Henry Fielding

“ At greatness aims, that none the aim can miss!
Nor trade so low, profession useless, thrives,
Which to its followers not greatness gives.
What quality so mean, what vice can shame
The base possessors from the mighty claim?
To make our merits little weight prevail,
We put not virtue in the other scale;
Against our neighbour's scale our own we press,
And each man's great who finds another less.
In large dominions some exert their state,
But all men find a corner to be great. ”

“ Greatness with learning deck'd in Carteret see,
With justice, and with clemency in Lee;
In Chesterfield to ripe perfection come,
See it in Littelton beyond its bloom.
Lives there a man, by nature form'd to please,
To think with dignity, express with ease;
Upright in principle, in council strong,
Prone not to change, nor obstinate too long:
Whose soul is with such various talents bless'd,
What he now does seems to become him best ”

“ Bear off no honours from the bloody fold?
Shall the dead flock his greatness not display;
But shepherds hunt him as a beast of prey?
While man, not drove by hunger from his den,
To honour climbs o'er heaps of murder'd men. ”