Birth.-Blind Boy.

Glows a repentant blush -Our greatest heroes,
Who've been, on earth, the friends of human-kind,
Whose great examples I would fet before thee,
Were once unknown like thee.-Whitehead.
WHO firft 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 lofe the race.
Let high birth triumph! What can be more great?"
Nothing-but merit in a low estate.

To virtue's humbleft fon let none prefer
Vice, tho' defcended from the conqueror.
Shall men, dike figures, pass for high or base,
Slight or important, only by their place?
Titles are marks of honeft 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 fhine.-Young.

BLIND BOY.

fee

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
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;

57

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 ;
Whilt 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 difcharge in full for an eftate ?--Young.

CLOWN.

A clownish mein, a voice with rustic 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 whittled, as he went, for want of thought.-Dryden

CAMP.

I have been led by folitary care

To yon dark branches, fpreading o'er the brook,
Which murmurs thro' the camp; this mighty camp,
Where once two hundred thousand fons of war
With reftlefs dins awak'd the midnight hour..
Now horrid ftillaefs, in the vacant tents,
Sits undifturb'd: and these inceffant rills,
Whofe pebbled channel breaks their fhallow 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
Burfts from a foldier, pillow'd on his fhield
In torment, or expiring with his wounds,
And turns my fix'd attention into horror.-Glover.

Cato.-Cleanlinefs.-Charader.

CATO.

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-TURN up thy eyes to Cato,

There may'it thou fee to what a god-like height
The Roman virtues lift mortal man.
up

While good, and juft, and anxious for his friends,
He's ftill feverely bent against himself:

Renouncing fleep, and food, and reft, and ease;
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 wifh,
His rigid virtue will accept of none.-Addifon.

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 eafier 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.

An

In the next place, cleanlinefs may be faid to be the fofter mother of love. Beauty indeed most commonly produces that paffion in the mind, but cleanliness preferves it. 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 ruft.

I might obferve farther, that, as cleanlinefs renders us agreeable to others, fo it makes us eafy to ourfelves; that it is an excellent prefervative of health; and that feveral vices, deftructive both to mind and body, are inconsistent with the habit of it. But thefe reflections I fhall leave to the leifure of 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 praise 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, mufl 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 should be discouraged 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 cuftom. Our opinion of meats and drinks, of garments and forms of falutation, are influenced more by custom, than by the eye, the ear, or the tafte. Cultom prevails even over fense itself; and therefore no wonder if it prevail over reafon 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 those 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 politenefs is oftentimes more owing to custom than reason. 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 cuftom that forms our opinion of drefs, and reconciles us by degrees to thofe habits which at first seemed very odd and monftrous. It must be granted, there are fome garments and habits which have a natural congruity or incongruity, modefty or immodefty, gaudinefs or gravity; though, for the most part, there is but little reafon in thefe affairs: but what little there is of reafon, or natural decency, custom 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.

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

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 spot of ground: it fhall cover this flesh and thefe bones of mine in darkness, and fhall hide them from the light of the fun, and from the fight of man, till the heavens be no more.-Walls.

PERHAPS in this neglected fpot is laid

Some heart once pregnant with celestial 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 bluil unfeen,
And walle its fweetnefs on the defert air.
Some village Hampden, who with dauntlefs breast
The little tyrant of his fields withitood;

Some mute inglorious Miron here may rest;

Some Cromwell, guiltl.fs or his country's blood.--Crey.

F