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'Tis thus in friendships; who depend
On many, rarely find a friend.
A hare who, in a civil way,
Complied with everything, like Gay,
Was known by all the bestial train
Who haunt the wood, or graze the plain:
Her care was never to offend;
And every creature was her friend.
As forth she went at early dawn
To taste the dew-besprinkled lawn,
Behind she hears the hunter's cries,
And from the deep-mouthed thunder flies.
She starts, she stops, she pants for breath;
She hears the near advance of death;
She doubles to mislead the hound,
And measures back her mazy round;
Till, fainting in the public way,
Half dead with fear she gasping lay.
What transport in her bosom grew
When first the horse appeared in view!
"Let me," says she, "your back ascend,
And owe my safety to a friend.
You know my feet betray my flight;
To friendship every burden's light."
The horse replied, "Poor honest puss,
It grieves my heart to see thee thus:
Be comforted, relief is near,

For all your friends are in the rear."

She next the stately bull implored; And thus replied the mighty lord: "Since every beast alive can tell That I sincerely wish you well, may, without offence, pretend

I

To take the freedom of a friend.

Love calls me hence: a favourite cow
Expects me near yon barley-mow;
And, when a lady's in the case,

You know all other things give place.
To leave you thus might seem unkind;
But see, the goat is just behind."

The goat remarked, "Her pulse was high,
Her languid head, her heavy eye:
My back," says he, "may do you harm
The sheep's at hand, and wool is warm."
The sheep was feeble, and complained,
"His sides a load of wool sustained;"
Said, "He was slow "-confessed his fears,
"For hounds eat sheep as well as hares."

-GAY.

She now the trotting calf addressed,
To save from death a friend distressed.
"Shall I," says he, "of tender age,
In this important care engage?
Older and abler passed you by;

How strong are those-how weak am I!
Should I presume to bear you hence,
Those friends of mine may take offence.
Excuse me, then you know my heart;
But dearest friends, alas! must part.
How shall we all lament! Adieu;
For see, the hounds are just in view."

THE SHEPHERD AND PHILOSOPHER.

REMOTE from cities lived a swain,
Unvexed with all the cares of gain;
His head was silvered o'er with age,
And long experience made him sage;
In summer's heat, and winter's cold,
He fed his flock, and penned the fold;
His hours in cheerful labour flew,
Nor envy nor ambition knew;
His wisdom and his honest fame
Through all the country raised his name.
A deep philosopher (whose rules
Of moral life were drawn from schools)
The shepherd's homely cottage sought,
And thus explored his reach of thought.

"Whence is thy learning? hath thy toil
O'er books consumed the midnight oil?
Hast thou old Greece and Rome surveyed,
And the vast sense of Plato weighed ?
Hath Socrates thy soul refined,
And hast thou fathomed Tully's mind?
Or, like the wise Ulysses, thrown,
By various fates, on realms unknown,
Hast thou through many cities strayed,
Their customs, laws, and manners weighed?"
The shepherd modestly replied,
"I ne'er the paths of learning tried;
Nor have I roamed in foreign parts,
To read mankind, their laws and arts;
For man is practised in disguise,
He cheats the most discerning eyes;
Who by that search shall wiser grow,
When we ourselves can never know?

-Ibid.

The little knowledge I have gained,
Was all from simple nature drained;
Hence my life's maxims took their rise
Hence grew my settled hate to vice.
The daily labours of the bee
Awake my soul to industry:
Who can observe the careful ant,
And not provide for future want?
My dog (the trustiest of his kind)
With gratitude inflames my mind:
I mark his true, his faithful way,
And in my service copy Tray.
In constancy and nuptial love,
I learn my duty from the dove.
The hen, who from the chilly air,
With pious wing, protects her care,
And every fowl that flies at large,
Instructs me in a parent's charge.
From nature too I took my rule,
To shun contempt and ridicule.
I never, with important air,
In conversation overbear.

