3. You beat your pate, and fancy Wit will come Knock as you will, there's nobody at home.

On the Statue of Niobe.

4. To stone the gods have changed her, but in vain; The sculptor's art has made her breathe again.

On a Bad Translation.

5. His work now done, he 'll publish it, no doubt; For sure I am, that murder will come out.

From Martial.

6. The verses, friend, which thou hast read, are mine; But, as thou read'st them, they may pass for thine.

On a Bad Singer.

7. Swans sing before they die: 't were no bad thing Should certain persons die before they sing.

Epitaph on a Scolding Wife.

8. Here lies my wife: poor Nelly, let her lie, She finds repose at last, and so do I.

9. Jack, eating rotten cheese, did say,"Like Samson I my thousands slay!" Yes," cried a wag, "indeed you do, And with the self-same weapon too."

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10. A haughty courtier, meeting in the streets A scholar, him thus insolently greets:

319

"Base men to take the wall I ne'er permit!"
The scholar said "I do," and gave him it.
By Harrington.

11. The golden hair that Galla wears
Is hers; who would have thought it?
She swears 't is hers; and true she swears,
For I know where she bought it!

By Prior.

12. Sir, I admit your general rule,
That every poet is a fool:

But you yourself will serve to show it,
That every fool is not a poet.

13. "Oh, let me die in peace!" Eumenes cried To a hard creditor at his bed-side.

"How? die?" roared Gripus; "thus your debts evade? No, no, Sir; you sha'nt die till I am paid!"

Written soon after Dr. Hill's Farce, called "The Rout," was acted.

14. For physic and farces

His equal there scarce is;

His farces are physic,

His physic a farce is.

Provoked by the words "One Prior," in Burnet's History.

15. "One Prior!" And is this, this all the fame

The Poet from the Historian can claim?
No: Prior's verse posterity will quote
When 't is forgot one Burnet ever wrote.

The Musical Contest.

16. Some say, that Signor Bononcini,

Swift.

Compared with Handel, 's a mere ninny;
And others say, that to him Handel
Is hardly fit to hold a candle:

Strange, that such difference there should be
'Twixt Tweedle-dum and Tweedle-dee!

SPRING.

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LESSON CLV. Spring.

1. THE name of the season in which the sun returns to us from his cold recess, rising higher and higher above our heads, and bringing warmth and verdure with him for his welcome, is most expressively denominated by the pure English word Spring. For it is now that everything in nature to which life or motion belongs, the herbs and plants and trees, the fountains, the beasts and birds, the reptile and the insect tribes, are springing up from the bonds of frost, and stillness, and sleep, and death.

2. It is now that a fresh impulse seems to be communicated to the whole creation, and a spirit of youth to be infused throughout all the works of God. Spring is come; the springing of the earth; the spring-time of the year. And so great and manifest is the joy which we feel at this general renovation, and so vivid the delight which appears to possess even senseless and material creatures in this the springing and bounding season of their existence, that the blessing of the Creator may be said to rest upon it peculiarly; and we are reminded of the time when that blessing first came down upon the springing things of our young world, pronouncing them very good.

3. It is only in the temperate zones that the word Spring, as denoting a season of the year, can have any significancy.

Within the tropics, and near them, Summer holds a constant and oftentimes an oppressive sceptre. Growth and vegetation are indeed perpetual, but they have no spring, because they have no rest; they have no awakening, because they have no sleep; they do not burst forth in the gladness of an annual jubilee, because they have never been bound or restrained.

4. In our own climate the signs of Spring do not appear so early as they do in some others. Even the month of May is not generally to be recognised, in this part of our country, as the same which poetry has loved to draw with its brightest colors. And yet the three months which are called the spring months, deserve their name here as truly as in any other part of the world; for it is within their term that the real springing of the year takes place. Our breezes are not so soft and balmy, nor do our flowers bloom

so soon or so profusely, as in some other climes; but the winds are sensibly changed from the blasts of winter, and the rudiments of flowers and fruits are sprouting and budding everywhere around us. Our Spring is really the opening and leading season; that season of preparation and renewed growth and activity, which tells of the commencement of nature's year, and speaks the newly-uttered blessing of nature's God.

5. Let us contemplate, for a few moments, the animated scene which is presented by our Spring. The earth, loosened by the victorious sun, springs from the hard dominion of winter's frost, and, no longer offering a bound-up, repulsive surface to the husbandman, invites his cultivating labors. The streams are released from their icy fetters, and spring forward on their unobstructed way, full of sparkling waters, which sing and rejoice as they run on. The trees of the Lord are full of sap," which now springs up into their before shrunk and empty vessels, causing the buds to swell, and the yet unclothed branches and twigs to lose their rigid appearance, and assume a fresher hue, and a more rounded form. Beneath them, and in every warm and sheltered spot, the wild plants are springing.

6. Some of these are just pushing up their tender, crisp, and yet vigorous sprouts, thrusting aside the dead leaves with their folded heads, and finding their sure way out into the light; while others have sent forth their delicate foliage, and hung out their buds on slender stems; and others still have unfolded their flowers, which look up into the air unsuspectingly and gayly, like innocence upon an untried world. The grass is springing for the scythe, and the grain for the sickle; for they grow, by commandment, for the service of man, and death is everywhere the fate and issue of life.

7. But it is not only senseless things, which are thus visibly springing at this their appointed season. The various tribes of animated nature show, that it is Spring also with them. The birds rise up on elastic wing, and make a joyous music for the growing plants to spring to. Animals, that have lain torpid through the benumbing winter, spring up from their secret beds and dormitories, and resume their habits of activity once more. Innumerable insects spring up from the cells which they had formed beyond the reach

of frost, and in new attire commence their winged existence. The hum of happy life is heard from myriads of little creatures, who, born in the morning, will die ere night. In that short term, however, they will have accomplished the purposes of their living; and, if brought to this test, there are many human lives which are shorter and vainer than theirs; and what is any life, when past, but a day?

8. Let us go abroad amidst this general springing of the earth and nature, and we shall see and feel, that God's blessing is there. The joy of recovery, the gladness of escape, the buoyancy of youth, the exultation of commencing or renewed existence, these are the happiness and blessing which are given from above, and the praise and the hymn which ascend from beneath. Another and a milder order of things seems to be beginning. The gales, though not the warm breathings of Summer, flow to us as if they came from some distant summer clime, and were cooled and moderated on their way; while, at no distant intervals, the skies, in their genial ministry, baptize the offspring of earth with their softest and holiest showers. "Thou visitest the earth and waterest it; thou makest it soft with showers; thou blessest the springing thereof."

9. Surely we cannot stand still in such a scene, and, when everything else is springing, let it be winter in our souls. Let us rather open our hearts to the renovating influences of Heaven, and sympathize with universal nature. If our love to God has been chilled by any of the wintry aspects of the world, it is time, it is time, that it should be resuscitated, and that it should spring up in ardent adoration to the Source of light and life. It is time, that our gratitude should be waked from its sleep, and our devotion aroused, and that all our pious affections, shaking off their torpor, should come out into the beams of God's presence, and receive new powers from their invigorating warmth. It is time, too, that our social charities, if any "killing frost" has visited them, should be cured of their numbness and apathy, and go forth among the children and brethren of the great family, and feel, as they rise and move, that the blessing of the Almighty Father is upon their springing.