admire
Which eloquence and valour there acquire;
Nor power to rob has wealth or noble birth
The premiums due to learning and to worth.
You will observe the hive-like multitude
Of diligent and able islanders,
Masters of commerce they have well pursued,
Which ne’er to want or slothfulness defers;
All in inventions useful occupied,
In manufactures, roads, schools, arsenals,
Experiments in books and hospitals,
And studies of the liberal arts to guide.
There you will know in fine what may attain
An education wise; the skilful mode
Of patriotic teaching, so to train
Private ambition, that it seek the road
Of public benefit alone to gain:
The recompense and acceptation just,
On which founds learning all its hope and trust;
And a wise government, whose constant aim
Is general good, and an eternal fame.
Midst others my reflections I would fain,
In some description worthy of the theme,
(If it were not beyond my powers) explain,
The varied scenes, enchantment all that seem,
Which the Parisian court on your return
Prepares, and offers you surprised to learn.
Polish’d emporium of Europe’s courts,
The which with noble spectacles invites,
With public recreations and resorts,
That give to life its solace and delights;
Brilliant assemblages! and these among,
The chief and most acceptable to gain,
Of all to this new Athens that belong,
To enjoy the fellowship of learned men;
With useful science, or with taste alone,
Who enlighten foreign nations, and their own.
But I, who from this narrow corner write,
In solitude, while shaking off the dust
From military archives, ill recite
What I, O travelling Secretary! trust
Yourself will better practically see,
Whilst I can only know in theory.
Continue then your journey on in health;
From tongue to tongue, from land to land proceed:
To be a statesman eminent your meed.
Acquire each day with joy your stores of wealth,
Of merit and instruction; I the while,
As fits my mediocrity obscure,
Will sing the praise of quiet from turmoil;
Saying, as Seneca has said of yore;—
“Let him, who power or honours would attain,
On the high court’s steep precipice remain.
I wish for peace, that solitude bestows,
Secluse to enjoy the blessings of repose.
To pass my life in silence be my fate,
Unnoticed by the noble, or the great:
That when my age, without vain noise or show,
Has reach’d the bounds allotted us below,
Though a plebeian only to pass by,
Perhaps I yet an aged man may die.
And this I do believe, no death of all
Than his more cruel can a man befall,
Who dying, by the world too truly known,
Is of himself most ignorant alone.”
THE BEAR, THE MONKEY AND THE HOG.
A Bear, with whom a Piedmontese
A wandering living made,
A dance he had not learn’d with ease,
On his two feet essay’d:
And, as he highly of it thought,
He to the Monkey cried,
“How’s that?” who, being better taught,
“ ’Tis very bad,” replied.
“I do believe,” rejoin’d the Bear,
“You little favour show:
For have I not a graceful air,
And step with ease to go?”
A Hog, that was beside them set,
Cried, “Bravo! good!” said he;
“A better dancer never yet
I saw, and ne’er shall see.”
On this the Bear, as if he turn’d
His thoughts within his mind,
With modest gesture seeming learn’d
A
