16 The Canary. 



sort of joint-stock partnership with limited liability for 

 the purpose of breeding canaries an arrangement which 

 suited all parties, and gave great satisfaction to each. 

 The firm being thus completed, we entered upon the 

 business with great zest, having full confidence in the 

 soundness of our project, and deriving from it much 

 immediate pleasure, which was certain to increase as 

 the spring came on, if it did not actually realise our 

 most sanguine expectations of profit. 



" Where is the troubled heart consigned to share 

 Tumultuous toils, or solitary care, 

 Unblest by visionary thoughts that stray 

 To count the joys of fortune's better day ? 

 Oh ! vainly wise, the moral muse hath sung, 

 That suasive hope hath but a syren tongue ! 

 True, she may sport with life's untutor'd day, 

 Nor heed the solace of its last decay ; 

 The guileless heart her happy mansion spun, 

 And part, like Ajut, never to return ! 



" And yet methinks, when wisdom shall assuage 

 The grief and passions of our greener age, 

 Though dull the close of life, and far away 

 Each flower that hailed the dawning of the day; 

 Yet o'er her lovely hopes, that once were dear, 

 The time-taught spirit, pensive, not severe, 

 With milder griefs her aged eye shall fill, 

 And weep their falsehood, though she loves them still.'* 



