Birth.-Blind Boy.

Glows a repentant blush -Our greatest heroes,
Who've been, on earth, the friends of human-kind,
Whofe great examples I would fet before thee,
Were once unknown like thee.-Whitehead.
WHO first the catalogue fhall grace?
To quality belongs the highest place.
My lord comes forward; forward let him come!
Ye vulgar! at your peril give him room;
He ftands for fame on his forefather's feet,
By heraldry prov'd valiant or difcreet.
With what a decent pride he throws his eyes
Above the man by three defcents lefs wife!
If virtues at his noble hand you crave,
You bid him raife his fathers from the grave.
Men fhould prefs forward in fame's glorious chafe
Nobles look backward, and fo lose the race.
Let high birth triumph! What can be more great?"
Nothing-but merit in a low eftate.

To virtue's humbleft fon let none prefer
Vice, tho' defcended from the conqueror.
Shall men, dike figures, pafs for high or base,
Slight or important, only by their place?
Titles are marks of honest men, and wife;
The fool or knave that wears a title, lies.

Those who on glorious ancestors enlarge, Produce their debt, instead of their discharge. *****, let those who proudly boast their line, Like thee, in worth hereditary shine.-Young.

BLIND BOY.

O fay, what is that thing, call'd light,
Which I must ne'er enjoy?
What are the bleffings of the fight?
O tell your poor blind boy!
You talk of wond'rous things you fee;
You fay, the fun fhines bright:
I feel him warm: but how can he
Or make it day or night?
My day or night myself I make,

Whene'er I fleep or play;
And could I ever keep awake,
With me 'twere always day.
With heavy fighs I often hear

You mourn my hapless woe;

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But fure with patience I can bear
Alofs I ne'er can know.
Then let hot what I cannot have
My cheer of mind destroy;
Whilst thus I fing, I am a king,
Although a poor blind boy.-Colley Cibber.

BUILDING.

THE man who builds, and wants wherewith to pay, Provides a home, from which to run away. What elfe, I pray, is many a lordly feat, But a discharge in full for an eftate?--Young.

CLOWN.

A clownish mein, a voice with ruftic found, And ftupid eyes, that ever lov'd the ground; The ruling rod, the father's forming care, Were exercis'd in vain, on wit's defpair; The more inform'd, the lefs he understood, And deeper funk by flound'ring in the mud. His corn and cattle were his only care; And his fupreme delight a country fair. A quarter-ftaff, which he ne'er could forfake, Hung half before, and half behind his back. He trudg'd along, unknowing what he fought, And whistled, as he went, for want of thought.-Dryden.

CAMP

I have been led by folitary care

yon

To
dark branches, fpreading o'er the brook,
Which murmurs thro' the camp; this mighty camp,'
Where once two hundred thoufand fons of war
With reftlefs dins awak'd the midnight hour.
Now horrid ftillaefs, in the vacant tents,
Sits uzdifturb'd: and thefe inceffant rills,
Whofe pebbled channel breaks their shallow ftream,
Fill with their melancholy founds my ears,
As if I wander'd like a lonely hind,

O'er fome dead fallow, far from all refort:
Unless that, ever and anon, a groan
Bursts from a foldier, pillow'd on his shield
In torment, or expiring with his wounds,
And turns my fix'd attention into horror.-Glover.

Cato.-Cleanlinefs.-Charader.

CATO.

-TURN up thy eyes to Cato,

There may't thou fee to what a god-like height
The Roman virtues lift up mortal man.

While good, and juft, and anxious for his friends,
He's ftill feverely bent against hinfelf:
Renouncing fleep, and food, and reft, and eafe;
He ftrives with thirst and hunger, toil and heat ;
And when his fortune fets before him all
The pomps and pleasures that his foul can wish,
His rigid virtue will accept of none.-Addifon.

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CLEANLINESS

IS a mark of politenefs. It is univerfally agreed upon, that no one, unadorned with this virtue, can go into company without giving a manifeft offence. The easier or higher any one's fortune is, this duty rifes proportionably. The different nations of the world are as much diftinguished by their cleanlinefs, as by their arts and fciences. The more any country is civilized, the more they confult this part of politenefs. We need but compare our ideas of a female Hottentot and an English beauty, to be fatisfied of the truth of what hath been

advanced.

In the next place, cleanliness may be faid to be the fofter mother of love. Beauty indeed moít commonly produces that paffion in the mind, but cleanliness preferves it. An indifferent face and perfon, kept in perpetual neatnefs, has won many a heart from a pretty flattern. Age itfelf is not unamiable, while it is preferved clean and unfullied: like a piece of metal conftantly kept fmooth and bright, we look on it with more pleasure, than on a new veffel which is cankered with rust.

