Syndenham, Jan. 21. 1850.

* * * * *

LINES ATTRIBUTED TO HUDIBRAS.

Perhaps the following extract from a volume entitled _The Relics of
Literature_, published by Boys and Co., Ludgate Hill, 1820, may prove
interesting, as further illustrating the so frequently disputed passage
which forms the subject matter of your first article in No. 12.:--

"Few popular quotations have more engaged the pens of critics
than the following:--

'For he that fights and runs away
Will live to fight another day.'

"These lines are almost universally supposed to form a part of
_Hudibras_; and, so confident have even scholars been on the
subject, that in 1784 a wager was made at Bootle's, of twenty to
one, that they were to be found in that inimitable poem. Dodsley
was referred to as the arbitrator, when he ridiculed the idea of
consulting him on the subject, saying, 'Every fool knows they
are in _Hudibras_.' George Selwyn, who was present, said to
Dodsley, 'Pray, sir, will you be good enough, then, to inform an
old fool, who is at the same time your wise worship's very
humble servant, in what canto they are to be found?' Dodsley
took down the volume, but he could not find the passage; the
next day came, with no better success; and the sage bibliopole