One great amusement of our household was,
In a huge crystal magic globe to spy,
Still as you turn'd it, all things that do pafs
Upon this ant-hill earth, where conftantly
Of idly-bufy men the restless fry

Run bustling to and fro, with foolish hafte,
In fearch of pleasures vain that from them fly,
Or, which obtain'd, the caitiffs dare not taste;
When nothing is enjoy'd, can there be greater waste?
Of vanity the mirror, this was call'd;

Here you a muck-worm of the town might fee
At his dull desk, amid his ledgers ftall'd,
Ate up with casking care and penury,

Moft like to carcafe parch'd on gallow tree,
"A penny faved is a penny got ;"
Firm to this fcoundrel maxim keepeth he,
Nor of its rigour will he bate a jot,

Till it has quench'd his fire and banished his pot.
This globe pourtray'd the race of learned men,
Still at their books, and turning o'er the page
Backwards and forwards-oft they fnatch'd the pen,
As if infpir'd, and in a Thefpian rage,

Then write and blot, as would your ruth engage.
Why, authors all this fcrawl and fcribbling fore?
To lofe the prefent, gain the future age;

Praised to be when you can hear no more,

And much enrich'd with fame-when ufelefs worldly ftore?"

Other characters are here exhibited by the poet with equal grace and fimplicity, and the canto concludes with a terrible lift of the difeafes to which the fons of Indolence are fubjected. The mind and body become debilitated, and their pains are only cured by their disfolution !

The Second Canto of this charming poem enumerates, in all the glowing colours of a rich and variegated fancy, the advantages of induftry, and we recommend ftrongly the perufal of it to the rising generation.

In the following ftanza the author of the Seafons beams forth with renovated luftre.

VOL. VII.

Ff

I care

"I care not fortune! what you me deny,
You cannot rob me of free nature's grace;
You cannot shut the windows of the sky,
Thro' which Aurora fhews her brightening face,
You cannot bar my conftant feet to trace
The woods and lawns, by living stream at eve;
Let health my nerves and finer fibres brace,
And I their toys to the great children leave;

Of fancy, reafon, virtue, nought can me bereave."

The poet then proceeds to the perfonification of Induftry, with a reference to Great Britain. The lines are peculiarly beautiful and expreffive, but our limits forbid the tranfcription of them.

We close this paper by introducing three ftanzas, the fentiments of which cannot be too strongly inculcated on the minds of our young readers.

"It was not by vile loitering in ease,

That Greece obtain'd the brighter palm of art;
That foft, yet ardent Athens, learn'd to please,
To keen the wit and to fublime the heart,
In all fupreme, complete in every part;
It was not thence majestic Rome arofe,
And o'er the nations thook her conquering dart;
For fluggards' brow the laurel never grows,
Renown is not the child of indolent repose.

Had unambitious mortals minded nought,
But in loofe joy their time to wear away;
Had they alone the lap of dalliance fought,
Pleas'd on her pillow their dull heads to lay,
Rude nature's state had been our state to day.
No cities e'er their towery fronts had rais'd,
No arts had made us opulent and gay,

With brother brutes the human race had graz'd,
None ere had foar'd to fame, none honour'd been, none
prais'd.

Would you then learn to diffipate the band
Of these huge, threatening, difficulties dire,
That in the weak man's way like lions ftand,
His foul appal, and damp his rifing fire?
RESOLVE, RESOLVE, and to be мEN aspire.

Exert

Exert that nobleft privilege alone,

Here to mankind indulged-coNTROUL defire,
Let godlike REASON, from her fovereign throne,
Speak the commanding word—I WILL, and IT IS
DONE!"

Upon this beautiful poem, the Cafile of Indolence, any additional encomiums, after fuch copious extracts, will be unneceffary. To the reader of fenfibility this emanation of Thomfon's genius will be always accepta-, ble, and will be ever perufed with increafing fatisfac

tion.

R

GOSSIPIANA.
[No. XXXII.]

