Happy those who are convinced, so as to be of the general opinion!

66

Ignorance maketh most men go into a party; and shame keepeth them from getting out of it.

"If there were any party entirely composed of honest men, it would certainly prevail; but both the honest men, and the knaves resolve to turn one another off when the business is done. They defame all England; so that nobody can be employed who hath not been branded." E. O. I.

READING MEMORANDUMS.

COMMON Connections, like air or water, blend toge ther, after separation, as uniformly as before; but ties of nature, or of friendship, like flesh and blood, can never unite again, without leaving a cicatrice behind.

The soul renders the countenance the index of the mind; so that we read therein the thoughts which the tongue refuses to reveal.

The real distinction between man and man lies in integrity; an honest servant is a character of more value than one of more exalted rank. "We fhould consider faithful servants as unhappy friends."

Riches often take peace from the mind, but rarely bestow it.

VERSES ON PERUSING AN ACCOUNT OF THE

ARCADIAN SOCIETY AT ROME

For the Bee.

STRANGE to relate! and had such childish toys,
The pow'r Italia's critic sons to please!"

Fit on for a band of lovesick boys,

Or frantic Quixote in his last disease!

Did not these triflers of Arcadia know,

That truth alone can genuine light dispense;
And only screams from nature's fount that flow,
Can please the manly taste of sober sense?

Our Shenstone, led by dreams like these astray,
His Phyllis woo'd, and justly woo'd in vain;
And Milton's self, for pafsion's plaintive lay,

Gave Lycidas, but Fancy's frigid strain.
Of all the sins which e'er Parnafsus curst,
Such affectation, vile, is sure the worst.

London, Dec 20. 1792.

A. T.

SIR,

To the Editor of the Bee.

YOUR inserting the following lines, first printed in the Madras Journal, will oblige

SATURDAY NIGHT.

HAPPY the man, whom fate ne'er doom'd to roam
Beyond the precincts of his peaceful home;
Who knows no terrors of a leeward fhore,

Who never heard the foaming billows roir; .

Nor felt the fury of the whirlwind's blast,

Nor saw the lightning, rend the giddy mast;
Or mountain surges crufh the trembling deck,
And rocks, and quicksands, sick the mangl'd wreck
Yet can he paint the various ills, the woes,
The frantic joys, a seaman only knows.;
When exil'd long, to many a hostile place,
Returned-he meets a partner's fond embrace :
Say then, amidst the ills he's doom'd to bear,
Shall he not prove an hour devoid of care,
A kind oblivious draught,-a festive gleam
So aft I've prov'd, and now my humble theme.

W. S.

The winds all hufh'd, the circling week just past, And Saturn's wish'd for even return'd at last; The jovial crew, their various pleasures seek, Pleasures that come, alas! but once a week. "Now the loud laugh that speaks the vacant mind,” And witticisms, from friend Joe purloin'd, Go on whilst fkill'd in legendary lore, Some tell old tales, by thousands told before, Of witches, fairies, spirits, apparitions, And servant maids who rose to high conditions; Of water spouts just breaking by the bows,

And sharks, five fathoms long, and teeth ten rows;
Of flying Dutchmen, and a monstrous whale,
Swallow'd a long boat rigg'd with mast and sail;
And how a purser, a nefarious dog,

Came to be hang'd-for stopping poor men's grog.j
Whilst all approve, and pray that soon or late,
The self same end may be their purser's fate;
Meanwhile the chorus rapid, loud, and long,
Concludes the burden of each sailor's song;
Songs in praise of Rufsel fam'd at sea,
And gallant Rodney-took the Ville Paris ;
Or of Macbride, a fellow always pleasant.
Or madcap Wallace sometimes disobedient,.
And then set up springing light as air,
Or fore or aft, to dancing quick repair;
Hornpipes and jigs in motley measures meet,
All freth from Wapping or Virginia street,
Where to the "wry neck'd fife" or broken 'tabor,
Our tars are wont to learn in dance to labour,
While the kind fair, to grace the evening, flock
From-Deptford, Greenwich, or from Greenland dock,
Thus glide the evening gambols, jest, and song,
Thus glide the joy-wing'd hours along,

Whilst potent draughts of bumbo grog, and flip,
Regale the thoughtless inmates of the ship.

But now the can, which erst pafs'd swiftly round, Emits a hollow, heart appalling sound;

"The grog is out!" a thirsty seaman cries, "The grog is out," another quick replies;

"Not quite," says Ratling, whilst the can he fhews, To wives and sweethearts! d-me here it goes," Sweethearts and wives!" rejoin the jovial crew, "Our can is out, sweet lovely girls adieu !" Down to their hammocks, part reluctant creep, And " swear a prayer or two❞—and sink to sleepe

A LESSON FROM ADVERSITY. A TALE TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH OF MARMONTEL.

Continued from p. 221.

"BEING arrived at Paris, I distributed his payments. His creditors wanted to know where he was, what he was doing, and what were his resources. Without explaining myself fully, I informed them the opinion I had of his honesty and good faith, and sent them away perfectly satisfied. One day as I was at dinner at my solicitor's, M. Nervin, one of the guests hearing me speak of my journey to Holland, asked me with an ill humoured manner, mixed with contempt, if, in my travels through that country, I had by accident met with one Olion Salvary? As it was easy to see from his look, and the motion of his eyebrow, that the question was made with no good intention, I was upon my guard, and replied, that my expedition into Holland being merely for pleasure, I had not time to inquire after every Frenchman I may have met with; but from my connections there, it would be very easy for me to make inquiries after the person he had named. 'No, (said he,) it is not worth the trouble; he has given me too much plague already to make me interest myself about him. He will have died of misery and fhame, and he will have done well, but he would have done better if he had died before he married my daughter, and before he had ruined himself. Let who will trust to the fine expectations that any young man gives! In eighteen months 50,000 crowns in debt: to conclude flight and disgrace! Ah! Sir, (said he to the solicitor) when you marry your daughter be sure to take every precaution; for an insolvable and dishonourable sonin-law is a rascally piece of furniture.' M. Nervin asked

255 how one so wary and so prudent had not foreseen this misfortune and remedied it. I did foresee it, (replied d'Amene,) and remedied it as much as lay in my power; for the day after the death of my daughter, I made haste, and, thanks to heaven, had the consolation to recover her portion, and all her jewels. But that is all I could save from his wreck; and as for his other creditors, they had scarce any thing to seize on.' It was with difficulty I prevented myself from overwhelming this hard hearted father with confusion; but when he left the room, soon after, perceiving the impression which he had made on the minds of the father and daughter, I could not resist, from indulging the wish of avenging the cause of an honest man absent; and without pointing out his asylum, and saying where he was hid, for that was important to conceal. "You have just heard with what contempt this cruel father speaks of his son-in-law. Well, all that he has told you is perfectly true; and it is not lefs so, that this unfortunate man is honesty and innocence itself." This beginning appeared rather strange to them, and fixed their attention. The father and daughter being quite silent, I began to relate to them what you have just heard. Nervin is one of those uncommon beings that is scarcely conceivable; he has the coollest head and the warmest heart; it is a volcano beneath a mountain of snow. His daughter is of a happy composition, partaking equally of the warmth of the father, and the cool sense of his reason. She is handsome, you have seen her, but so little vain of it, that she hears herself praised without embarrassment, and nearly the same, as if you were speaking of another. She says one may be proud of those qualities, which bave been acquired, and it requires sense and modesty to hide of conquer it; but all praise is due to dame Nature for having given eyes, nose, or mouth, of such a form or figure.