On to the goal securely crept,

While puss, unknowing, soundly slept.

The bets were won, the hare awake,
When thus the victor tortoise spake :
"Puss, though I own thy quicker parts,
Things are not always won by starts;
"Thou may'st deride my awkward pace;
"But slow and steady wins the race."

66

THE BOY AND THE RING-DOVE.

A GIDDY boy, intent on play,
With bow and arrow took his way
To where a ringdove in the grove
Sung her unvarying note of love.
The plaintive sound-the plumage white,
Struck his young ear, and caught his sight:
In thoughtless haste his bow he drew,
Straight to the mark the arrow flew,
Transfix'd the dove with fatal wound,
And brought her flutt'ring to the ground.

With triumph sparkling in his eyes,
He ran his victim to surprize,
But started breathless as he view'd
Her silver feathers stain'd with blood;
Her panting breast, her closing eye,
And wept, too late! his cruelty.

Ye gay, who sport with satire's darts,
And thoughtless aim at human hearts,
Approach your victims prostrate laid,
have made;

And see the havock ye
Then will ye weep the sportive jest,
That robb'd the innocent of rest;
The witty tale will charm no more,
That set the table in a roar;

The shaft at others bosoms thrown
Will turn again to wound your own!

THE ATHEIST AND THE ACORN.
Lady Winchilsea.

"METHINKS this world is oddly made,
"And every thing's amiss,"
A dull presuming atheist said,
As stretch'd he lay beneath the shade,
And instanced in this :

6.6

Behold," quoth he, "that mighty thing,

"A pumpkin, large and round,

"Is held but by a little string,

"Which upwards cannot make it spring,

"Or bear it from the ground;

"Whilst on this oak, a fruit so small,
"So disproportion'd grows ;
“That who with sense surveys this all,
"This universal casual ball,

"Its ill contrivance knows.

"My better judgment would have hung

- That weight upon a tree;

"And left this mast thus slightly strung

"Mongst things that on the surface sprung, "And small and feeble be."

No more the caviller could say,
Nor farther faults descry;
For, as he upward gazing lay,
An acorn, loosen'd from the stay,
Fell down upon his eye.

Th' offending part with tears ran o'er,
As punish'd for the sin :

Fool! had that bough a pumpkin bore,
Thy whimsies must have work'd no more,
Nor scull have kept them in.

THE EMMETS.

THESE emmets, how little they are in our eyes! We tread them to dust, and a troop of them dies, Without our regard or concern:

Yet as wise as we are, if we went to their school, There's many a sluggard and many a fool

Some lessons of wisdom might learn.

They don't wear their time out in sleeping or play, But gather up corn in a sun-shiny day,"

And for winter they lay up their stores:

They manage their work in such regular forms, One would think they foresaw all the frosts and the storms,

And so brought their food within doors.

But I have less sense than a poor creeping ant,
If I take not due care for the things I shall want,
Nor provide against dangers in time:

When death or old age shall stare me in my face,
What a wretch shall I be in the end of my days,
If I trifle away all their prime !

Now, now, while my strength and my youth are in bloom,

Let me think what will serve me when sickness shall come,

And

pray that my sins be forgiv❜n:

Let me read in good books, and believe, and obey, That, when Death turns me out of this cottage of clay,

I may dwell in a palace in heav'n.

THE SLUGGARD.-Watts.

"Tis the voice of the sluggard; I heard him com

plain,

"You have wak'd me too soon, I must slumber.

As the door on its hinges, so he on his bed,
Turns his sides, and his shoulders, and his heavy

head.

"A little more sleep, and a little more slumber;" Thus he wastes half his days and his hours without number;

And when he gets up, he sits folding his hands, Or walks about saunt'ring, or trifling he stands.

I pass'd by his garden, and saw the wild brier, The thorn and the thistle grow broader and higher; The clothes that hang on him are turning to rags; And his money still wastes, 'till he starves or he begs.

I made him a visit, still hoping to find

He had taken more care in improving his mind: He told me his dreams, talk'd of eating and drinking,

But he scarce reads his Bible, and never loves thinking.

Said I then to my heart, "Here's a lesson for me; "That man's but a picture of what I might be : "But thanks to my friends for their care in my breeding,

"Who taught me betimes to love working and reading."