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'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,

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;
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 him-
self immortal.

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.

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,
grave.

we drop it in their

ALLAN RAMSAY.

1686-1758.

[ALLAN RAMSAY was born in 1686, in Lanarkshire. His father was the manager of Lord Hopetoun's lead mines, but his great-grandfather was younger son of a "laird of Cockpen," and nephew of Ramsay of Dalhousie, and he took pride in his descent from this ancient stock. He was apprenticed as a boy to a wig-maker, but passed from writing poetry and editing poetical collections into being a bookseller. His earliest efforts were circulated among his "cronies" in MS., and sold by himself to the public in penny broad sheets. In 1716 he published an edition of Christ's Kirk on the Green, with a second canto of his own composition, and soon after, another edition with a third new canto. In 1719 he published a collection of Scots Songs; in 1721 a collection of his own poems in quarto; in 1722 his Fables and Tales and his Tale of Three Bonnets; in 1723 his Fair Assembly; in 1724 a poem on Health; in the same year miscellaneous collections entitled The Tea-Table Miscellany, and The Evergreen; and in 1725 the work with which chiefly his fame is associated, The Gentle Shepherd. He died in 1758.]

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JENNY.

But what if some young giglit on the green

With dimpled cheek and twa bewitching een,

Should gar your Patie think his halfworn Meg

And her ken'd kisses, hardly worth a feg?

PEGGY.

Nae mair of that. Dear Jenny, to be free,

There's some men constanter in love than we.

Nor is the ferly 2 great, when nature kind

Has blest them with solidity of mind; They'll reason calmly and with kindness smile,

When our short passions wad our peace beguile.

Sae, whensoe'er they slight their maiks3 at hame,

'Tis ten to ane their wives are maist to blame.

Then I'll employ with pleasure a' my

art

To keep him cheerfu', and secure his heart.

At e'en, when he comes weary frae the hill,

I'll have a' things made ready to his will; In winter, when he toils thro' wind and rain,

A bleezing-ingle and a clean hearthstane;

And soon as he flings by his plaid and and staff,

The seething pots be ready to take aff; Clean hagabag I'll spread upon his board,

And serve him with the best we can afford;

Good-humor and white bigonets * shall

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And dosens1 down to nane, as fowk grow auld.

PEGGY.

But we'll grow auld together, and ne'er find

The loss of youth, where love grows on

the mind.

Bairns and their bairns make sure a firmer tie

Than aught in love the like of us can spy.

See yon twa elms that grow up side by side,

Suppose them some years syne bridegroom and bride;

Nearer and nearer ilka year they've prest,

Till wide their spreading branches are increas'd,

And in their mixture now are fully blest : This shields the other frae the eastlin blast,

That in return defends it frae the wast. Sic as stand single (a state sae liked by you),

Beneath ilk storm frae every airt2 maun bow.

JENNY.

I've done. I yield dear lassie, I maun yield;

Your better sense has fairly won the field,
With the assistance of a little fae
Lies dern'd within my breast this mony
a day.

PATIE AND PEGGY.
PATIE.

By the delicious warmness of thy mouth And rowing eye, which smiling tells the truth,

I guess, my lassie, that, as well as I, You're made for love, and why should ye deny?

PEGGY.

L'ut ken ye, lad, gin we confess o'er

soon,

We think us cheap, and syne the wooing's done :

dwindles. 2 quarter. 3 hidden. 4 rolling.

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[JOHN GAY was born near Barnstaple in 1688. Fairly educated, he began life in London as a silk-mercer; but soon relinquished that occupation for literature. His first poem was Rural Sports, a Georgic "inscribed to Mr. Pope," 1713. In the following year he produced The Shepherd's Week, a set of six pastorals. His principal remaining works are the farce of The What-d'ye Call-it, 1715; the mock-heroic poem of Trivia, or the Art of Walking the Streets of London, 1716; Fables, 1726-38; and the famous Beggar's Opera, 1728. His Poems on Several Occasions, including the pastoral tragedy of Dione, were published in 1720. He was also concerned in, and bore the blame of, the unlucky comedy of Three Hours after Marriage, to which Pope and Arbuthnot had largely contributed. He died in London in December, 1732.]

THE PERSIAN, THE SUN, AND | The day with sudden darkness hung;

THE CLOUD.

