MUTUAL FORBEARANCE

NECESSARY TO THE HAPPINESS or THE MARRIEN

STATE.

The lady thus address'd her spouse-
What a mere dungeon is this house !
By no means large enough ; and was it,
Yet this dull room, and that dark closet,
Those hangings with their worn-out graces,
Long beards, long noscs, and pale faces,
Are such an antiquated scene,
They overwhelm me with the spleen.
Sir Humphrey, shooting in the dark,
Makes answer quite beside the mark:
No doubt, my dear, I bade him come,
Engag'd myself to be at home,
And shall expect him at the door,
Precisely when the clock strikes four.

You are so deaf, the lady cried,
(And rais'd her voice, and frown'd beside)
You are so sadly deaf, my dear,
What shall I do to make you hear?

Dismiss poor Harry! he replies ; Some people are more nice than wise, For one slight trespass all this stir ? What if he did ride whip and spur, 'Twas but a mile-your fav'rite borse Will never look one hair the worse.

Well, I protest 'tis past all bearing-
Child! I am rather hard of hearing-
Yes, truly-one must scream and bawl :
I tell you, you can't hear at all!
Then, with a voice exceeding low,
No matter if you hear or no.

Alas! and is domestic strife,
That sorest ill of human life,
A plague so little to be fear'd,
As to be wantonly incurr'd,
To gratify a fretful passion,
On ev'ry 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.
But if infirmities, that fall
In common to the lot of all,
A blemish or a sense impaird,
Are crimes so little to be spar'd,
Then farewell all, that must create
The comfort of the wedded state ;

Instead of harmony, 'tis jar,
And tumult, and intestine war.

The love, that cheers life's latest stage,
Proof against sickness and old age,
Prešery'd by virtue from declension,
Becomes not weary of attention;
But lives, when that exterior grace,
Which first inspir'd 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

NEGRO'S COMPLAINT.

cowane

Forc'd from home and all it's pleasures,

Afric's coast I left forlorn;
To increase a stranger's treasures,

O'er the raging billows borne.
Men from England bought and sold me,

Paid my price in paltry g Id; But, though slave they have enrollid me,

Minds are never to be sold.

Still in thought as free as ever,

What are England's rights, I ask, Me from my delights to sever,

Me to torture, me to task?' Fleecy locks and black complexion

Cannot forfeit Nature's claim; Skins may differ, but affection

Dwells in white and black the same,

.. THE NEGRO'S COMPLAINT.

277

Why did all-creating Nature

Make the plant, for which we toil ? Sighs must fan it, tears must water,

Sweat of ours must dress the soil. Think, ye masters iron-hearted,

Lolling at your jovial buards ; Think how many backs have smarted

For the sweets, your cane affords.

Is there, as ye sometimes tell us,

Is there one, who reigns on high ? Has he bid you buy and sell us,

Speaking from his throne the sky Ask him, if your knotted scourges,

Matcbes, blood-extorting screws, Are the means, that duty urges

Agents of his will to use?

Hark! he answers-wild tornadoes,

Strewing yonder sea with wrecks; Wasting towns, plantations, meadows,

Are the voice, with which he speaks, He, foreseeing what vexations

Afric's sons should undergo, Fix'd their tyrants' habitations

Where his whirlwinds auswer-no.