On Hearing Miss Thrale Consulting With A Friend About A Gown And Hat by Samuel Johnson

Wear the gown and wear the hat,
Snatch thy pleasures while they last;
Hadst thou nine lives, like a cat,
Soon those nine lives would be pass'd.

More from Samuel Johnson:

• Preface to Shakespeare
• On the Death of Dr. Robert Levet
• Rasselas Prince of Abyssinia
• Life of Cowley
• Sheffield
• Shenstone