"_When found, make a Note of._"--The following poem may be considered in
the light of an enlarged paraphrase on the motto of your valuable
periodical. It is one of a collection of poems by John Byrom, first
published in 1773. An edition was published at Leeds in the year 1814.
"_A Hint to a Young Person, for his better Improvement
by Reading or Conversation._
"In reading authors, when you find
Bright passages that strike the mind,
And which perhaps you may have reason
To think on at another season,
Be not contented with the sight,
But take them down in black and white.
Such a respect is wisely shown,
As makes another's sense one's own.
When you're asleep upon your bed,
A thought may come into your head,
Which may be useful, if 'tis taken
Due notice of when you are waken.
Of midnight thoughts to take no heed
Betrays a sleepy soul indeed;
It is but dreaming in the day,
To throw our nightly hours away.
In conversation, when you meet
With persons cheerful and discreet,
That speak or quote, in prose or rhyme,
Facetious things or things sublime,
Observe what passes, and anon,
When you get home think thereupon;
Write what occurs; forget it not;
A good thing sav'd is so much got.
Let no remarkable event
Pass with a gaping wonderment,
A fool's device--'Lord, who would think!'
Rather record with pen and ink
Whate'er deserves attention now;
For when 'tis gone you know not how,
Too late you'll find that, to your cost,
So much of human life is lost.
Were it not for the written letter,
Pray what were living men the better
For all the labours of the dead?
For all that Socrates e'er said?
The morals brought from Heav'n to men
He would have carry'd back again;
'Tis owing to his short-hand youth
That Socrates does now speak truth."
Vol. i. p. 59. Edit. 1814.