Can grave and formal pass for wise,
When men the solemn owl despise?
My tongue within my lips I rein;
For who talks much, must talk in vain.
We from the wordy torrent fly:
Who listens to the chattering pye?
Nor would I with felonious flight,

By stealth invade my neighbour's right.

Rapacious animals we hate:

Kites, hawks, and wolves deserve their fate.

Do not we just abhorrence find

Against the toad and serpent kind?
But envy, calumny, and spite,
Bear stronger venom in their bite.
Thus every object of creation
Can furnish hints to contemplation;
And from the most minute and mean,
A virtuous mind can morals glean."

"Thy fame is just," the sage replies;
"Thy virtue proves thee truly wise.
Pride often guides the author's pen;
Books as affected are as men:
But he who studies nature's laws,
From certain truth his maxims draws;
And those, without our schools, suffice
To make men moral, good, and wise."

-POPE.

CONTENTMENT.

HAPPY the man whose wish and care
A few paternal acres bound,

Content to breathe his native air,

In his own ground.

Whose herds with milk, whose fields with bread,
Whose flocks supply him with attire;
Whose trees in summer yield him shade,
In winter fire.

Blest, who can unconcernedly find
Hours, days, and years slide soft away,
In health of body, peace of mind,

Quiet by day.

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KNOW then this truth (enough for man to know),
"Virtue alone is happiness below."

The only point where human bliss stands still,
And tastes the good, without the fall to ill;
Where only merit constant pay receives,
Is blest in what it takes, and what it gives;
The joy unequalled, if its end it gain,
And if it lose, attended with no pain:
Without satiety, though e'er so blessed,
And but more relished as the more distressed:
The broadest mirth unfeeling folly wears,
Less pleasing far than virtue's very tears:

Good, from each object, from each place acquired,
For ever exercised, yet never tired;
Never elated while one man's oppressed;
Never dejected while another's blest;
And where no wants, no wishes can remain,
Since but to wish more virtue, is to gain.

See the sole bliss Heaven could on all bestow!

Which who but feels can taste, but thinks can know :

-Ibid.

Yet poor with fortune, and with learning blind,
The bad must miss; the good, untaught, will find;
Slave to no sect, who takes no private road,
But looks through nature up to nature's God;
Pursues that chain which links the immense design,
Joins heaven and earth, and mortal and divine;
Sees that no being any bliss can know,
But touches some above, and some below;
Learns from this union of the rising whole,
The first, last purpose of the human soul;
And knows where faith, law, morals, all began-
All end in love of God and love of man.

SYSTEM IN CREATION.

SEE through this air, this ocean, and this earth,
All matter quick, and bursting into birth.
Above, how high, progressive life may go!
Around, how wide, how deep extend below!
Vast chain of being! which from God began,
Natures ethereal, human, angel, man,

Beast, bird, fish, insect, what no eye can see,
No glass can reach; from infinite to thee,
From thee to nothing. On superior powers
Were we to press, inferior might on ours;
Or in the full creation leave a void,

Where, one step broken, the great scale's destroyed;
From nature's chain whatever link you strike,
Tenth, or ten thousandth, breaks the chain alike.

And if each system in gradation roll

Alike essential to the amazing whole,
The least confusion but in one, not all
That system only, but the whole must fall.
Let earth unbalanced from her orbit fly,
Planets and suns run lawless through the sky;
Let ruling angels from their spheres be hurled,
Being on being wrecked, and world on world;
Heaven's whole foundations to their centre nod,
And nature trembles to the throne of God.
All this dread order break-for whom? for thee?
Vile worm!-ah, madness! pride! impiety!
What if the foot, ordained the dust to tread,
Or hand, to toil, aspired to be the head!
What if the head, the eye, or ear, repined
To serve mere engines to the ruling mind!
Just as absurd for any part to claim
To be another in this general frame:
Just as absurd to mourn the tasks or pains
The great Directing Mind of all ordains.

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