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Once an old hen led forth her brood
To scratch and glean and peck for food;
A chick, to give her wings a spell,
Fluttered and tumbled in a well.
The mother wept till day was done,...

Sure 'twas by Providence design'd,
Rather in pity, than in hate,
That he should be, like Cupid, blind,
To save him from Narcissus' fate.

Quod adest, memento
Componere 'quus. C'tera fluminis
Ritu feruntur.'Horace.


Improve the present hour, for all beside
Is a mere feather on a torrent's tide.

...

- Placid'que ibi demum morte quievit.'Virg.


There calm at length he breathed his soul away.


'O most delightful hour by man
Experienced here below,
The hour that terminates his span,...

Ne commonentem recta sperne.'Buchanan.


Despise not my good counsel.


He who sits from day to day
Where the prison'd lark is hung,
Heedless of his loudest lay,...

Felix, qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas,
Atque metus omnes et inexorabile fatum
Subjecit pedibus, strepitumque Acherontis avari!'Virg.


Happy the mortal who has traced effects...

De sacris autem h'c sit una sententia, ut conserventur.
- Cic. de Leg.


But let us all concur in this one sentiment, that things sacred be inviolate.


He lives who lives to God alone,...

A Spaniel, Beau, that fares like you,
Well fed, and at his ease,
Should wiser be than to pursue
Each trifle that he sees.


But you have kill'd a tiny bird,
Which flew not till to-day,...

With her 't is well now. She died young,
With all her hope and faith unmarred,
Nor lived to see the pearls, Love strung,
Without regard,
Cast, lost among
The disillusions that make life so hard....

One yeer owder, one yeer dearer:
That's what I sal awlus say.
Draw thy chair a little nearer,
Put yon stockin's reight away.
Thou hast done enough i' thy time,
Tewed i' t' house an' wrowt at loom;...

"And wept to see the paths of life divide." - Shenstone.

Here the companions of our careless prime,
Whom fortune's various ways have severed long,
Since that fair dawn when Hope her vernal song...

If there be truth in what you sing,
Such godlike virtues in the king;
A minister[1] so fill'd with zeal
And wisdom for the commonweal;
If he[2] who in the chair presides,
So steadily the senate guides;...

Sad thy tale, thou idle page,
And rueful thy alarms:
Death tears the brother of her love
From Isabella's arms.

Sweetly deck'd with pearly dew
The morning rose may blow;...

O sovereign of an isle renown'd
For undisputed sway,
Wherever o'er yon gulf profound
Her navies wing their way,


With juster claims she builds at length
Her empire on the sea,...

He who could view the book of destiny,
And read whatever there was writ of thee,
O charming youth, in the first opening page,
So many graces in so green an age,
Such wit, such modesty, such strength of mind,...

On The Death Of A Young Lady, [1] Cousin To The Author, And Very Dear To Him.

In Memoriam.


Grief reigns now within the convent walls,
And sadly float through its silent halls
The notes of a requiem - solemn, clear,
Falling like wail on each listening ear,...

Beauty and youth, with manners sweet, and friends--
Gold, yet a mind not unenriched had he
Whom here low violets veil from eyes.
But all these gifts transcended be:
His happier fortune in this mound you see.

Fate now allows us,

'Twixt the departing

And the upstarting,
Happy to be;
And at the call of

Memory cherish'd,

Future and perish'd
Moments we see.
...

O I admire and sorrow! The heart's eye grieves
Discovering you, dark tramplers, tyrant years.
A juice rides rich through bluebells, in vine leaves,
And beauty's dearest veriest vein is tears.


...