Page:Omniana.djvu/126

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108
OMNIANA.

To a lady too confident of her innocence, he says,

Madam, that you are innocent I know,
But the world wants innocence to think you so.

Here is the germ of a well-known epigram.

Shepherd. Since you are resolved, farewell,
Look you lead not apes in hell.
Nymph. Better lead apes thither, than
Thither to be led by men.

He says in the epistle dedicatory to his noble friends, "There is none prints more, nor publishes less than I, for I print only for myself and private friends." This volume, however, he made public, because he thought it more passable than the rest. "I write chiefly to avoid idleness, and print to avoid the imputation; and as others do it to live after they are dead, I do it only not to be thought dead whilst I can live. Epigram in general is a quick and short kind of writing,