With screaming Horror's funeral cry, Despair, and fell Disease, and ghastly Poverty.

Thy form benign, oh Goddess, wear;
Thy milder influence impart,
Thy philosophic train be there,
To soften, not to wound my heart.
The generous spark extinct revive,
Teach me to love and to forgive,
Exact my own defects to scan,
What others are to feel ;—and know myself a man.

PAIRING TIME ANTICIPATED.

A FABLE..

BY WILLIAM COWPER, ESQ.

I SHALL not ask Jean Jacques Rousseau,*

If birds confabulate or no;

"Tis clear that they were always able
To hold discourse, at least, in fable;
And ev❜n the child who knows no better,
Than to interpret by the letter

A story of a cock and bull,

Must have a most uncommon skull.

* It was one of the whimsical speculations of this philosopher, that all fables which ascribe reason and speech to animals should be withheld from children, as being only vehicles of deception.— But what child was ever deceived by them, or can be, against the evidence of his senses.

It chanced then, on a winter's day,
But warm and bright, and calm as May,
The birds, conceiving a design
To forestall sweet St. Valentine,

In many an orchard, copse, and grove,
Assembled on affairs of love,

And with much twitter and much chatter,
Began to agitate the matter.

At length a Bullfinch, who could boast
More years and wisdom than the most,
Entreated, opening wide his beak,
A moment's liberty to speak;
And, silence publicly enjoin'd,
Deliver'd briefly thus his mind.

My friends! be cautious how ye The subject upon which we meet; I fear we shall have winter yet.

treat

A Finch, whose tongue knew no control,
With golden wing and satin poll,
A last year's bird, who ne'er had tried
What marriage means, thus pert replied.

Methinks the gentleman, quoth she, Opposite in the apple-tree,

By his good will, would keep us single

Till yonder heaven and earth shall mingle,

Or (which is likelier to befal)

Till death exterminate us all.

I

marry

without more ado,

My dear Dick Redcap, what say you?

Dick heard, and, tweedling, ogling, bridling, Turning short round, strutting, and sideling,

Attested, glad, his approbation
Of an immediate conjugation.
Their sentiments, so well express'd,
Influenced mightily the rest,
All pair'd, and each pair built a nest.

But, though the birds were thus in haste, The leaves came on not quite so fast, And destiny, that sometimes bears An aspect stern on man's affairs, Not altogether smiled on theirs. The wind, of late breathed gently forth, Now shifted east and east by north. Bare trees and shrubs but ill, you know, Could shelter them from rain or snow; Stepping into their nests, they paddled, Themselves were chill'd, their eggs were addled; Soon every father bird and mother Grew quarrelsome, and peck'd each other, Parting without the least regret, Except that they had ever met, And learn'd, in future to be wiser, Than to neglect a good adviser.

INSTRUCTION.

Misses! the tale that I relate,

This lesson seems to carryChoose not alone a proper mate, But proper time to marry.

I

THE SHRUBBERY.

Written in a Time of Affliction. BY WILLIAM COWPER, ESQ.

OH, happy shades-to me unblest!

Friendly to peace, but not to me! How ill the scene that offers rest,

And heart that cannot rest, agree!

This glassy stream, that spreading pine,
Those alders quivering to the breeze,
Might soothe a soul less hurt than mine,
And please, if any thing could please.
But fix'd, unalterable care

Foregoes not what she feels within,
Shows the same sadness every where,

And slights the season and the scene.

For all that pleased in wood or lawn,
While peace possess'd these silent bowers,
Her animating smile withdrawn,

Has lost its beauties and its powers.

The saint or moralist should tread

This moss-grown alley, musing, slow; They seek, like me, the secret shade,

But not, like me, to nourish woe!

Me fruitful scenes, and prospects waste,
Alike admonish not to roam;
These tell me of enjoyments past,
And those of sorrows yet to coine.

REPORT

OF AN ADJUDGED CASE, NOT TO BE FOUND IN ANY

OF THE BOOKS.

BY WILLIAM COWPER, ESQ.

BETWEEN Nose and Eyes a strange contest arose-
The spectacles set them unhappily wrong;
The point in dispute was, as all the world knows,
To which the said spectacles ought to belong.

So Tongue was the lawyer, and argued the cause With a great deal of skill, and a wig full of learning; While chief baron Ear sat to balance the laws,

So famed for his talent in nicely discerning. In behalf of the Nose, it will quickly appear,

And your lordship, he said, will undoubtedly find, That the Nose has had spectacles always in wear, Which amounts to possession time out of mind. Then holding the spectacles up to the court

Your lordship observes they are made with a straddle As wide as the ridge of the Nose is; in short,

Design'd to sit close to it, just like a saddle. Again, would your lordship a moment suppose

('Tis a case that has happen'd, and may be again) That the visage or countenance had not a nose!

Pray who would, or who could, wear spectacles then?

On the whole it appears-and my argument shows,
With a reasoning the court will never condemn,