I know, I quote Sam Johnson too much. Can’t help it–I worship the
man–have the Barry portrait looking down on me from above my desk. A
fellow-worshipper has just reminded me of the marvelous opening line of
Rasselas: “Ye who listen with credulity to the whispers of fancy, and
persue with eagerness the phantoms of hope; who expect that age will perform
the promises of youth, and that the deficiencies of the present day will be
supplied by the morrow; attend to the history of Rasselas prince of
Abissinia.”