A counter in a miser's hand,
Grew twenty guineas at command:
She bids his heir the sum retain,
And 'tis a counter now again.1

A guinea with her touch, you see
Take every shape but Charity;

And not one thing you saw, or drew,
But changed from what was first in view.2
The Juggler now, in grief of heart,
With this submission own'd her art:
"Can I such matchless sleight withstand!
How practice hath improved your hand!
But now and then I cheat the throng;
You every day, and all day long."

(1) The extravagance of the spendthrift, follows the avarice of the miser, as the shadow does the figure.

(2) This is well drawn, for, first, even the instrument of good, which gold might be, is warped from its proper purpose, when vice employs it; next, charity essentially differs from vice " in thinking no evil :" thirdly, the distorting power of vicious indulgence is hinted at, which puts "evil for good, darkness for light, and sweet for bitter."

(3) The whole of human life is one huge falsehood, from the cradle to the grave, and it is no wonder that men should be knaves to each other, when even the best of us is such a hypocrite to himself! First comes vanity with her deceptive mirror, which has the power of making ugliness appear beauty, and renders the vilest acts excusable in the perpetrator's own eyes. The "scurvy politician" is loud against public abuses, until he has been paid his price, and then, as Lear observes," he takes glass eyes, and seems to see the things he doth not." Wine unlocks the bars of prudence, therefore is an instrument by which knavery deludes folly, under the garb of good fellowship, until the mask is torn off by passion, and the feast ends in the fray! The crafty villain promises himself indemnity, and success; the ambitious, power and security; forgetful that ill-gotten treasure is soon spent, and purchases disgrace, and that "pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall." The heartless hypocrisy, again, of those who can always bear "another's misfortune perfectly like Christians," nauseates us by its frequent exhibition in men who, living in palaces, and pampered in luxury, mouth out devotional exhortations which they do not feel, upon burdens they touch not with one of their fingers, to the poor outcast whose only inheritance has been care, who watches the growth of his grey hairs with pleasure, and is longing for the end of the scene! Our very tears are deceptions, for physical melancholy will often draw water, like the

rod of Moses, out of the rocky heart, without in the least changing its nature, and so we see selfishness with its eyes moist, and apathy even itself for a time forgetting its indifference, whilst under the effect of fervent, but also insincere eloquence, until when the speech is over, and the hurried accents silent, orator and auditor relapse into more hardened callousness, and obtuse self-love. Vice rules all, from the miser's papered window to the profligate's arena alternating between the lazar-house and the gaol, and so universal is its sway, so omnipotent its influence, that even to correct it we must employ itself,-match cunning against cunning, and, as Shakspeare says,—

"Virtue of vice must oft-times pardon beg,

For leave to do it good!

UPON a time a neighing Steed,

Who grazed among a numerous breed,
With mutiny had fired the train,
And spread dissension through the plain.
On matters that concern'd the state
The Council met in grand debate.
A Colt, whose eyeballs flamed with ire,
Elate with strength and youthful fire,

In haste stept forth before the rest,
And thus the listening throng addrest:
"Good gods! how abject is our race,
Condemn'd to slavery and disgrace!
Shall we our servitude retain,

Because our sires have borne the chain?

Consider, friends, your strength and might;
'Tis conquest to assert your right.
How cumbrous is the gilded coach!
The pride of man is our reproach.
Were we design'd for daily toil,

To drag the ploughshare through the soil,
To sweat in harness through the road,

To

groan beneath the carrier's load?
How feeble are the two-legged kind!
What force is in our nerves combined!
Shall then our nobler jaws submit
To foam and champ the galling bit?
Shall haughty man my back bestride?
Shall the sharp spur provoke my side?
Forbid it heavens! Reject the rein;
Your shame, your infamy, disdain.
Let him the lion first control,
And still the tiger's famish'd growl.
Let us, like them, our freedom claim,
And make him tremble at our name."
A general nod approved the cause,
And all the circle neigh'd applause.1

When, lo! with grave and solemn pace,

A Steed advanced before the race,

(1) An application to human vanity, however fallacious, never fails of popular applause, e.g. addresses of mob-orator, passim.

With age and long experience wise;
Around he cast his thoughtful eyes,
And, to the murmurs of the train,
Thus spoke the Nestor of the plain:1
"When I had health and strength, like you,
The toils of servitude I knew;

Now grateful man rewards my pains,
And gives me all these wide domains.
At will, I crop the year's increase;
My latter life is rest and peace.
I grant to man we lend our pains,
And aid him to correct the plains;
But doth not he divide the care,
Through all the labours of the year?
How many thousand structures rise,
To fence us from inclement skies!
For us he bears the sultry day,
And stores up all our winter's hay;
He sows, he reaps the harvest's gain;
We share the toil, and share the grain.
Since every creature was decreed
To aid each other's mutual need,
Appease your discontented mind,
And act the part by Heaven assign'd."

The tumult ceased. The Colt submitted;
And, like his ancestors, was bitted. 2

(1) "Ille regit dictis animos et pectora mulcet."-VIRG.

(2) This fable in effect resembles that of the belly and the members, said to have been delivered by Menenius Agrippa, to appease a popular clamour, when, in consequence of the great expense of war, the multitude refused further taxation. (Liv. ii. 32). Its object generally is to instil contentment in all members of a community by representing that however worthless or burdensome, the upper classes or ruling body, may appear, yet their maintenance is necessary for