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Till, fainting, in the public way,
Half dead with fear, she gasping lay.
What transport in her bosom grew,
When first the horse appeared in view!

"Let me," says she, "your back ascend, And owe my safety to a friend.

You know my feet betray my flight;
To friendship every burden's light."

The horse replied, "Poor honest Puss,
30 It grieves my heart to see you thus:
Be comforted, relief is near,

For all your friends are in the rear."
She next the stately bull implored;
And thus replied the mighty lord:
35" Since every beast alive can tell
That I sincerely wish you well,
may, without offence, pretend
To take the freedom of a friend.
Love calls me hence; a favourite cow
40 Expects me near yon barley-mow;
And, where a lady's in the case,
You know all other things give place.
To leave you thus would seem unkind :
But see, the goat is just behind."

45

The goat remarked her pulse was high, Her languid head, her heavy eye:

66

'My back," says she, "may do you harm; The sheep's at hand, and wool is warm."

The sheep was feeble, and complained, 50 "His sides a load of wool sustained;" Said he was slow, confessed his fears, "For hounds eat sheep as well as hares."

She now the trotting calf addressed, To save from death a friend distressed: 55 "Shall I," says he, "of tender age,

In this important case engage?
Older and abler passed you by;

How strong are those! how weak am I!

Should I presume to bear you hence,
60 Those friends of mine may take offence,
Excuse me, then; you know my heart;
But dearest friends, alas! must part.
How shall we all lament! adieu;
For see, the hounds are just in view."

63. Adieu: Goodbye has exactly the same derivative meaning, being a contraction of "God be with ye," which,

rapidly pronounced, became "God-b-wiye," goodbye.

133. Edward Young. 1681-1765. (History, p. 166.)
From the "NIGHT THOUGHTS."

PROCRASTINATION.

Be wise to day: 'tis madness to defer;
Next day the fatal precedent will plead ;
Thus on, till wisdom is push'd out of life.
Procrastination is the thief of time;

5 Year after year it steals till all are fled,
And to the mercies of a moment leaves
The vast concerns of an eternal scene.

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If not so frequent, would not this be strange?
That 'tis so frequent, this is stranger still.

Of man's miraculous mistakes, this bears
The palm, "That all men are about to live,”—
For ever on the brink of being born.

All pay themselves the compliment to think They one day shall not drivel: and their pride 15 On this reversion takes up ready praise;

At least, their own; their future selves applaud.
How excellent that life-they ne'er will lead !
Time lodg'd in their own hands is folly's vails;

14. Drivel, become idiotic.

15. Praise this word, fr. Lat. pretium, through It. pregio, Fr. prix, priser, properly means nothing more than " to set a value on," in which sense it still exists in appraise. Thus praise, price, and

prize are the same word.

18. Vails, perquisites, money given to servants-supposed to be a shortened form of avail. See Eduard Müller's Wörterbuch, sub voce.

That lodged in fate's, to wisdom they consign; 20 The thing they can't but purpose, they postpone. 'Tis not in folly, not to scorn a fool;

And scarce in human wisdom, to do more.

All promise is poor dilatory man,

And that through every stage: when young, indeed, 25 In full content we, sometimes, nobly rest,

Unanxious for ourselves; and only wish,

As duteous sons, our fathers were more wise.
At thirty man suspects himself a fool;
Knows it at forty, and reforms his plan;
30 At fifty chides his infamous delay,
Pushes his prudent purpose to resolve ;
In all the magnanimity of thought

Resolves; and re-resolves; then, dies the same.
And why? Because he thinks himself immortal.
35 All men think all men mortal, but themselves;
Themselves, when some alarming shock of fate
Strikes through their wounded hearts the sudden dread.
But their hearts wounded, like the wounded air,
Soon close, where, past the shaft, no trace is found.

40 As from the wing, no scar the sky retains;
The parted wave no furrow from the keel ;-
So dies in human hearts the thought of death,
E'en with the tender tear which Nature sheds
O'er those we love, we drop it in their grave.

36. Alarming: alarm, once written al' arme, It. all' arme, is Lat. ad arma, to arms!

41. Keel, O. E. ceol, once meant the entire ship, as indeed it still does on the Tyne,

CHAPTER XI.

THE ESSAYISTS.

Joseph Addison. 1672-1719. (History, p. 168.)

134. From 'THE SPECTATOR.'

THE VISION OF MIRZA.

On the fifth day of the moon, which, according to the custom of my forefathers, I always keep holy, after having washed myself, and offered up my morning devotions, I ascended the high hills of Bagdad, in order to pass the rest of the day in meditation and prayer. As I was here refreshing myself on the tops of the mountains, I fell into a profound contemplation on the vanity of human life; and passing from one thought to another, surely, said I, man is but a shadow, and life a dream. Whilst I was thus musing, I cast my eyes towards the summit of a rock that was not far from me, where I discovered one in the habit of a shepherd, but who was in reality a being of superior nature. I drew near with profound reverence, and fell down at his feet. The genius smiled upon me with a look of compassion and affability, that familiarized him to my imagination, and at once dispelled all the fears and apprehensions with which I approached him. He lifted me from the ground, and taking me by the hand, "Mirza," said he, "I have heard thee in thy soliloquies; follow me."

He then led me to the highest pinnacle of the rock; and placing me on the top of it, "Cast thy eyes eastward," said he, "and tell me what thou seest." "I see," said I, "a huge valley, and a prodigious tide of water rolling through it." "The valley that thou seest," said he, "is the vale of misery; and the tide of water that thou seest, is part of the great tide of eternity." "What is the reason," said I, "that the tide I see rises out of a thick mist at one end, and again loses itself in a thick mist at the other?"

"What thou seest," said

he," is that portion of eternity which is called time measured out by the sun, and reaching from the beginning of the world to its consummation. Examine1 now," said he, "this sea that is bounded with darkness at both ends, and tell me what thou discoverest in it." "I see a bridge," said I, "standing in the midst of the tide." "The bridge thou seest," said he, "is human life; consider it attentively.” Upon a more leisurely survey of it, I found that it consisted of three score and ten entire arches, with several broken arches, which, added to those that were entire, made up the number about a hundred. As I was counting the arches, the genius told me that this bridge consisted at first of a thousand; but that a great flood swept away the rest, and left the bridge in the ruinous condition I now beheld it. "But tell me further," said he, "what thou discoverest on it." "I see multitudes of people passing over it," said I, "and a black cloud hanging on each end of it." As I looked more attentively, I saw several of the passengers dropping through the bridge into the great tide that flowed underneath it; and, upon further examination, perceived there were innumerable trap-doors that lay concealed in the bridge, which the passengers no sooner trod upon, than they fell through them into the tide, and immediately disappeared. These hidden pitfalls were set very thick at the entrance of the bridge, so that throngs of people no sooner broke through the cloud than many fell into them. They grew thinner towards the middle, but multiplied and lay closer together towards the end of the arches that were entire. There were indeed some persons, but their number was very small, that continued a kind of hobbling march on the broken arches, but fell through one after another, being quite tired and spent with so long a walk.

I passed some time in the contemplation of this wonderful structure, and the great variety of objects which it presented. My heart was filled with a deep melancholy, to see several dropping unexpectedly in the midst of mirth and jollity, and catching at every thing that stood by them, to save themselves. Some were looking up towards the heavens in a thoughtful posture, and, in the midst of a speculation, stumbled and fell out of sight. Multitudes were very busy in the pursuit of bubbles, that glittered in their eyes, and danced before them; but often, when they thought themselves within the reach of

1. Examine: a word that properly means to weigh, fr. Lat. examen, the tongue of a balance.

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