In anticipating the objection to war against the military superpower of Britain, Henry makes two responses. First, he asks the rhetorical question "when shall we be stronger?" He doesn't believe that time ("next week...next year") alone will enable the colonies to strengthen themselves. He creates an image of every colonial home forced to quarter a British soldier, implying that then it would be too late to muster any military strength. He goes on to claim that God will send allies to help the colonies repel the British; it seems plausible that he was thinking of the French, who did indeed assist the colonies later in the Revolutionary War. Henry estimates that there are three million in the colonies, and that if they all united in the common cause, they would be invincible against "any force which our enemy can send against us."
Does anybody know the etymology of the phrase "sweet dreams"? I tried googling but did not find anything satisfying. Is this a relatively new phrase of the modern world or has this been in use for some time? I think it's the latter one. Answer The OED has the interjection as "a farewell to someone going to bed" from the 20th century: 1908 Sears Roebuck Catal. 198/1 Tenor Solos..Good Bye, Sweet Dreams, Good Bye. But it goes back until at least the 19th and possibly 18th centuries. John Wolcot, writing under the pseudonym of Peter Pindar, used it in his poem "Orson and Ellen; A Legendary Tale" published in 1801: Also from 1801 in The infernal Quixote (Page 287) by Charles Lucas: In the March 1776 of The Universal Magazine was published "The Serenade. A Pastoral Tale. From the German of Gesner" , where the shepherd Daphnis watches over his beloved as she sleeps and sings: The same tale appears in 1776's as Idyl XI, " Daphnis ...
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