Is there a bard whom genius fires,
Whose every thought the god inspires?
When Envy reads the nervous lines,
She frets, she rails, she raves, she pines;
Her hissing snakes with venom swell,
She calls her venal train from hell;
The servile fiends her nod obey,
And all Curll's authors are in pay.
Fame calls up Calumny and Spite;
Thus Shadow owes its birth to Light.
As prostrate to the god of day
With heart devout a Persian lay,
His invocation thus begun :
"Parent of light, all-seeing sun,
Prolific beam, whose rays dispense
The various gifts of Providence,
Accept our praise, our daily prayer,
Smile on our fields, and bless the year."
A Cloud, who mock'd his grateful
tongue,

With pride and envy swell'd, aloud
A voice thus thunder'd from the cloud:
"Weak is this gaudy god of thine,
Whom I at will forbid to shine.
Shall I nor vows nor incense know?
Where praise is due, the praise be-
stow."

With fervent zeal the Persian moved,
Thus the proud calumny reproved:

"It was that God who claims my

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BLACK-EYED SUSAN.

ALL in the Downs the fleet was moor'd, The streamers waving in the wind, When black-eyed Susan came on board, "Oh, where shall I my true-love find? Tell me, ye jovial sailors, tell me true, Does my sweet William sail among your crew?"

William, who high upon the yard

Rock'd by the billows to and fro, Soon as the well-known voice he heard, He sigh'd and cast his eyes below; The cord flies swiftly through his glowing hands,

And quick as lightning on the deck he stands.

"O Susan, Susan, lovely dear,

My vows shall always true remain, Let me kiss off that falling tear, We only part to meet again;

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"Believe not what the landsmen say, Who tempt with doubts thy constant mind;

They tell thee sailors, when away,

In every port a mistress find;

Yes, yes, believe them when they tel
you so,

For thou art present wheresoe'er I go."
The boatswain gave the dreadful word,

The sails their swelling bosoms spread;
No longer she must stay on board,

They kiss'd, she sigh'd, he hung his head:

Her lessening boat unwilling rows to land,

"Adieu!" she cried, and wav'd her lily hand.

ALEXANDER POPE.

1688-1744.

[ALEXANDER POPE was born in Lombard Street, in the city of London, 1688. His father was a wholesale linen-draper, who, having realized a modest competence, retired to the country to live upon it. Pope's youth was spent at Binfield in the skirts of Windsor Forest. Pope was brought up a Catholic, his father, though the son of a beneficed clergyman of the Established Church, having become a convert to Catholicism during a residence on the continent. On the death of his father, Pope, who had largely increased his inheritance by the profits of his translation of Homer, established himself at Twickenham. Here he resided till his death, in 1744, employing himself in writing, in embellishing his grounds, of five acres, and in intercourse with most of the wits, and other famous men and women of his time, among whom Gay, Swift, Arbuthnot, and Lord Bolingbroke were his especial intimates. Pope was deformed, and sickly from childhood, and his constant ill-health made his temper fretful, waspish, and irritable. Notwithstanding these defects of character he secured the warm attachment of his friends. Bolingbroke said of him that he never knew a man who had so tender a heart for his particular friends. Warburton, after spending a fortnight at Twickenham, said of him, "He is as good a companion as a poet, and, what is more, appears to be as good a man." Pope's principal works are: Pastorals, published in 1709; Essay on Criticism, 1711; Pollio, 1712; Rape of the Lock, 1714; Translation of Homer's Iliad, 1715-18; Edition of Shakespeare, 1725; Translation of Homer's Odyssey, 1726; Dunciad, 1st form, 1728; Epistle to the Earl of Burlington, 1731; On the Use of Riches, 1732; Essay on Man, Part 1, 1732; Horace, Sat. 2. 1. imitated, 1733; Epistle to Lord Cobham, 1733; Epistle to Arbuthnot, 1735; Horace, Epistle 1. 1. imitated, 1737; Dunciad, altered and enlarged, 1742. His works were collected by his literary executor, Bishop Warburton, and published in nine volumes in 1751.]

FROM THE "ESSAY ON CRITI-
CISM."

SOME to Conceit alone their taste con-
fine,

And glitt'ring thoughts struck out at ev'ry line;

Pleas'd with a work where nothing's just or fit;

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