LITMIR.BIZ

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agriculture flourish you will see;

      Public instruction is promoted free;

      The arts extended rapidly and wide;

      And these among, in culture and esteem,

      That with which Orpheus tamed the furious pride

      Of forest beasts, and cross’d the Lethe’s stream:

      There all the tales of wonderful effect,

      Of music’s art divine, with which are deck’d

      The ancient Greek and Latin histories,

      No longer will seem fables in your eyes,

      When near you may applaud the loftiness,

      The harmony, and the consonance sublime,

      

      All that in varied symphonies to express

      Has power the greatest master of our time;

      Haydn the great, and merited his fame,

      Whom to embrace I beg you in my name.

       But now the confines of the German land

      I see you leaving, for the distant strand

      Of Britain’s isle your rapid course to take,

      And tour political around to make.

      There in the populous court, whose walls’ long side

      Bathes the deep Thames in current vast and wide,

      A nation’s image will before your eyes

      In all things most extraordinary rise.

      Not rich of old, but happy now we see

      By totally unshackled industry.

      A nation liberal, but ambitious too;

      Phlegmatic, and yet active in its course;

      Ingenuous, but its interests to pursue

      Intent; humane, but haughty; and perforce

      Whate’er it be, the cause it undertakes,

      Just or unjust, defends without remorse,

      And of all fear and danger scorn it makes.

      There with inevitably great surprise,

      What in no other country we may see,

      You will behold to exert their energies

      Men act and speak with perfect liberty.

      The rapid fortune too you will admire

      Which eloquence and valour there acquire;

      Nor power to rob has wealth or noble birth

      The premiums due to learning and to worth.

      You will observe the hive-like multitude

      Of diligent and able islanders,

      Masters of commerce they have well pursued,

      Which ne’er to want or slothfulness defers;

      All in inventions useful occupied,

      In manufactures, roads, schools, arsenals,

      Experiments in books and hospitals,

      And studies of the liberal arts to guide.

      There you will know in fine what may attain

      An education wise; the skilful mode

      Of patriotic teaching, so to train

      Private ambition, that it seek the road

      Of public benefit alone to gain:

      The recompense and acceptation just,

      On which founds learning all its hope and trust;

      And a wise government, whose constant aim

      Is general good, and an eternal fame.

      Midst others my reflections I would fain,

      In some description worthy of the theme,

      (If it were not beyond my powers) explain,

      The varied scenes, enchantment all that seem,

      Which the Parisian court on your return

      Prepares, and offers you surprised to learn.

      

      Polish’d emporium of Europe’s courts,

      The which with noble spectacles invites,

      With public recreations and resorts,

      That give to life its solace and delights;

      Brilliant assemblages! and these among,

      The chief and most acceptable to gain,

      Of all to this new Athens that belong,

      To enjoy the fellowship of learned men;

      With useful science, or with taste alone,

      Who enlighten foreign nations, and their own.

      But I, who from this narrow corner write,

      In solitude, while shaking off the dust

      From military archives, ill recite

      What I, O travelling Secretary! trust

      Yourself will better practically see,

      Whilst I can only know in theory.

      Continue then your journey on in health;

      From tongue to tongue, from land to land proceed:

      To be a statesman eminent your meed.

      Acquire each day with joy your stores of wealth,

      Of merit and instruction; I the while,

      As fits my mediocrity obscure,

      Will sing the praise of quiet from turmoil;

       Saying, as Seneca has said of yore;—

      “Let him, who power or honours would attain,

      On the high court’s steep precipice remain.

      

      I wish for peace, that solitude bestows,

      Secluse to enjoy the blessings of repose.

      To pass my life in silence be my fate,

      Unnoticed by the noble, or the great:

      That when my age, without vain noise or show,

      Has reach’d the bounds allotted us below,

      Though a plebeian only to pass by,

      Perhaps I yet an aged man may die.

      And this I do believe, no death of all

      Than his more cruel can a man befall,

      Who dying, by the world too truly known,

      Is of himself most ignorant alone.”

       FABLES.

      THE BEAR, THE MONKEY AND THE HOG.

      A Bear, with whom a Piedmontese

      A

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