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

Page 604

 
 
Thomas Babington, Lord Macaulay. (1800–1859) (continued)
 
6159
      The Puritan hated bear-baiting, not because it gave pain to the bear, but because it gave pleasure to the spectators. 1 
          History of England. Vol. i. Chap. iii.
6160
      An acre in Middlesex is better than a principality in Utopia. 2 
          On Lord Bacon.
6161
      I have not the Chancellor’s encyclopedic mind. He is indeed a kind of semi-Solomon. He half knows everything, from the cedar to the hyssop. 3 
          Letter to Macvey Napier, Dec. 17, 1830.
6162
    These be the great Twin Brethren
  To whom the Dorians pray.
          The Battle of Lake Regillus.
6163
    To every man upon this earth
  Death cometh soon or late;
And how can man die better
  Than facing fearful odds
For the ashes of his fathers
  And the temples of his gods?
          Lays of ancient Rome. Horatius, xxvii.
6164
    The Romans were like brothers
In the brave days of old.
          Lays of ancient Rome. Horatius, xxxii.
6165
    How well Horatius kept the bridge.
          Lays of ancient Rome. Horatius, lxx.
6166
    The sweeter sound of woman’s praise.
          Lines written in August, 1847.
6167
    Oh! wherefore come ye forth in triumph from the north,
  With your hands and your feet and your raiment all red?
 
Note 1.
Even bear-baiting was esteemed heathenish and unchristian: the sport of it, not the inhumanity, gave offence.—Hume: History of England, vol. i. chap. lxii. [back]
Note 2.
See Tennyson: “Better fifty years of Europe than a cycle of Cathay.” [back]
Note 3.
I wish I were as sure of anything as Macaulay is of everything.
William Windham (1750–1810). [back]