THE LAMB. A tear bedews my Delia's eye, She saw him wheel, and frisk, and bound; THE GRASSHOPPER. Happy insect! what can be The dewy morning's gentle wine! All that summer hours produce, Fertile made with early juice. Man for thee does sow and plough; Farmer he, and landlord thou! Dost neither age nor winter know. Thy fiil, the flow'ry leaves among, Sated with a summer's feast, Thou retir'st to endless rest. THE ROSE. How fair is the rose! what a beautiful flower! But the leaves are beginning to fade in an hour, Yet the rose has one powerful beauty to boast When its leaves are all dead, and fine colours are lost, So frail is the youth, and the beauty of man, Then I'll not be proud of my youth or my beauty, Since both of them wither and fade, But gain a good name by well doing my duty :: THE TWENTY-THIRD PSALM. The Lord my pasture shall prepare, When in the sultry glebe I faint, Though in the paths of death I tread, With sudden greens and herbage crown'd, And streams shall murmur all around. ADDISON &. Filial Duty and Affection. LO! the young stork his duteous wing prepares Moral. Shouldst thou refuse thy parents needful aid, This bird is generally esteemed an emblem of filial love; insomuch, that it has ever acquired the name of pious, from the just regard it is said to pay to acts of filial piety and duty. R Storks live to a very advanced age; the consequence of which is, that their limbs grow feeble, their feathers fall off, and they are no way capable of providing for their own food or safety. Being birds of passage, they are under another inconvenience also, which is, that they are not able to remove themselves from one country to another at the usual season. In all these circumstances, it is reported, their young ones assist them, covering them with their wings, and nourishing them with the warmth of their bodies; even bringing them provisions in their beaks, and carrying them from place to place on their backs, or supporting them with their wings. In this manner returning, as much as lies in their power, the care which was bestowed on them when they were young ones in the nest. A striking example of filial piety, inspired by instinct; from which, reason itself need not be ashamed to take example! Honour thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, was an express commandment, and the only one to which a promise was annexed. Among the Israelites, the slightest offence against a parent was punished in the most exemplary manner. Certainly, nothing can be more just or reasonable, than that we should love, honour, and succour those who are the very authors of our being, and to whose tender care (under Heaven) we owe the continuance of it, during the helpless state of our infancy. |