Part 11 (2/2)

At Dover Dwells George Brown Esquire, Good Christopher Finch, And David Friar.

[An ancient and graver example, fulfilling the same purpose, runs as follows.]

Astra Dabit Dominus, Gratisque Beabit Egenos, Gratia Christicolae Feret Aurea Dona Fideli.

CXIV.

Birch and green holly, boys, Birch and green holly.

If you get beaten, boys, 'Twill be your own folly.

CXV.

When V and I together meet, They make the number Six compleat.

When I with V doth meet once more, Then 'tis they Two can make but Four And when that V from I is gone, Alas! poor I can make but One.

CXVI.

Multiplication is vexation, Division is as bad; The Rule of Three doth puzzle me, And Practice drives me mad.

CXVII.

[The following memorial lines are by no means modern. They occur, with slight variations, in an old play, called 'The Returne from Parna.s.sus,' 4to, Lond. 1606; and another version may be seen in Winter's 'Cambridge Almanac' for 1635. See the 'Rara Mathematica,' p. 119.]

Thirty days hath September, April, June, and November; February has twenty-eight alone, All the rest have thirty-one, Excepting leap-year, that's the time When February's days are twenty-nine.

CXVIII.

My story's ended, My spoon is bended: If you don't like it, Go to the next door, And get it mended.

CXIX.

[On arriving at the end of a book, boys have a practice of reciting the following absurd lines, which form the word _finis_ backwards and forwards, by the initials of the words,]--

Father Iohnson Nicholas Iohnson's son-- Son Iohnson Nicholas Iohnson's Father.

[To get to father Johnson, therefore, was to reach the end of the book.]

CXX.

The rose is red, the gra.s.s is green; And in this book my name is seen.

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