MR. DUNDAS

IDING from his hunting feat, in Strathern, to vifit the Duke of Athol, at Blair, stopped at the inn. Accofting Mifs M'Laren with his ufual gallantry, and beftowing high and juft praifes on her beauty, he faid" he was furprifed that fo fine a girl had not got a husband." "Sir," replied fhe, "my marriage depends on you." "On me, how fo?" "There is," the answered," a young gentleman to whom I am under promife of marriage, as foon as circumftances will permit. He has been in the shipping fervice of the Eaft India Company, and wishes to procure a fettlement in Bengal, as an intimate friend of his, Mr. Dick, married to my eldest fifter, is one of the principal furgeons in Calcutta, and would have it in his power very effectually to ferve him in his bufinefs." Mr. Dundas having, on enquiry, found that Mr. M'Noble (the gentleman in queftion) was a man of merit and profeffional fkili, on his return to London fent him permiffion to go to India. The marriage was concluded-foon after they failed, and are now established at Patna.

DR. GALE,

WHO died Dean of York, 1702, was a man of great erudition, and published several valuable works. He was the author of the inscriptions on the monument, for which he was rewarded with a piece of plate, by the corporation of London. That part of the infcription which afcribes the fire to the papifts, has long ago been found to be false, and therefore ought not to have been thus perpetuated. To this falfity Pope alludes in these curious lines

Where London's lofty column to the skies,
Like a tall bully lifts its head and lies!

EXTENDED EMPIRE.

Extended empire, like expanded gold,
Exchanges folid ftrength for feeble splendor."

LORD ORFORD

SAYS, in his pofthumous works, that the infatuation of a nation for a foolish minifter, is like that of a lover for an ugly woman, when once he opens his eyes he wonders what the d-1 has bewitched him!"

DR. YOUNG, AUTHOR OF THE NIGHT THOUGHTS.

THE Doctor walking in the garden at Welwyn (of which he was rector) in company with two ladies, one of whom was Lady Elizabeth Lee, to whom he was afterwards married, a fervant came to tell him a gen、 tleman wished to speak with him. "Tell him," fays Young, "I am too happily engaged to change my fituation." The ladies infifted upon it he fhould go, as his vifitor was a man of rank, his patron and his friend. As perfuafion had no effect, one took him by the right arm the other by the left, and led him to the garden gate, when finding refiftance was in vain, he bowed, laid his hand upon his heart, and in a moft expreffive manner spoke the following lines:

Thus

Thus Adam look'd, when from the garden driven,
And thus difputed orders fent from heaven;
Like him I go, and yet to go am loth;
Like him I go, for angels drove us both;
Hard was his fate, but mine ftill more unkind,
His Eve went with him—but MINE ftays behind.

THE KIRMOND CRIPPLE.

THOMAS Roberts was born of indigent parents at Kirmond, in the county of Lincoln, where he died the 16th of May, 1798, aged 85. This extraordinary perfon was, if we may fo term it, a lufus naturæ; he was perfect to his elbows and knees, but without either arms or legs; above one of his elbows was a fhort bony subftance, like the joint of a thumb, which had fome muf. cular motion, and was of confiderable use to him. Nature compenfated for his want of limbs by giving him a ftrong understanding and good bodily health and spirits. When Sir George Barlow, the laft baronet of that ancient family, rented of Edmund Turner, Efq. the manor and lordship of Kirmond, he kept a pack of hare hounds. Thomas Roberts was his huntfman for many years, and used to ride down the hills, which are remarkably fteep, with fingular courage and dexterity. His turn for horfes was fo great, that on leaving Sir George Barlow's fervice, he became a farrier of confiderable reputation, and indulging in his propenfity to liquor, feldom came home fober from the neighbouring markets. He, however, required no other affiftance from the parish than an habitation, and the keep of a hofe and a cow. What is, perhaps more remarkable, he married three wives. By the firft, who was an elderly woman, he had no children; but by the fecond he left two fons, now in good fituations as farmers fervants, who attended the funeral of their father, and buried him in a decent manner.