During one of Foote's trips to Dublin, he was much solicited by a
silly young man of fashion to assist him in a miscellany of poems and
essays which he was about to publish; but when he asked to see the
manuscript, the other told him "that at present he had only conceived
the different subjects, but had put none of them to paper."
"Oh! if that be the state of the case," replied Foote, "I will give
you a motto from Milton for the work in its present state:
'Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme.'"