Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

4. Alas! and is domestic strife,
That sorest ill of human life,
A plague so little to be feared,
As to be wantingly incurred,
To gratify a fretful passion,
On every trivial provocation?
The kindest and the happiest pair
Will find occasion to forbear,
And something, ev'ry day they live,
To pity, and, perhaps, forgive.

5. But, if infirmities that fall
In common to the lot of all,
A blemish, or a sense impaired,
Are crimes so little to be spared,
Then farewell all that must create
The comfort of the wedded state:
Instead of harmony, 'tis jar,
And tumult, and intestine war.

6. The love that cheers life's latest stage,
Proof against sickness and old age,
Preserved by virtue from declension,
Becomes not weary of attention;
But lives when that exterior grace,
Which first inspired the flame, decays.
'Tis gentle, delicate, and kind,
To faults compassionate or blind,
And will with sympathy endure
Those evils it would gladly cure:
But angry, coarse, and harsh expression,
Shows Love to be a mere profession,
Proves that the heart is none of his,
Or soon expels him, if it is.

THE SHEPHERD AND PHILOSOPHER.-GAY.

1. 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 labor flew,
Nor envy nor ambition knew;
His wisdom and his honest fame
Through all the country raised his name.

2.

3.

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 shepard 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?

4.

5.

The little knowledge I have gained,
Was from all simple nature drained;
Hence my
life's maxims took their rise
Hence grew my settled hate to vice.

The daily labors 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.

for wise,

Can
grave and formal pass
When men the solemn owl despise ?
My tongue within my lips I reign;
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 neighbor's right.

6. Rapacious animals we hate :

Kites, hawks, and wolves deserve their fate.

Do not we just abhorrence find

Against the toad and serpent kind?

7.

[merged small][ocr errors]

"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."

PRACTICAL CHRISTIANITY.

[ocr errors]

66

"What

1. I ONCE had a neighbor, who, though a very clever man, came to me and said, "Squire White, I want you to come and get your geese away." Why," said I, "what are my geese doing?" They pick my pigs ears when they are eating, and drive them away, and I will not have it." can I do?" said I. "You must yoke them." "That I have not time to do now," said I; "I do not see but they must run." "If you do not take care of them, I shall,” said the clever shoemaker in anger. "What do you say, Squire but I will pay you for all damages." "Well," said he "you will find that a hard thing, I guess."

White ?" "I cannot take care of them now,

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

2. So off he went, and I heard a terrible squalling among the geese. The next news from the geese was, that three of them were missing. My children went and found them terribly! mangled and dead, and thrown into the bushes. "Now," said

I, "all keep still, and let me punish him." In a few days, the shoemaker's hogs broke into my corn. I saw them, but let them remain a long time. At last I drove them all out, and picked up the corn which they had torn down, and fed them with it in the road.

[ocr errors]

3. By this time the shoemaker came in great haste after them. "Have you seen anything of my hogs?" said he. "Yes, sir, you will find them yonder, eating some corn, which they tore down in my field." In your field ?" "Yes, sir,” said I, "hogs love corn, you know-they were made to eat." "How much mischief have they done?" "Oh, not much," said I. Well, off he went to look, and estimated the damage to be equal to a bushel and a half of corn. "Oh, no,” said I, "It can't be." 66 "Yes," said the shoemaker, "and I will pay you every cent of the damage." "No," replied I," you shall pay me nothing. My geese have you."

been a great trouble to

4. The shoemaker blushed, and went home. The next winter when we came to settle, the shoemaker determined to pay me for my corn. "No," said I, “I shall take nothing." After some talk we parted; but in a day or two, I met him on the road, and fell into conversation in the most friendly manner. But when I started on he seemed loth to move, and I paused. For a moment both of us were silent. 5. At last he said, "I have something laboring on my mind." "Well, what is it?" "Those geese. I killed three of your geese, and shall never rest until you know how I feel. I am sorry. And the tears came into his eyes. "Oh, well," said I, never mind, I suppose my geese were provoking." I never took anything of him for it; but when my cattle broke into his field after this, he seemed glad—because he could show how patient he could be. "Now," said the narrator, "conquer yourself, and you can conquer with kindness where you can conquer in no other way."

66

[ocr errors]

16

« AnteriorContinuar »