原文 (英语)

VERSES FROM THE OLDEST PORTFOLIO      Nescit vox missa reverti.—Horat. Ars Poetica.      Ab lis qua non adjuvant quam mollissime oportet pedem referre.—      Quintillian, L. VI. C. 4. These verses have always been printed in my collected poems, and as the best of them may bear a single reading, I allow them to appear, but in a less conspicuous position than the other productions. A chick, before his shell is off his back, is hardly a fair subject for severe criticism. If one h