I SCORN the face, however fair,
That carries an affected air;

The lisping tone, the shape constrained,
The studied look, the passion feigned,
Are fopperies, which only tend
To injure what they strive to mend.
A goose, affected, empty, vain,
The shrillest of the cackling train,

With proud and elevated crest,
Precedence claimed above the rest.
Says she, "I laugh at human race,
Who say, geese hobble in their pace.
Look here! such falsehood you'll detect;
Not haughty man is so erect.

That peacock yonder! see, how vain
The creature's of his gaudy train!
If both were stripped, upon my word,
A goose would be the finer bird.
Were geese set off with half that show,
Would men admire the peacock? No!"
Thus vaunting, 'cross the mead she stalks;
The cackling breed attend her walks;
The sun shot down his noontide beams,
The swans were sporting in the streams;
Their snowy plumes and stately pride
Provoked her spleen. "Why, there," she cried,
"Again what arrogance we see!

Those creatures, how they mimic me!

Shall every fowl the waters skim,

Because we geese are known to swim?

Humility they soon shall learn,
And their own emptiness discern."
So saying, with extended wings,
Lightly upon the wave she springs;

Her bosom swells, she spreads her plumes,

And the swan's stately crest assumes,

Contempt and mockery ensued,

And laughter sounded o'er the flood.

A swan superior to the rest,
Sprang forth, and thus the fool addressed:
"Conceited thing, elate with pride,
Thy affectation all deride;

These airs thy awkwardness impart,
And shew thee plainly as thou art.
Among the equals of thy flock,

Thou hadst escaped the public mock;
And, as thy parts to good conduce,

Been deemed an honest, hobbling goose."
Learn hence to study wisdom's rules;

Know foppery is the vice of fools,

And striving nature to conceal,

You only her defects reveal.

CONTENTMENT.

THE Bible tells us that we "should be content with such things as we have." This does not, however, mean, that we should quietly submit

to every inconvenience or misfortune without making any effort to improve our situation. If a boy should be turned down to the bottom of his class, and should remain there quite satisfied, without attempting to recover his position; or if a girl should fail in doing some work, and sit quite satisfied, without any second endeavour to succeed, no one would ever call this contentment. Every one sees that this is not the kind of contentment that the Bible recommends men to practise, but is just pure laziness. We ought never to remain satisfied with our position or our acquirements, so long as we can make them better by our own exertions and honest industry; and we will be merely deceiving ourselves if we fancy that we are contented, because we choose to remain ignorant or poor, when a little pains might make us possessed of a decent portion both of wisdom and wealth. The contentment that would allow a girl to go in rags, or to live in the midst of dirt and

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confusion; or that would permit a boy to keep his garden all choked with weeds, because it would be too much trouble to put things to rights, does not deserve the name of contentment, and should be carefully avoided as a bad habit.

Quite different from this is the contentment which submits with patience to evils which it cannot remedy, and which is satisfied with its own condition, when that is suited to its talents, without grumbling at the superior happiness of others. When a farmer sees all his crops destroyed by the rain, or washed away by a flood; when a merchant hears of his vessels being wrecked in a storm; when a man loses all his property through the dishonesty of others; when an accident takes away from us something on which we set a very high value; it is then that men find it difficult to submit contentedly. And we are very apt to grumble if we have to work hard, and wear coarse clothes; when we see others