed bridle on a taxed road; and the dying Englishman, pouring his medicine, which has paid seven per cent, into a spoon that has paid fifteen per cent, flings himself back upon his chintz bed which has paid twenty-two per cent, and expires in the arms of an apothecary who has paid a license of a hundred pounds for the privilege of putting him to death.
          Review of Seybert’s Annals of the United States, 1820.
4877
    In the four quarters of the globe, who reads an American book, or goes to an American play, or looks at an American picture or statue?
          Review of Seybert’s Annals of the United States, 1820.
4878
    Magnificent spectacle of human happiness.
          America. Edinburgh Review, July, 1824.
4879
    In the midst of this sublime and terrible storm [at Sidmouth], Dame Partington, who lived upon the beach, was seen at the door of her house with mop and pattens, trundling her mop, squeezing out the sea-water, and vigorously pushing away the Atlantic Ocean. The Atlantic was roused; Mrs. Partington’s spirit was up. But I need not tell you that the contest was unequal; the Atlantic Ocean beat Mrs. Partington.
          Speech at Taunton, 1813.
4880
    Men who prefer any load of infamy, however great, to any pressure of taxation, however light.
          On American Debts.
 
John Hookham Frere. (1769–1846)
 
4881
    And don’t confound the language of the nation
With long-tailed words in osity and ation.
          The Monks and the Giants. Canto i. Line 6.
4882
    A sudden thought strikes me,—let us swear an eternal friendship. 1
          The Rovers. Act i. Sc. 1.
 
Note 1.
See Otway, Quotation 5.

My fair one, let us swear an eternal friendship.—Jean Baptiste Molière: Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, act iv. sc. 1. [back]