154 The Leopard and the Looking-Glass. How vainly, through infinite trouble and strife, The many their labours employ ! Since all that is truly delightful in life Is what all, if they please, may enjoy! THE LEOPARD AND THE LOOKING-GLASS. FIERCE from his lair forth springs the speckled pard, Thirsting for blood, ana eager to destroy. The huntsman, now secure, with fatal aim SOMERVILLE, To Winter. 155 TO WINTER. A WRINKLED, crabbed man, they picture thee, As the long moss upon the apple tree; Blue-lipp'd, an ice-drop at thy sharp blue nose, Old Winter! seated in thy great arm'd chair, WINTER! thou hoary venerable sire, What thoughts of mirth can feeble age inspire Now I see the reason plain, Now I see thy jolly train; ROWE. THE WHALE. -WARM and buoyant, in his oily mail, Gambols on seas of ice th' unwieldy, whale; Wide waving fins round floating islands urge. His bulk gigantic through the troubled surge; With hideous yawn the flying shoals he seeks, Or clasps with fringe of horn his massy cheeks; Lifts o'er the tossing wave his nostrils bare, And spouts the wat'ry columns into air: The silvery arches catch the setting beams, And transient rainbows trembleo'er the streams. DARWIN. Morning.-Vigour of Mind. MORNING. 157 WISH'D morning's come; and now upon the plains And distant mountains, where they feed their flocks, The happy shepherds leave their homely huts, And with their pipes proclaim the new-born day; The beasts, that under the warm hedges slept, And weather'd out the cold bleak night, are up, And looking towards the neighb'ring pastures raise Their voice, and bid their fellow-brutes good morrow: The cheerful birds too on the tops of trees Assemble all in choirs, and with their notes Salute and welcome up the rising sun. OTWAY. VIGOUR OF MIND. THE wise and active conquer difficulties ROWE "WHERE Canada spreads forth her deserts hoar, Chill'd by the polar frosts of Labrador, Where mighty lakes their azure wastes expand, And swell their wat❜ry empire o'er the land; What tribes or wing the air or tread the plain, What herbage springs, what nations hold their reign ?" 'Enormous forests stretch their shadows wide, And rich savannas skirt the mountain's side; There bounds the moose, and shaggy bisons graze; Scar'd by the wolf, the hardy rein-deer brays; snows; |