[61] "Satan's self."--_Ed. 1786._ [62] "Like Korah."--_Ib._ [63] "Lord Sandwich, after the retirement of Howe, gave the naval command at New York to officers without ability; and the aged Arbuthnot was succeeded by Graves, a coarse and vulgar man of mean ability, and without skill in his profession."--_Bancroft._ [64] "School-boy."--_Ed. 1786._ THE VANITY OF EXISTENCE[65] To Thyrsis In youth, gay scenes attract our eyes, And not suspecting their decay Life's flowery fields before us rise, Regardless of its winter day. But vain pursuits and joys as vain, Convince us life is but a dream. Death is to wake, to rise again To that true life you best esteem. So nightly on some shallow tide, Oft have I seen a splendid show; Reflected stars on either side, And glittering moons were seen below. But when the tide had ebbed away, The scene fantastic with it fled, A bank of mud around me lay, And sea-weed on the river's bed. [65] Published in the _Freeman's Journal_, October 24, 1781, under the title "A Moral Thought," and reprinted without change in the edition of 1786. ON THE FALL OF GENERAL EARL CORNWALLIS Who, with above seven thousand Men, surrendered themselves prisoners of war to the renowned and illustrious General GEORGE WASHINGTON, Commander-in-chief of the allied armies of France and America, on the memorable 19th of _October_, 1781.[66] "Give us the proudest prisoner of the Goths, "That we may hew his limbs, and on a pile "_Ad manes fratrum_ sacrifice his flesh, "Before this earthly prison of their bones; "That so the shadows be not unappeas'd, "Nor we disturb'd with prodigies on earth." --_Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus_, Act I, Scene II.