I might obferve farther, that, as cleanlinefs renders us agreeable to others, fo it makes us eafy to ourfelves; that it

an excellent prefervative of health; and that feveral vices, deftructive both to mind and body, are inconfiftent with the habit of it. But thefe reflections I fhall leave to the leifure of n f my readers, and shall obferve in the third place, that it bears a great analogy with purity of mind, and naturally infpires refined fentiments and paffions.-Spedator.

CHARACTER.

WE fhould not be too hafty in beftowing either our praile o cenfure on mankind, fince we fhall often find fuch a mixture

of good and evil in the fame character, that it may require a very accurate judgment, and a very elaborate enquiry, to determine on which fide the balance turns.-Fielding.

THE first impreffions which mankind receive of us, will be ever after difficult to eradicate. How unhappy, therefore, muft it be, to fix our characters in life, before we can poffibly know the value, or weigh the confequences of thofe actions which are to establish our future reputation.—Ibid.

CUSTOM.

CUSTOM is commonly too ftrong for the moft refolute refolver, though furnished for the affault with all the weapons of philofophy." He that endeavors to free himself from an ill habit (fays Bacon) muft not change too much at a time, left he fhould be difcouraged by difficulty; nor too little, for then he will make but flow advances."—Idler."

SUPPOSE we have freed ourselves from the younger prejudices of our education, yet we are in danger of having our mind turned afide from truth by the influence of general custom. Our opinion of meats and drinks, of garments and forms of falutation, are influenced more by cuftom, than by the eye, the ear, or the tafte. Cultom prevails even over fenfe itself; and therefore no wonder if it prevail over reason too. What is it, but custom, that renders many of the mixtures of food and fauces elegant in Britain, which would be aukward and naufeous to the inhabitants of China, and indeed were naufeous to us when we first tafted them? What but cuftom could make thofe falutations polite in Mufcovy, which are ridiculous in France and England? We call ourselves indeed the politer nations: but it is we who judge thus of ourselves; and that fancied politeness is oftentimes more owing to custom than reafon. Why are the forms of our prefent garments counted beautiful, and those fashions of our ancestors the matter of fcoff and contempt, which in their days, were all decent and genteel? It is cuffom that forms our opinion of dress, and reconciles us by degrees to thofe habits which at first seemed very odd and monstrous. It must be granted, there are fome garments and habits which have a natural congruity or incongruity, modefly or immodefty, gaudinefs or gravity; though, for the most part, there is but little reafon in these affairs: but what little there is of reafon, or natural decency, cuftom triumphs over it all. It is almoft impoffible to perfuade a young lady that any thing can be decent which is out of fafhion.Watts.

Complaint.--The Church Yard.

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CUSTOM may lead a man into many errors; but it juflifies none.-Fielding. 4

COMPLAINT.

WHAT cannot be repaired is not to be regretted. The ufual fortune of complaint, is to excite contempt more than pity Johnson.

TO hear complaints with patience, even when complaints are vain, is one of the duties of friendship: and though it must be allowed, that he fuffers molt like a hero, who hides his grief in filence, yet it cannot be denied, that he who complains, acts like a man-like a focial being, who looks for help from his fellow-creatures.-Idem.

THE CHURCH-YARD.

WHAT a number of hillocks of death appear all round us! What are the tomb-ftones, but memorials of the inhabitants of that town, to inform us of the period of all their lives, and to point out the day when it was faid to each of them, "Your "time fhall be no longer." O, may I readily learn this important leffon, that my turn is haftening too; fuch a little hillock fhall fhortly arife for me in fome unknown fpot of ground: it fhall cover this flesh and thefe bones of mine in darknefs, and fhall hide them from the light of the fun, and from the fight of man, till the heavens be no more.-Watts.

PERHAPS in this neglected fpot is laid

Some heart once pregnant with celeftial fire:
Hands that the rod of empire might have fway'd,
Or wak'd to ecftafy the living lyre.
But knowledge to their eyes her ample page,
Rich with the fpoils of time, did ne'er unroll;
Chill penury reprefs'd their noble rage,

And froze the genial current of the foul.
Full many a gem, of pureft ray ferene,

The dark unfathom'd caves of ocean bear;
Full many a flow'r is born to bluh unfeen,

And walle its fweetnefs on the defert air.
Some village Hampden, who with daundlefs breast
The little tyrant of his fields withitood;
Some mute inglorious Milton here may reft

Some Cromwell, guiltlfs of als country's blood.--Gres

F