But sing and shine by sweet consent,

Till life's poor transient night is spent,
Respecting in each other's case

The gifts of nature and of

grace.

Those Christians best deserve the name

Who studiously make peace their aim;

Peace, both the duty and the prize

Of him that creeps and him that flies.

VOTUM.

O MATUTINI rores, auræque salubres,
O nemora, et lætæ rivis felicibus herbæ,
Graminei colles, et amænæ in vallibus umbræ!
Fata modò dederint quas olim in rure paterno
Delicias, procul arte, procul formidine novi,
Quam vellem ignotus, quod mens mea semper
avebat,

Antelarem proprium placidam expectare senectam,

Tum demùm, exactis non infeliciter annis,

Sortiri tacitum lapidem, aut sub cespite condi!

ON A

GOLDFINCH

STARVED TO DEATH IN HIS CAGE.

I.

TIME was when I was free as air,

The thistles downy seed my fare,
My drink the morning dew;

I perch'd at will on ev'ry spray,

My form genteel, my plumage gay,

My strains for ever new.

II.

But gaudy plumage, sprightly strain,

And form genteel, were all in vain,

And of a transient date;

For, caught and cag'd, and starv'd to death,

In dying sighs my little breath

Soon pass'd the wiry grate.

THE PINE-APPLE AND THE BEE.

343

III.

Thanks, gentle swain, for all my woes,

And thanks for this effectual close

And cure of ev'ry ill!

More cruelty could none express;
And I, if you had shown me less,
Had been your pris'ner still.

THE

PINE-APPLE AND THE BEE.

THE pine-apples, in triple row,
Were basking hot, and all in blow;
A bee of most discerning taste
Perceiv'd the fragrance as he pass'd,

On eager wing the spoiler came,

And search'd for crannies in the frame,
Urg'd his attempt on ev'ry side,

To ev'ry pane his trunk applied;

But still in vain, the frame was tight,

And only pervious to the light; 01 b 20631

Thus having wasted half the day,

He trimm'd his flight another way.
Methinks, I said, in thee I find

The sin and madness of mankind.
To joys forbidden man aspires,

Consumes his soul with vain desires; s Folly the spring of his pursuit,

And disappointment all the fruit. On While Cynthio ogles as she passes

The nymph between two chariot glasses,› +}{ She is the pine-apple, and he opht, thuig of The silly unsuccessful bee.

The maid, who views with pensive air jo The show-glass fraught with glitt'ringware,/ Sees watches, bracelets, rings, and lockets,

But sighs at thought of empty pockets;

Like thine, her appetite is keen,

But ah, the cruel glass between!

H

Our dear delights are often such,
Expos'd to view, but not to touch:

The sight our foolish heart inflames,
We long for pine-apples in frames:

With hopeless wish one looks and lingers;
One breaks the glass; and cuts his fingers;
But they whom truth and wisdom lead,
Can gather honey from a weed.

HORACE. Book the 2d. ODE the ioth.

I.

RECEIVE, dear friend, the truths I teach,

So shalt thou live beyond the reach

Of adverse Fortune's pow'r;

Not always tempt the distant deep,

Nor always timorously creep

Along the treach'rous shore.

II.'

He, that holds fast the golden mean,

And lives contentedly between

The little and the great,