272 SALMONIA. 



that, I think, it may be compared to that 

 sempivernal climate fabled of the Hespe- 

 rides, where the same trees produced at 

 once buds, leaves, blossoms, and fruits. 



Hal. — Nay, my friends! spare me a little, 

 spare my grey hairs. I have not perhaps 

 abused my youth as much as some of my 

 friends, but all things that you have known, 

 I have known; and if I have not been so 

 much scorched by the passions from which 

 so many of my acquaintances have suffered, 

 I owe it rather to the constant employment 

 of a laborious profession, and to the exer- 

 tions called for by the hopes, wants, and 

 wishes of a rising family, than to any merits 

 of my own, either moral or constitutional. 

 For my health, I may thank my ancestors, 

 after my God, and I have not squandered 

 what was so bountifully given; and though 

 I do not expect, like our arch patriarch 

 Walton, to number ninety years and past, 

 yet, I hope, as long as I can enjoy in a ver- 

 nal day the warmth and heat of the sun- 

 beams, still to haunt the streams — following 

 the example of our late venerable friend, the 



