On Conversation (1782) [ Concepts ]
… after hour, the yet unletter'd boy, Sorting and puzzling with a deal of glee Those seeds of science call'd his A B C; So language in the mouths of the adult, Witness its insignificant result, Too often proves an implement of play, A toy to … it on that ground alone; I could not, had I seen it with my own. A tale should be judicious, clear, succinct; The language plain, the incidents well linked; Tell not as new what everybody knows, And, new or old, still hasten to a … worms? They dare not wait the riotous abuse Thy thirst-creating steams at length produce, When wine has given indecent language birth, And forced the floodgates of licentious mirth; For seaborn Venus her attachment shows Still to that …
Conversation | Crime
Anthology