128 LESSONS FOR THK LITERATI. 



" Is this the end of all your hurrying forth ? 

 Is this the utmost of your undertaking? 

 Believe me all your humming is not worth 

 One single drop of honey of my making." 



How many think to pass for wits and sages, 

 By praising wits and sages dead and gone ! 



And with what triumph they quote others' pages, 

 Who have no wit or wisdom of their own ! 



THE OX AND THE GRASSHOPPER. 



THE ox was ploughing, when behind him said 

 A pert grasshopper, chirping from the ground, 



f Dear ! what a crooked furrow you have made !" 

 " Madam," he answered, gravely turning round, 



: Could you have known I drew that furrow wrong, 

 If all the other ones had not been right? 



Then, for the future, hold your idle tongue, 



Nor view my work with your contracted sight. 



I serve my master faithfully and well, 



And he forgives me if I sometimes err." 

 Thus the small critic's futile censure fell, 

 And thus the ox replied and silenced her. 



Perhaps, this fable those "savans" corrects, 

 Who in great works discover slight defects. 



THE PELLITORY AND THE THYME. 



I'VE read, but where I cannot say, 



That, in the herbal tongue one day, 



The pellitory, thinking fit 



Upon the thyme to try her wit, 



Accosted him, and then began her 



Speech in this malicious manner : 



" God help thee ! Thyme, it grieves my soul 



That thpu, the sweetest of tne whole 



Sweet-smelling tribe that bloom around, 



Art scarce three inches from the ground !" 



" Fair one," he answer'd, " I confess 



I am but small, yet ne'ertheless 



Remember that I grow alone 



Without the help of any one ; 



While you, my dear, can't grow at all, 



Unless you cling fast to a wall." 



When on all sides I see up-springing 



Men who, to other writers clinging, 



Think themselves authors, when they've wrote 



A prologue, preface, or a note, 



I feel a mighty inclination 



T'apply to them the thyme's oration. 



R. A. 



