Imatges de pàgina
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SECTION XXXVI.

OF FOOLS WHO PROVIDE NOTHING IN

YOUTH TO LIVE IN AGE.

I've learn'd that fearful commenting

Is leaden servitor to dull delay;

Delay leads impotent and snail-pac'd beggary.

THE insect gay, that takes its flight,
'Midst summer's rosy bowers;
And drinks the pearly dews of night,
From bells of nectar'd flowers;

In airy circlets, light and gay,
On golden winglet flies;
Enjoys the solar beams of day,

And in the ev'ning dies.

Thus, oft in fancy's fairy dreams,

Man's gay pursuits subside:

And youth is spent in festive scenes,
Which ne'er for age provide*.

No set of fools require less commiseration than those at present under our review; for, notwithstanding the hourly proofs of the insufficiency of age in every instance which requires animal, and too frequently, mental exertion, we find the impulse of folly counteract each sober dictate of reason; as if by rushing into excess, we were to invigorate the system; and, by dissipating in youth, we hoarded up for age. There is, however, a medium between that over wariness which contaminates the mind with avarice, and the prodigality which beggars him who dissipates; for it has afforded matter for much disquisition, which of the two is most prejudicial, the penurious man, or the spendthrift: and, notwithstanding the ills resulting from the latter, it is, nevertheless, a received opinion, that the former is most inimical to the interests and well being of society. It is the province of every man to remember, that if a duration of life be granted him, he must, of necessity, become old ; and that his youthful powers are not only accorded to him for the present enjoyment, but to ward against the evils of want in future: for he who is incapable of assisting either himself or others, will find but a cold reception from the world; and, like the drone in the hive, be turned adrift, as unworthy the protection of the industrious and the frugal. I shall now relate a fact respecting

For oft o'er penury's sparing board,
When old, the spendthrift sighs;
And mighty man, creation's lord,
A poor ephem'ron dies.

another species of fools, who may be classed under this head, and whose history was as follows.

A man, finding himself possessed of so many hundred pounds, when at the age of forty, took it into his head that he should just live to attain his 64th year; and, under this conviction, he calculated how much would be sufficient for his annual expenditure; which having accomplished, he divided and subdivided his gold into the number of portions, making his last farthing to be gone on the completion of the stipulated age of 64. Now, it so happened, that he not only lived to the above period, but fulfilled his 73d year; consequently, for the last nine years of his existence, being left pennyless, he had recourse to charity; and was never known to fail in attending on London bridge, which was his place of stand, where he appeared with a placard on his breast, whereon he had written these words, "Wrong in my calculation." Which inscription, on account of its singularity, used to attract the attention of passengers, who, on hearing this story from the lips of the self-convicted fool, used to drop their mite, and profit by the instruction.

L'ENVOY OF THE POET.

And does the summer's radiance quite dispel All thought of winter's chilling blast from thee?

Go, brainless dolt, and banish famine fell: Thy lesson learn from the industrious bee.

THE POET'S CHORUS TO FOOLS.

Come, trim the boat, row on each Rara Avis, Crowds flock to man my Stultifera Navis.

SECTION XXXVII.

OF FOOLS WHO ARE IN LOVE.

Amare et sapere vix Deo conceduntur.

THESE stand indeed confess'd for fools in mind, Since they select for guide a child* that's blind;

How shall I find words to convey a just idea of the matchless power and folly of this little blind urchin ? what kingdoms has he not overthrown, what mighty men have not been subjugated to his will! Alexander for his Thais burned the famed city of Persepolis. Marc Antony for Cleopatra, bartered the dominion of the world. Love can transform wisdom into folly, and turn reason into madness: it will make the hundred eyes of Argus as blind as their resemblance on the peacock's tail; or lead in rosy bands the fierce and strong Cyclops famed workmen of the Lemnian Isle; it will burn as fierce in Friezeland as under the line, and animate the breast of stone: it is the unquenchable furnace of the brain, a firebrand in the blood-Woe be unto the man that cherisheth it: for it will engender naught but folly.

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