THE HAPPY FAMILY.

ADDRESSED TO HIS CHILDREN IN HIS SEVENTY-THIRD YEAR, WHEN IN DECLINING HEALTH, AND HIS SIGHT NEARLY LOST,

BY R. L. EDGEWORTH.

WITH boys and girls, a baker's dozen,
With many a friend, and many a cousin,
The happy father sees them all
Attentive to his slightest call;

Their time, their talents, and their skill,
Are guided by his sovereign will;

And e'en their wishes take their measure

From what they think the patriarch's pleasure.
"How does he rule them ?-by what arts?"-
He knows the way to touch their hearts.

THE CARES OF MAN.

FROM METASTASIO.

If every man's internal care
Were written on his brow,
How many would our pity share,
Who raise our envy now!

HUMILITY.

THE loaded bee the lowest flies;
The richest pearl the deepest lies;
The stalk the most replenishèd

Doth bow the most its modest head.
Thus deep humility we find
The mark of every master mind;
The highest gifted lowliest bends,
And merit meekest condescends,

And shuns the fame that fools adore,-
That puff that bids the feather soar.

COLTON.

WRITTEN ON A WINDOW.

WHERE'ER the diamond's busy point could pass,
See what deep wounds have pierced the middle glass !
No wonder this! for e'en in life 'tis so:

High fortunes stand unreached, unseen the low,

But middle states are marks for every blow.

HIGH AND LOW.

BY GEORGE GRANVILLE-LORD LANSDOWNE.

GOOD unexpected, evil unforeseen,

Appear by turns, as Fortune shifts the scene:
Some, raised aloft, come tumbling down amain,
And fall so hard, they bound and rise again.

POPE IMITATED.

How weak is man to Reason's judging eye!
Born in this moment, in the next we die;
Part mortal clay, and part ethereal fire,
Too proud to creep, too humble to aspire.

WEST.

MANKIND.

MAN is a very worm by birth,
Vile reptile, weak and vain!
Awhile he crawls upon the earth,
Then shrinks to earth again.

SWIFT.

HUMAN LIFE.

BEHOLD the child, by Nature's kindly law,
Pleased with a rattle, tickled with a straw;
Some livelier plaything gives his youth delight,
A little louder, but as empty quite :

Scarfs, garters, gold, amuse the riper sage,
And beads and prayer-books are the toys of age;
Pleased with this bauble still, as that before,
Till tired he sleeps, and life's poor play is o'er.

LIFE.

I WOULDN'T live for ever;
I wouldn't if I could:
But I needn't fret about it;
For I couldn't if I would.

POPE.

THE STAGE OF LIFE.

OUR life's a journey on a winter's day:
Some only break their fast, and so away;
Others stay dinner, and depart full fed;
The longest age but sups, and goes to bed:
He's most in debt that lingers out the day;
Who dies betimes has all the less to pay.

FROM T. BROWN'S EPIGRAMS.

EARTH.

EARTH walks on earth like glittering gold;
Earth says to earth, We are but mould;
Earth builds on earth castles and towers;
Earth says to earth, All shall be ours.

THE PURE AND ZEALOUS PARSON.

WIDE was his parish-houses far asunder-
But he neglected nought for rain or thunder;
In sickness and in grief to visit all,
The farthest in his parish, great and small :
Always on foot, and in his hand a stave.
This fine example to his flock he gave,

That first he wrought, and afterwards he taught ;
Out of the Gospel he that lesson caught;
And this new figure added he thereto,

That if gold rust, then what should iron do?

CHAUCER.

THE FEVER ARGUMENT.

HEALTH chiefly keeps the Atheist in the dark;
A fever argues better than a clerk:

Let but the logic in his pulse decay,

The Grecian he'll renounce, and learn to pray.
Cyrus, who makes so merry with his creed,
He almost thinks he disbelieves indeed;
But only thinks so; to give both their due,
Satan and he believe, and tremble too.

REFLECTIONS OVER A PIPE OF TOBACCO AND A PINCH OF SNUFF.

WHILST Smoke arises from my pipe,

Thus to myself I say;

Why should I anxious be for life,
Which vanishes away?

Our social snuff-boxes convey

The same ideas just;

As if they silently would say,

Let's mingle dust with dust.

KNOWLEDGE AND WISDOM.

KNOWLEDGE and wisdom, far from being one,
Have ofttimes no connection: knowledge dwells
In heads replete with thoughts of other men ;
Wisdom in minds attentive to their own.
Knowledge is proud that she has learned so much;
Wisdom is humble that she knows no more.

COWPER.

KNOWLEDGE.

FROM THE LATIN OF OWEN.

WHEN little more than boy in age,
I deemed myself almost a sage;
But now seem worthier to be styled,
For ignorance, almost a child.

SELF-KNOWLEDGE.

ONE bowing to me, I'd seen long ago,

Said I, "Who art?" He said, "I do not know ;" I said, "I know thee;" "I," said he, "know you; But he who knows himself, I never knew."

WISE MEN-Pro.

THE wise men were but seven; now we scarce know As many fools, the world so wise doth grow.

WISE MEN-Con.

In these two terms all people we comprise :
Some men are wise, but most are otherwise.

FOLLY AND WISDOM.

To borrow Folly's cap and bells,
Though Wisdom oft descends ;
Yet Folly, to her cost, doth find
That Wisdom never lends.

That Wisdom oft hath played the fool,
Is seen in every age;

But here the bargain ends, for ne'er

Hath Folly played the Sage.

COLTON.