“Deign on the passing world to turn thine eyes,

And pause awhile from letters, to be wise;

There mark what ills the scholar’s life assail,

Toil, envy, want, the patron and the jail,

See nations slowly wise, and meanly just,

To buried merit raise the tardy bust.”

(From The Vanity of Human Wishes by Samuel Johnson, 1709 – 1784)

John Lentell

28th March, 1969