It leaves no reader at a loss
Or pos'd, whoever reads:
No commentator's tedious gloss,
Nor even index needs.
Search Bodley's many thousands o'er !
No book is treasur'd there,
Nor yet in Granta's num'rous store
That may with this compare.
No! Rival none in either host
Of this was ever seen,
Or, that contents could justly boast,
So brilliant and so keen.
PARVULA res, et acu minor est, et ineptior usu:
Quotque dies annus, tot tibi drachma dabit.
Sed licet exigui pretii minimique valoris,
Ecce, quot artificum postulat illa manus.
Unius in primis cura est conflare metallum ;
In longa alterius decere fila labor..
Tertius in partes resecat, quartusque resectum
Perpolit ad modulos attenuatque datos.
Est quinti tornare caput, quod sextus adaptet;
Septimus in punctum cudit et exacuit.
His tandem auxiliis ita res procedit, ut omnes
Ad numeros ingens perficiatur opus.
Quæ tanti ingenii, quæ tanti est summa laboris :
Si mihi respondes Edipe, tota tua est.
A NEEDLE small, as small can be,
In bulk and use, surpasses me,
Nor is my purchase dear!
For little and almost for nought
of my kind are bought
As days are in the year.
Yet though but little use we boast,
And are procur'd at little cost,
The labour is not light,
Nor few artificers it asks,
All skilful in their sev'ral tasks,
To fashion us aright.
One fuses metal o'er the fire,
A second draws it into wire,
The shears another plies,
Who clips in lengths the brazen thread
For him, who, chafing every thread,
Gives all an equal size.
A fifth prepares, exact and round,
The knob, with which it must be crown'd;
His follower makes it fast:
And with his mallet and his file
To shape the point, employs awhile
The seventh and the last.
Now therefore, Edipus! declare
What creature, wonderful, and rare,
A process, that obtains
Its purpose with so much ado,
At last produces !-tell me true,
And take me for your pains'
COL. TRIN. CANT. COMMENSALES.
INCOLA qui norit sedes, aut viserit hasce
Newtoni egregii quas celebravit honos; Viditque et meminit, lætus fortasse videndo, Quam multa ad mensas advolitarit avis. Ille nec ignorat, nidos ut, vere ineunte,
Tecta per et forulos, et tabulata struat. Ut coram educat teneros ad pabula fœtus,
Et pascat micis, quas det amica manus. Convivas quoties campanæ ad prandia pulsus Convocat, haud epulis certior hopes adest. Continuo jucunda simul vox fertur ad aures, Vicinos passer quisque relinquit agros, Hospitium ad notum properatur ; et ordine stantes Expectant panis fragmina quisque sua. Hos tamen, hos omnes, vix uno largior asse Sumptus per totam pascit alitque diem.
Hunc unum, hunc modicum (nec quisquam invidorit assem)
Indigenæ, hospitii jure, merentur aves
SPARROWS SELF-DOMESTICATED
IN TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE.
NONE ever shar'd the social feast,
Or as an inmate, or a guest,
Beneath the celebrated dome,
Where once Sir Isaac had his home,
Who saw not (and with some delight
Perhaps he view'd the novel sight)
How num'rous, at the tables there,
The sparrows beg their daily fare
For there, in every nook, and cell,
Where such a family may dwell,
Sure as the vernal season comes
Their nests they weave in hope of crumbs,
Which kindly giv'n, may serve, with food
Convenient, their unfeather'd brood,
And oft as with its summons clear,
The warning bell salutes the ear,
Sagacious list'ners to the sound,
They flock from all the fields around,
To reach the hospitable hall,
None more attentive to the call.
Arriv'd, the pensionary band,
Hopping and chirping, close at hand,
Solicit what they soon receive,
The sprinkled, plenteous donative.
Thus is a multitude, though large,
Supported at a trivial charge;
A single doit would overpay
Th' expenditure of every day,
And who can grudge so small a grace
To suppliants natives of the place?
NULLI TE FACIAS NIMIS SODALEM
PALPAT heram felis, gremic recumbans in anili ;
Quam semel atque iterum Lydia palpat hera.
Ludum lis sequitur; nam totos exserit ungues,
Et longo lacerat vulnere felis anum.
Continuo exardens gremio muliercula felem
Nec gravibus multis excutit absque minis:
Quod tamen haud æquum est si vult cum felo jocari,
Felinum debet Lydia ferre jocum.
As in her ancient mistress' lap,
The youthful tabby lay,
They gave each other many a tap,
Alike disposed to play.
But strife ensues. Puss waxes warm,
And with protruded claws
Ploughs all the length of Lydia's arm,
Mere wantonness the cause.
once, resontful of the deed,
She shakes her to the ground
With many a threat, that she shall bleed
With still a deeper wound.
But, Lydia, bid thy fury rest,
It was a venial stroke:
For she that will with kittens jest,
Should bear a kitten's joke.
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