If this great world of joy and pain Revolve in one sure track;
If Freedom, set, will rise again, And Virtue, flown, come back ;
Woe to the purblind crew who fill The heart with each day's care; Nor gain, from past or future, skill
To bear, and to forbear!
COMPOSED AFTER READING A NEWSPAPER OF THE DAY.
"PEOPLE! your chains are severing link by link ; Soon shall the Rich be levelled down the Poor
Meet them half way." Vain boast! for These, the more
They thus would rise, must low and lower sink
Till, by repentance stung, they fear to think;
While all lie prostrate, save the tyrant few
Bent in quick turns each other to undo,
And mix the poison, they themselves must drink.
Mistrust thyself, vain Country! cease to cry,
Knowledge will save me from the threatened woe." For, if than other rash ones more thou know, Yet on presumptuous wing as far would fly Above thy knowledge as they dared to go, Thou wilt provoke a heavier penalty.
* This Sonnet ought to have followed No. VII. in the series of 1831, but was omitted by mistake.
[In the former editions of the author's Miscellaneous Poems are three pieces addressed to Children: -the following, a few lines excepted, is by the same Writer; and, as it belongs to the same unassuming class of compositions, she has been prevailed upon to consent to its publication.]
THERE'S more in words than I can teach :
Yet listen, Child! - I would not preach;
But only give some plain directions
To guide your speech and your affections.
Say not you love a roasted Fowl,
But you may love a screaming Owl,
And, if you can, the unwieldy Toad
That crawls from his secure abode
Within the mossy garden wall
When evening dews begin to fall.
Oh mark the beauty of his
What wonders in that circle lie!
So clear, so bright, our fathers said
He wears a jewel in his head!
And when, upon some showery day,
Into a path or public way
A Frog leaps out from bordering grass,
Startling the timid as they pass,
Do you observe him, and endeavour
To take the intruder into favour;
Learning from him to find a reason
For a light heart in a dull season.
And you may love him in the pool,
That is for him a happy school,
In which he swims, as taught by nature,
A pattern for a human creature,
Glancing amid the water bright,
And sending upward sparkling light.
Nor blush if o'er your heart be stealing
A love for things that have no feeling :
The spring's first Rose, by you espied,
May fill your breast with joyful pride;
And you may love the Strawberry Flower,
And love the Strawberry in its bower;
But when the fruit, so often praised
For beauty, to your lip is raised,
Say not you love the delicate treat,
But like it, enjoy it, and thankfully eat.
Long may you love your pensioner Mouse,
Though one of a tribe that torment the house:
Nor dislike for her cruel sport the Cat,
That deadly foe of both mouse and rat ;
Remember she follows the law of her kind,
And Instinct is neither wayward nor blind.
Then think of her beautiful gliding form,
Her tread that would not crush a worm,
And her soothing song by the winter fire,
Soft as the dying throb of the lyre.
I would not circumscribe your love:
It may soar with the Eagle and brood with the Dove, May pierce the earth with the patient Mole,
Or track the Hedgehog to his hole.
Loving and liking are the solace of life,
They foster all joy, and extinguish all strife.
You love your father and your mother,
Your grown-up and your baby brother;
You love your sister, and your friends,
And countless blessings which God sends:
And while these right affections play,
You live each moment of your day;
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