• Tis ever thus when favours are denied; All had been granted but the thing we beg: And still some great unlikely substitute-- Your life, your soul, your all of earthly good-- Is proffer'd, in the room of one small boon.

    Joanna Baillie: Tis ever thus when favours are denied;
All had been granted but the thing we beg:
And still some great unlikely substitute--
Your life, your soul, your all of earthly good--
Is proffer'd, in the room of one small boon.
    Joanna Baillie (1806). “A series of plays in which it is attempted to delineate the stronger passions of the mind: each passion being the subject of a tragedy and a comedy”, p.98