‘On the phrase ‘To kill time” by Bernard Le Bovier de Fontenelle (c. 1751)

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(There is a fairly common expression: to kill time. Here it is time who speaks.)

There’s scarce a point wherein mankind agree,
So well as in their boast of killing me:
I boast of nothing, but when I’ve a mind,
I think I can be even with mankind.

Circa 1751.