A

AN ENIGMA.

(PAGE 237.)

NEEDLE, small as small can be,
In bulk and use surpasses me,
Nor is my purchase dear;

For little, and almost for nought,

As many

of my

kind are bought

As days are in the year.

Yet though but little use we boast,
And are procured at little cost,
The labour is not light;

Nor few artificers it asks,

All skilful in their several tasks,
To fashion us aright.

One fuses metal o'er the fire,

A second draws it into wire,

The sheers another plies;

Who clips in length the brazen thread
For him who, chafing every shred,

Gives all an equal size.

AN ENIGMA.

A fifth prepares, exact and round,

The knob with which it must be crown'd;
His follower makes it fast:

And with his mallet and his file

To shape the point, employs awhile
The seventh and the last.

Now therefore, dipus! declare
What creature, wonderful, and rare,
A process that obtains

Its

purpose with so much ado

At last produces !-tell me true,

And take me for your pains!

301

NO SORROW PECULIAR TO THE

TH

SUFFERER.

(PAGE 239.)

HE lover, in melodious verses,
His singular distress rehearses.
Still closing with a rueful cry,
"Was ever such a wretch as I!"
Yes! thousands have endured before
All thy distress; some, haply, more.
Unnumber'd Corydons complain,
And Strephons, of the like disdain;
And if thy Chloe be of steel,
Too deaf to hear, too hard to feel;
Not her alone that censure fits,

Nor thou alone hast lost thy wits.

T

THE SNAIL.

(PAGE 245.)

O grass, or leaf, or fruit, or wall,

The snail sticks close, nor fears to fall,

As if he grew there, house and all

Together.

Within that house secure he hides,
When danger imminent betides
Of storm, or other harm besides

Of weather.

Give but his horns the slightest touch,
His self-collecting power is such,
He shrinks into his house, with much

Displeasure.

Where'er he dwells, he dwells alone,
Except himself has chattels none,

Well satisfied to be his own

Whole treasure.

Thus, hermitlike, his life he leads,
Nor partner of his banquet needs,

And if he meets one, only feeds

The faster.

Who seeks him must be worse than blind, (He and his house are so combined)

If, finding it, he fails to find

Its master.