… This Age I grant (and grant with pride)
Is varied, rich, eventful:
But if you touch its weaker side,
Deplorably resentful:Belaud it, and it takes your praise
With air of calm conviction:
Condemn it, and at once you raise
A storm of contradiction.Whereas with these old shades of mine,
Austin Dodson, Epilogue to Eighteenth-Century Vignettes
Their ways and dress delight me;
And should I trip by word or line,
They cannot well indict me. …