AN ENIGMA. A NEEDLE Small, as small can be, Nor is my purchase dear! Yet though but little use we boast, Nor few artificers it asks, All skilful in their sev'ral tasks, One fuses metal o'er the fire, The shears another plies, Who clips in lengths the brazen thread A fifth prepares, exact and round, And with his mallet and his file Now therefore, Edipus! declare At last produces !—tell me true, PASSERES INDIGENÆ COL. TRIN. CANT. COMMENSALES. INCOLA qui norit sedes, aut viserit hasce Newtoni egregii quas celebravit honos; Viditque et meminit, lætus fortasse videndo, Quam multa ad mensas advolitarit avis. Ille nec ignorat, nidos ut, vere ineunte, Tecta per et forulos, et tabulata struat. Ut coram educat teneros ad pabula fœtus, Et pascat micis, quas det amica manus. Convivas quoties campanæ ad prandia pulsus. Convocat, haud epulis certior hopes adest. Continuo jucunda simul vox fertur ad aures, Vicinos passer quisque relinquit agros, Hospitium ad notum properatur ; et ordine stantes Expectant panis fragmina quisque sua. Hos tamen, hos omnes, vix uno largior asse Sumptus per totam pascit alitque diem. Hunc unum, hunc modicum (nec quisquam invidorit assem) Indigenæ, hospitii jure, merentur aves SPARROWS SELF-DOMESTICATED IN TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE. NONE ever shar'd the social feast, Hopping and chirping, close at hand, A single doit would overpay Th' expenditure of every day, And who can grudge so small a grace NULLI TE FACIAS NIMIS SODALEM PALPAT heram felis, gremic recumbans in anili; Nec gravibus multis excutit absque minis: FAMILIARITY DANGEROUS. As in her ancient mistress' lap, The youthful tabby lay, But strife ensues. Puss waxes warm, At once, resentful of the deed, She shakes her to the ground With many a threat, that she shall bleed But, Lydia, bid thy fury rest, For she that will with kittens jest, Should bear a kitten's joke. AD RUBECULAM INVITATIO. IIOSPES avis, conviva domo gratissima cuivis, Quam bruma humanam quærere cogit opem Huc O hyberni fugias ut frigora cœli, Confuge, et incolumis sub lare vive meo! Unde tuam esuriem releves, alimenta fenestræ Apponam, quoties itque reditque dies Usu etenim edidici, quod grato alimenta rependes Cantu, quæ dederit cunque benigna manus. Vere novo tepidæ spirant cum molliter auræ, Et novus in quavis arbore vernat honos, Læta quibus resonat Musica parque tuæ ! Pabula, quæ dederit cunque benigna manus Captat, et incantat blando oblectamine Musa Humanum pariter pennigerumque genus; Nos homines et aves quotcunque animantia vivunt Nos soli harmoniæ gens studiosa sumus VOL. III. 23 |