the names of persons, even of those who are their nearest friends and relatives.  For the same reason they never can amuse themselves with reading, because their memory will not serve to carry them from the beginning of a sentence to the end; and by this defect they are deprived of the only entertainment whereof they might otherwise be capable....  They are despised and hated by all sorts of people; when one of them is born, it is reckoned ominous, and their birth is recorded very particularly....They were the most mortifying sight I ever beheld; and the women were homelier than the men Beside the usual deformities in extreme old age, they acquired an additional ghastliness, in proportion to their number of years, which is not to be described; and among half a dozen I soon distinguished which was the eldest, although there was not above a century or two between them.

* * * * *

ALEXANDER POPE.

A CHARACTER OF ADDISON.

[From the Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot.]

  Peace to all such! but were there one whose fires
  True genius kindles and fair fame inspires;
  Blest with each talent and each art to please,
  And born to write, converse, and live with ease: 
  Should such a man, too fond to rule alone,
  Bear, like the Turk, no brother near the throne;
  View him with scornful, yet with jealous eyes,
  And hate, for arts that caused himself to rise;
  Damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer,
  And, without sneering, teach the rest to sneer;
  Willing to wound, and yet afraid to strike,
  Just hint a fault and hesitate dislike;
  Alike reserved to blame or to commend,
  A timorous foe and a suspicious friend;
  Dreading even fools, by flatterers besieged;
  And so obliging that he ne’er obliged;
  Like Cato,[142] give his little Senate laws,
  And sit attentive to his own applause;
  While wits and templars[143] every sentence raise,
  And wonder with a foolish face of praise—­
  Who but must laugh if such a man there be? 
  Who would not weep if Atticus were he?

AN ORNAMENT TO HER SEX.

[From the Epistle of the Characters of Women.]

  See how the world its veterans rewards! 
  A youth of frolic, an old age of cards;
  Fair to no purpose, artful to no end,
  Young without lovers, old without a friend;
  A fop their passion, but their prize a sot;
  Alive, ridiculous, and dead, forgot. 
  Ah!  Friend,[144] to dazzle let the vain design;
  To raise the thought and touch the heart be thine! 
  That charm shall grow, while what fatigues the Ring[145]
  Flaunts and goes down, an unregarded thing. 
  So when the sun’s broad beam has tired the sight,
  All mild ascends the moon’s more sober light,
  Serene in virgin majesty she shines,