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OPPORTUNITY.

HE who bends to himself a joy
Does the wingèd life destroy;

But he who kisses the joy as it flies
Lives in eternity's sunrise.

If you trap the moment before it's ripe,
The tears of repentance you'll certainly wipe;
But if once you let the ripe moment go
You can never wipe off the tears of woe.

SEED SOWING.

'THOU hast a lapful of seed
And this a fair country.
Why dost thou not cast thy seed
And live in it merrily?'

'Shall I cast it on the sand

And turn it into fruitful land?

For on no other ground can I sow my seed

Without tearing up some stinking weed.'

BARREN BLOSSOM.

I FEARED the fury of my wind

Would blight all blossoms fair and true; And my sun it shined and shined,

And my wind it never blew.

But a blossom fair or true

Was not found on any tree;
For all blossoms grew and grew
Fruitless, false, though fair to see.

NIGHT AND DAY.

SILENT, silent Night,

Quench the holy light
Of thy torches bright;

For, possessed of Day,
Thousand spirits stray
That sweet joys betray.

Why should joys be sweet

Used with deceit,

Nor with sorrows meet?

But an honest joy

Doth itself destroy

For a harlot coy.

LOVE AND DECEIT.

LOVE to faults is always blind,
Always is to joy inclin'd,

Lawless, winged and unconfin'd,

And breaks all chains from every mind.

Deceit, to secrecy inclin'd,

Moves lawful, courteous and refin'd,

To everything but interest blind,

And forges fetters for the mind.

There souls of men are bought and sold, And milk-fed infancy, for gold,

And youth to slaughter-houses led,

And beauty, for a bit of bread.

COUPLETS AND FRAGMENTS.

I.

I WALKED abroad on a snowy day,

I asked the soft snow with me to play;

She played and she melted in all her prime;
And the winter called it a dreadful crime.

II.

Abstinence sows sand all over

The ruddy limbs and flaming hair;

But desire gratified

Plants fruits of life and beauty there.

III.

The look of love alarms,

Because 'tis filled with fire,

But the look of soft deceit

Shall win the lover's hire:

Soft deceit and idleness,

These are beauty's sweetest dress.

IV.

To Chloe's breast young Cupid slily stole,

But he crept in at Myra's pocket-hole.

V.

Great things are done when men and mountains meet; These are not done by jostling in the street.

VOL. II.

K

VI.

The errors of a wise man make your rule,
Rather than the perfections of a fool.

VII.

Some people admire the work of a fool,
For it's sure to keep your judgment cool:
It does not reproach you with want of wit;
It is not like a lawyer serving a writ.

VIII.

He's a blockhead who wants a proof of what he can't perceive,

And he's a fool who tries to make such a blockhead

believe.

IX.

If e'er I grow to man's estate,

O give to me a woman's fate.

May I govern all both great and small,

Have the last word, and take the wall!

X.

Her whole life is an epigram-smack, smooth, and nobly penn'd,

Plaited quite neat to catch applause, with a strong noose

at the end.

XI.

To forgive enemies Hayley does pretend,
Who never in his life forgave a friend.

XII.

You say reserve and modesty he has

Whose heart is iron, his head wood, and his face brass.

The fox, the owl, the spider, and the bat

By sweet reserve and modesty grow fat.