On Observing some names of little note recorded in the Biographia Britannica (September, 1780)
The Poems of William Cowper. Ed. By John S. Memes, LL.D. Third Edition. (London: Ball, Arnold, & Co. Paternoster Row. A. & C. Black, Edinbuzrgh. 1840), p.350'
Oh, fond attempt to
give a deathless lot
To names ignoble, born
to be forgot!
In vain, recorded in
historic page,
They court the notice
of a future age:
Those twinkling tiny
lustres of the land
Drop one by one from Fame's neglecting hand;
Lethæan gulfs receive them as they fall,
And dark oblivion soon absorbs them
all........"
