Which, or for gems of worth, or Roman coins, Ye spouting blades! regard this ruined fane, And stalk in pensive sorrow o'er the ground Thus when the mariner to foreign clime Will he refrain to shed the grateful drop; THE PEASANT, THE HEN, AND YOUNG DUCKS, A FABLE. A HEN, of all the dunghill crew So strong will prejudices blind, And lead astray the easy mind. To the green margin of the brook The hen her fancied children took : Each young one shakes his unfledged wings, And to the flood by instinct springs : With willing strokes they gladly swim, Or dive into the glassy stream, While the fond mother vents her grief, And prays the peasant's kind relief. The peasant heard the bitter cries, And thus in terms of rage replies : You fool! give o'er your useless moan, "Nor mourn misfortunes not your own; "But learn in wisdom to forsake "The offspring of the duck and drake.” MORAL. When Pity, generous nymph! possessed, And moved at will the human breast, No tongue its distant sufferings told, FASHION. Bred up where discipline most rare is, HUDIBRAS. Ó NATURE, parent goddess! at thy shrine, Prone to the earth, the Muse, in humble song, Thy aid implores: nor will she wing her flight, Till thou, bright form! in thy effulgence pure, Deignest to look down upon her lowly state, And shed thy powerful influence benign. Come, then, regardless of vain Fashion's fools; Of all those vile enormities of shape That crowd the world; and with thee bring On that gay spot, where the Parisian dome To fools the stealing hand of Time displays, FASHION her empire holds; a goddess great! View her, amidst the Millinerian train, On a resplendent throne exalted high, Strangely diversified with gewgaw forms. Her busy hand glides pleasurably o'er The darling novelties, the trinkets rare, That greet the sight of the admiring dames, Whose dear-bought treasures o'er their native isle Contagious spread, infect the wholesome air That cherished vigour in Britannia's sons. Near this proud seat of Fashion's antic form A sphere revolves, on whose bright orb behold The circulating mode of changeful dress, Which, like the image of the Sun himself, Glories in coursing thro' the diverse signs Which blazon in the zodiac of heaven. Around her throne coquets and petit beaux Unnumbered shine, and with each other vie In nameless ornaments and gaudy plumes. |