Each thinks his neighbour makes too free,
Yet likes a slice as well as he:
With sophistry their sauce they sweeten,
Till quite from tail to snout 'tis eaten.

ON THE DEATH OF MRS. (NOW LADY) THROCK

MORTON'S BULLFINCH.

Ye nymphs ! if e'er your eyes were red
With tears o'er hapless favourites shed,

O share Maria’s grief !
Her favourite, even in his cage,
(What will not hunger's cruel rage ?)

Assassin'd by a thief.

Where Rhenus strays his vines among,
The egg was laid from which he sprung;

And, though by nature mute,
Or only with a whistle blest,
Well taught he all the sounds express'd

Of flagelet or flute.

The honours of his ebon poll
Were brighter than the sleekest mole,

His bosom of the hue
With which Aurora decks the skies,
When piping winds shall soon arise,

To sweep away the dew.

Above, below, in all the house,
Dire foe alike of bird and mouse,

No cat had leave to dwell ;
And Bully's cage supported stood
On props of smoothest shaven wood,

Large-built and latticed well.

Well latticed—but the grate, alas !
Not rough with wire of steel or brass,

For Bully's plumage sake,
But smooth with wands from Ouse's side,
With which, when neatly peeld and dried,

The swains their baskets make.

Night veil’d the pole : all seem'd secure :
When, led by instinct sharp and sure,

Subsistence to provide,
A beast forth sallied on the scout,
Long back’d, long tail'd, with whisker'd snout,

And badger-colour'd hide.

He, entering at the study door,
Its ample area 'gan explore ;

And something in the wind
Conjectured, sniffing round and round,
Better than all the books he found,

Food chiefly for the mind.

Just then, by adverse fate impress’d,
A dream disturb’d poor Bully's rest;

In sleep he seem'd to view vol. VII.

A rat fast clinging to the cage,
And, screaming at the sad presage,

Awoke and found it true.

For, aided both by ear and scent,
Right to his mark the monster went-

Ah, muse! forbear to speak
Minute the horrors that ensued;

horrors that ensued : Sept! His teeth were strong, the cage was wood_**

He left poor Bully's beak. ;'*" ";

O had he made that too his prey ;
That beak, whence issued many a lay '

Of such mellifluous tone, tombai Might have repaid him well, I wote,'.??!! For silencing so sweet a throat,

o g ',,} } :U Fast stuck within his own.

Maria weeps—the Muses mourn-
So when, by Bacchanalians torn,

On Thracian Hebrus' side
The tree-enchanter Orpheus fell,
His head alone remain'd to tell

The cruel death he died.

The rose had been wash'd, just wash'd in a shower,

Which Mary to Anna convey'd,
The plentiful moisture encumber'd the flower,

And weigh'd down its beautiful head.

The cup was all fillid, and the leaves were all wet,

And it seem'd, to a fancifäl view, To weep for the buds it had left, with regret, .

On the flourishing bush where it grew.

I hastily seized it, unfit as it was

For a nosegay, so dripping and drown'd, And swinging it rudely, too rudely, alas !

I snapp'd it, it fell to the ground.

And such, I exclaim'd, is the pitiless part

Some act by the delicate mind, Regardless of wringing and breaking a heart

Already to sorrow resign'd.

This elegant rose, had I shaken it less,

Might have bloom'd with its owner a while ; And the tear, that is wiped with a little address, May be follow'd perhaps by a smile.

THE DOVES.

REASONING at every step he treads,

Man yet mistakes his way, While meaner things, whom instinct leads,

Are rarely known to stray.

One silent eve I wander'd late,

And heard the voice of love; The turtle thus address'd her mate,

And soothed the listening dove:

Our mutual bond of faith and truth

No time shall disengage,
Those blessings of our early youth

Shall cheer our latest age:

our latest age: s

While innocence without disguise, ,;

And constancy sincere,
Shall fill the circles of those eyes,

And mine can read them there;

Those ills, that wait on all below,

Shall ne'er be felt by me, Or gently felt, and only so,

As being shared with thee.