' PAPA'S RHYMES.' 427 



with here and there a witty thought, and here and there 

 a just sentiment. Papa wrote some not very good 

 rhymes in it about two years ago, and some not very 

 good rhymes on the present occasion ; though in the 

 space between the two visits he wrote only solid prose. 

 But those who pass evenings in the inn at Huna have 

 usually not much to do; and so many of them, in 

 imitation of those who have rhymed in the album 

 before them, set themselves to break the Queen's Eng- 

 lish into very clumsy lines, with not much sense in 

 them, that chime at their terminations. The following 

 formed papa's last effort. 



" Right curious volume ! two long years have pass'd 

 Since I glanced o'er thy chequer' d pages last ; 

 And leaves then blank in thee are fill'd, rare book, 

 E'en in a way on which 'tis sad to look ; 

 So scant the wit, the wisdom seldom seen, 

 While dreary wastes of folly spread between. 

 Yes, sad, full sad, for, curious book, I see 

 Too true a picture of my life in thee ; 

 Folly in both prevails, in both how few 

 The points t' instruct the heart, or glad the view ; 

 In both the past admits of no recall, 

 E'en as the thing was done we stand or fall ; 

 The ill express'd we cannot well suppress, 

 Nor can we make the by-past nonsense less. 

 Yet must I hold, poor curious book ! that thine 

 Is e'en by much a harder fate than mine ; 

 For thee no new editions wait, no Mind 

 Shall add the wisdom that it does not find ; 

 Raise into worth the grovelling and the low, 

 And mental force and moral weight bestow. 

 E'en faulty as thou art, thou still must be : 

 A nobler dest'ny waits, I trust, on me ; 

 The Great Corrector shall revise my past, 

 And in a fairer mould its lines re-cast ; 

 For folly, wisdom ; strength for weakness lend, 

 And all my blots erase, and all my faults amend." 



' So much for papa's rhymes. There are some 

 people who rhyme not much better than papa who 

 believe themselves to be poets ; but that is a mistake, 



