Christopher Smart

Christopher Smart (11 April 1722 – 21 May 1771), otherwise known as "Kit Smart", "Kitty Smart", and "Jack Smart", was an English poet.

Quotes

 * Too hard for any frog's digestion, To have his froghood call'd in question!
 * The Duellist


 * For I will consider my Cat Jeoffry. For he is the servant of the Living God duly and daily serving him.
 * Jubilate Agno


 * Night with all her negro train, Took possession of the plain; In an hearse she rode reclin'd. Drawn by screech-owls slow and blind: Close to her, with printless feet, Crept Stillness in a winding sheet.
 * Ode XIV. A Night-Piece; or, Modern Philosophy (1748).

About Smart

 * Madness frequently discovers itself merely by unnecessary deviation from the usual modes of the world. My poor friend Smart showed the disturbance of his mind, by falling upon his knees, and saying his prayers in the street, or in any other unusual place. Now although, rationally speaking, it is greater madness not to pray at all, than to pray as Smart did, I am afraid there are so many who do not pray, that their understanding is not called in question.
 * Samuel Johnson, quoted in James Boswell, Life of Dr. Johnson