The future fplendour of the flower?
Juft fo the Omnipotent, who turns
The system of a world's concerns,
From mere minutiæ can educe
Events of most important use;
And bid a dawning sky display
The blaze of a meridian day.
The works of man tend, one and all,
As needs they must, from great to small!
And vanity abforbs at length
The monuments of human strength.
But who can tell how vaft the plan
Which this day's incident began ?
Too fmall, perhaps, the flight occafion
For our dim-fighted observation;
It paff'd unnoticed, as the bird
That cleaves the yielding air unheard,
And yet may prove, when understood,
A harbinger of endless good.
Not that I deem, or mean to call
Friendship a bleffing cheap or fmall:
But merely to remark, that ours,
Like fome of nature's sweetest flowers,
Rofe from a feed of tiny fize,
That seem'd to promise no such prize;
A tranfient vifit intervening,
And made almost without a meaning,
(Hardly the effect of inclination,
Much less of pleasing expectation)
Produced a friendship, then begun,
That has cemented us in one;
And placed it in our power to prove,
By long fidelity and love,
That Solomon has wifely spoken;
"A threefold cord is not foon broken."
LOSE by the threshold of a door nail'd faft
Three kittens fat; each kitten look'd
I, paffing swift and inattentive by,
At the three kittens caft a careless eye;
Not much concern'd to know what they did there; Not deeming kittens worth a poet's care.
But presently a loud and furious hifs
Caufed me to stop, and to exclaim, "What's this?"
When lo! upon
the threshold met my view,
With head erect, and eyes of fiery hue,
A viper, long as Count de Graffe's queue.
Forth from his head his forked tongue he throws,
Darting it full against a kitten's nose;
Who having never feen, in field or house,
The like, fat ftill and filent as a moufe;
Only projecting, with attention due,
Her whisker'd face, the afk'd him, "Who are you?" On to the hall went I, with pace not flow,
But swift as lightning, for a long Dutch hoe;
With which well arm'd I hasten'd to the spot,
To find the viper,-but I found him not.
And turning up the leaves and fhrubs around,
Found only that he was not to be found.
But still the kittens, fitting as before,
Sat watching close the bottom of the door.
"I hope," said I, "the villain I would kill
Has flipp'd between the door and the door fill;
And if I make dispatch, and follow hard,
No doubt but I fhall find him in the yard :"
For long ere now it should have been rehearsed,
'Twas in the garden that I found him first.
E'en there I found him, there the full grown cat
His head, with velvet paw, did gently pat:
As curious as the kittens erft had been
To learn what this phenomenon might mean.
Fill'd with heroic ardour at the fight,
And fearing every moment he would bite,
And rob our household of our only cat
That was of age to combat with a rat;
With outstretch'd hoe I flew him at the door,
And taught him NEVER TO COME THERE NO More.
Amicitia nifi inter bonos effe non poteft.-CICERO.
HAT virtue can we name, or grace,
But men unqualified and bafe
Will boast it their poffeffion?
Profufion apes the noble part
Of liberality of heart,
And dulnefs of difcretion.
But, as the gem of richest coft
Is ever counterfeited moft,
So, always, imitation
Employs the utmost skill fhe can
To counterfeit the faithful man,
The friend of long duration.
Some will pronounce me too fevere—
But long experience fpeaks me clear;
Therefore, that cenfure fcorning,
I will proceed to mark the shelves
On which fo many dash themselves,
And give the fimple warning.
Youth, unadmonish'd by a guide,
Will truft to any fair outfide;
An error foon corrected;
For who but learns with riper years,
That man, when smootheft he appear
Is most to be fufpected?
But here again a danger lies;
Left thus deluded by our eyes,
And taking trash for treasure,
We should, when undeceived, conclude Friendship imaginary good,
A mere Utopian pleasure.
An acquifition, rather rare,
Is yet no subject of despair;
Nor fhould it seem distressful
If, either on forbidden ground,
Or where it was not to be found,
We fought it unsuccessful.
No friendship will abide the test
That ftands on fordid interest
And mean felf-love erected;
Nor such as may awhile subsist
"Twixt fenfualift and fenfualift,
For vicious ends connected.
Who hopes a friend, should have a heart Himself well furnish'd for the part,
And ready on occafion
To fhow the virtue that he feeks;
For 'tis a union that bespeaks
A just reciprocation.
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