become lucrative, (for this is the main speculation,) that we deal with young minds by the gross, and with their education by the hundred, sacrificing individuality to general rules, and stretching or cramping personal mental growth, upon the Procrustean bed, of a prescribed scholastic system. And what is the result? Why, that each really great mind has, after it has left school, to unteach itself habits it ought never to have contracted, and to study subjects it ought there to have learned; and this to the loss of its time, its energy, and its freshness of power, so that he who survives to reach the altitude of distinction, is obliged to confess that his mind has not been justly dealt by, and that he is not what he might have been.

As to the choice of professions, indeed, the case is lamentable. A lawyer, having successfully shorn the public, forces his son to adopt the profitable disgrace which, his soul, more ingenuous, abhors, longing, it may be, for the prosecution of scientific truth; the surgeon gcads on his young lancet, to operations, the latter would rather endure than perform; whilst the bishop, thinking nothing of sacrificing the interests of whole parishes, hurries his infantine prebend into the Church, there to trade for promotion with souls, when the youngster might have conducted a similar, though more honest business, in knocking down lots to the best bidder, as a tolerable auctioneer!

TO A POOR MAN.

CONSIDER man in every sphere,

Then tell me, is your lot severe?
'Tis murmur, discontent, distrust,

That makes you wretched. God is just!

I grant that hunger must be fed,

That toil, too, earns thy daily bread.

What then? Thy wants are seen and known, But every mortal feels his own.

We're born a restless, needy crew:
Show me the happier man than you.

Adam, though blest above his kind,
For want of social woman, pined.
Eve's wants the subtle serpent saw-
Her fickle taste transgress'd the law:
Thus fell our sires, and their disgrace
The curse entail'd on human race.

When Philip's son, by glory led,
Had, o'er the globe, his empire spread;
When altars to his name were dress'd,
That he was man, his tears confess'd.
The hopes of avarice are check'd:
The proud man always wants respect.
What various wants on power attend!
Ambition never gains its end,

Who hath not heard the rich complain
Of surfeits and corporeal pain?

He, barr'd from every use of wealth,
Envies the ploughman's strength and health.
Another, in a beauteous wife
Finds all the miseries of life:
Domestic jars and jealous fear
Imbitter all his days with care.1
This wants an heir-the line is lost:
Why was that vain entail engross'd?
Canst thou discern another's mind?
What is't you envy? Envy's blind.
Tell Envy, when she would annoy,
That thousands want what you enjoy.

(1) The Greek proverb is, that he who marries a beauteous wife, finds her either κοινή or ποινή,

"The dinner must be dish'd at one.
Where's this vexatious Turnspit gone?
Unless the skulking Cur is caught,
The sirloin's spoil'd, and I'm in fault.”
Thus said, (for sure you'll think it fit
That I the Cook-maid's oaths omit,)
With all the fury of a cook,

Her cooler kitchen, Nan forsook.

The broomstick o'er her head she waves;
She sweats, she stamps, she puffs, she raves,
The sneaking Cur before her flies,

She whistles, calls, fair speech she tries:
These nought avail. Her choler burns ;
The fist and cudgel threat by turns:
With hasty stride she presses near;
He slinks aloof, and howls with fear.

"Was ever Cur so cursed!" he cried;
"What star did at my birth preside!
Am I for life by compact bound
To tread the wheel's eternal round?
Inglorious task! of all our race
No slave is half so mean and base.
Had Fate a kinder lot assign'd,
And form'd me of the lap-dog kind,
I then, in higher life employ'd,
Had indolence and ease enjoy'd;
And, like a gentleman, caress'd,
Had been the lady's favourite guest.
Or were
I sprung from spaniel line,

Was his sagacious nostril, mine,

By me, their never-erring guide,

From wood and plain their feasts supplied,

Knights, squires, attendant on my pace,
Had shared the pleasures of the chase.
Endued with native strength and fire,
Why call'd I not the lion, sire?
A lion! such mean views I scorn-
Why was I not of woman born?

Who dares with reason's power contend?
On man, we brutal slaves, depend:
To him, all creatures, tribute pay,
And luxury employs his day."

An Ox by chance o'erheard his moan,
And thus rebuked the lazy drone:

"Dare you at partial Fate repine?

How kind's your lot compared with mine!
Decreed to toil, the barbarous knife
Hath sever'd me from social life;
Urged by the stimulating goad,
I drag the cumbrous waggon's load.
'Tis mine to tame the stubborn plain,
Break the stiff soil, and house the grain;
Yet I without a murmur bear
The various labours of the year.
But then, consider, that one day
(Perhaps the hour's not far away)
You, by the duties of your post,
Shall turn the spit when I'm the roast;
And for reward shall share the feast-
I mean, shall pick my bones at least."

"Till now," th' astonish'd Cur replies, "I look'd on all with envious eyes. How false we judge by what appears! All creatures feel their several cares.