Laudator Temporis Acti

Paul Ponder, Noctes Atticae, or Reveries in a Garret; Containing Short, and Chiefly Original, Observations on Men and Books (Bath: Richard Cruttwell, 1825), p. 85:

                                           The Scholar's Felicity.
Dr. Young,* speaking of "Composition," remarks, "to men of letters it is not only a noble amusement, but a sweet refuge; it improves their parts, and promotes their peace; it opens a backdoor out of the bustle of this busy and idle world into a delicious garden of moral and intellectual fruits and flowers, the key of which is denied to the rest of mankind. When stung with idle anxieties, or teased with fruitless impertinence, or yawning over insipid diversions, then we see the blessings of a lettered recess." So sings an elegant poet—

Such of the Muses are the able powers,
That since with them I spent the vacant hours,
I find nor hawk, nor hound, nor other thing,
Tournays nor revels, (pleasures for a king,)
Yield more delight.

                 Britannia's Pastorals, by W. Brown.

* See his Conjectures on Original Composition.

Godfrey Kneller (1646-1723), A Scholar in his Study