Dick heard, and tweedling, ogling, bridling, Turning fhort round, ftrutting and fideling,
Attefted, glad, his approbation
Of an immediate conjugation.
Their fentiments fo well exprefs'd,
Influenc'd mightily the reft,
All pair'd, and each pair built a neft.
But though the birds were thus in hafte,
The leaves came on not quite so fast,
And deftiny, that fometimes bears
An aspect stern on man's affairs,
Not altogether fmil'd on theirs.
The wind, of late breath'd gently forth,
Now fhifted eaft and east by north;
Bare trees and fhrubs but ill, you know,
Could fhelter them from wind or fnow,
Stepping into their nefts, they paddled,
Themselves were chill'd, their eggs were addled;
Soon ev'ry father bird and mother
Grew quarrelfome, and peck'd each other,
Parted without the leaft regret,
Except that they had ever met,
And learn'd, in future, to be wifer,
Than to neglect a good adviser.
Miffes! the tale that I relate
This leffon feems to carry-
Choose not alone a proper mate,
But proper time to marry.
THERE is a field through which I often pass, Thick overspread with mofs and filky grafs, Adjoining close to Kilwick's echoing wood, Where oft the bitch-fox hides her hapless brood, Referv'd to folace many a neighb'ring 'fquire, That he may follow them through brake and briar, Contufion hazarding of neck or fpine,
Which rural gentlemen call fport divine.
A narrow brook, by rufhy banks conceal'd,
Runs in a bottom, and divides the field;
Oaks intersperse it, that had once a head,
But now wear crefts of oven-wood instead;
And where the land flopes to its wat'ry bourn,
Wide yawns a gulph beside a ragged thorn;
Bricks line the fides, but fhiver'd long ago,
And horrid brambles intertwine below;
A hollow fcoop'd, I judge in ancient time,
For baking earth, or burning rock to lime.
Not yet the hawthorn bore her berries, red,
With which the fieldfare, wint'ry guef, is fed;
Nor autumn yet had brush'd from ev'ry spray,
With her chill hand, the mellow leaves away;
But corn was hous'd, and beans were in the ftack,
Now, therefore, iffued forth the spotted pack,
With tails high mounted, ears hung low, and throats
With a whole gamut fill'd of heav'nly notes,
For which, alas! my destiny fevere,
Though ears she gave me two, gave me no ear.
The fun, accomplishing his early march,
His lamp now planted on heav'n's topmost arch,
When, exercise and air my only aim,
And heedlefs whither, to that field I came
Fre yet with ruthless joy the happy hound
Told hill and dale that Reynard's track was found,
Or with the high-rais'd horn's melodious clang
All Kilwick and all Dingle-derry* rang.
Sheep graz'd the field; fome with soft bosom prefs'd
The herb as foft, while nibbling ftray'd the reft;
Nor noife was heard but of the hafty brook,
Struggling, detain'd in many a petty nook.
All feem'd fo peaceful, that from them convey'd
To me, their peace by kind contagion spread.
But when the huntsman, with diftended cheek,
'Gan make his inftrument of mufic speak,
And from within the wood that crafh was heard,
Though not a hound from whom it burft appear'd,
The sheep recumbent, and the sheep that graz'd,
All huddling into phalanx, stood and gaz'd,
Admiring, terrified, the novel strain,
Then cours'd the field around, and cours'd it round
But, recollecting with a sudden thought,
That flight in circles urg'd advanc'd them nought,
* Two woods belonging to John Throckmorton, Esq.
They gather'd clofe around the old pit's brink, And thought again-but knew not what to think.
The man to folitude accuftom'd long,
Perceives in ev'ry thing that lives a tongue;
Not animals alone, but fhrubs and trees,
Have speech for him, and understood with ease;
After long drought, when rains abundant fall,
He hears the herbs and flow'rs rejoicing all;
Knows what the frefhnefs of their hue implies,
How glad they catch the largeness of the skies;
But, with precifion nicer ftill, the mind
He scans of ev'ry loco-motive kind;
Birds of all feather, beafts of ev'ry name,
That ferve mankind, or fhun them, wild or tame;
The looks and gestures of their griefs and fears
Have, all, articulation in his ears;
He spells them true by intuition's light,
And needs no gloffary to fet him right.
This truth premis'd was needful as a text,
To win due credence to what follows next.
Awhile they mus'd; furveying ev'ry face, Thou hadft fuppos'd them of fuperior race; Their periwigs of wool, and fears combin'd, Stamp'd on each countenance fuch marks of mind,
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