TO PRIMROSES, FILLED WITH MORNING DEW.

HY do ye weep, sweet babes? Can tears

WHY

Speak grief in you,

Who are but born

Just as the modest morn

Teem'd her refreshing dew?

Alas! you have not known that shower
That mars a flower;

Nor felt the unkind

Breath of a blasting wind;

Nor are ye worn with years;
Or warp'd, as we,

Who think it strange to see

Such pretty flowers, like to orphans young,
To speak by tears before ye have a tongue.

Speak, whimpering younglings! and make known
The reason why

Ye droop and weep.

Is it for want of sleep

Or childish lullaby?

Or that ye have not seen as yet

The violet?

Or brought a kiss

From that sweet heart to this?

No, no; this sorrow shown

By your tears shed,

Would have this lecture read,

"That things of greatest, so of meanest worth,

Conceived with grief are, and with tears brought forth."

-R. HERRICK.

Is there, for honest poverty,

That hangs his head, and a' that?
The coward-slave, we pass him by,
We dare be poor for a' that!
For a' that, and a' that,

Our toil's obscure, and a' that;
The rank is but the guinea-stamp,
The man's the gowd for a' that!

What tho' on hamely fare we dine,
Wear hoddin gray, and a' that;

Gie fools their silks, and knaves their wine,

A man's a man, for a' that!

For a' that, and a' that,

Their tinsel show, and a' that;

The honest man, though e'er sae poor,

Is king o' men for a' that!

Ye see yon birkie, ca'd-a lord,

Wha struts, and stares, and a' that,
Though hundreds worship at his word,
He's but a coof for a' that :
For a' that, and a' that,

His riband, star, and a' that;
The man of independent mind
He looks and laughs at a' that!

A king can mak a belted knight,
A marquis, duke, and a' that;
But an honest man 's aboon his might,
Guid faith he mauna fa' that!

For a' that, and a' that,

Their dignities, and a' that,

The pith o' sense, and pride o' worth,
Are higher ranks than a' that.

Then let us pray that come it may—
As come it will for a' that-

That sense and worth, o'er a' the earth,
May bear the gree, and a' that;

For a' that, and a' that,

It's comin' yet for a' that,

That man to man, the warld o'er,

Shall brothers be for a' that!

-BURNS.

H

I

THE DEATH OF LE FEVRE.

T was some time in the summer of that year in which Dendermond was taken by the allies-which was about seven years before my father came into the country-and about as many after the time that my Uncle Toby and Trim had privately decamped from my father's house in town, in order to lay some of the finest sieges to some of the finest fortified cities in Europe-when my Uncle Toby was one evening getting his supper, with Trim sitting behind him at a small sideboard—I say sitting, for in consideration of the corporal's lame knee (which sometimes gave him exquisite pain)—when my Uncle Toby dined or supped alone, he would never suffer the corporal to stand; and the poor fellow's veneration for his master was such that, with a proper artillery, my Uncle Toby could have taken Dendermond itself, with less trouble than he was able to gain this point over him; for many a time when my Uncle Toby supposed the corporal's leg was at rest, he would look back and detect him standing behind him with the most dutiful respect; this bred more little squabbles betwixt them than all other causes for five and twenty years together. But this is neither here nor there: why do I mention it? Ask my pen; it governs me; I govern not it.

He was one evening thus sitting at his supper, when the landlord of a little inn in the village came into the parlour with an empty phial in his hand, to beg a glass or two of sack. ""Tis for a poor gentleman-I think, of the army," said the landlord-" who has been taken ill at my house four days ago, and has never held up his head since, or had a desire to taste anything, till just now, that he has a fancy for a glass of sack and a thin toast. 'I think,' says he, taking his hand from his forehead, it would comfort me.'

"If I could neither beg, borrow, nor buy such a thing," added the landlord, "I would almost steal it for the poor gentleman, he is so ill. I hope in God he will still mend," continued he; we are all of us concerned for him."

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