11. "What do you call the twinkling star
Over the spot where you see me tread-
And the beautiful cluster of lights afar,
Ranged in the heavens above my head?
12. "Ah! it is station which swells us all,
At once, to a size that were else unknown!
And now, if ever I hear you call
My race an order beneath your own—
13. "I'll tell the world of this comic scene;
And how will they laugh to hear that I,
Small as you think me, can stand between
You and your view of the spacious sky!"
ADDRESS TO AN OLD WIG.
1. HAIL thou! that liest so snug in this old box;
With awe I bend before thy wood-built shrine!
Oh! 'tis not closed with glue, nor nails, nor locks,
And hence the bliss of viewing thee is mine.
2. Like my poor aunt, thou hast seen better days;
Well curled and powdered, once it was thy lot
Balls to frequent, and masquerades, and plays,
And panoramas, and I know not what!
3. Alas! what art thou now? a mere old mop!
With which our housemaid Nan, who hates a broom, Dusts all the chambers in my little shop,
Then slyly hides thee in this lumber-room.
4. Such is the fate of wigs-and mortals too!
After a few more years than thine are past,
The Turk, the Christian, Pagan, and the Jew,
Must all be shut up in a box at last!
5. Vain man! to talk so loud, and look so big!
How small the difference 'twixt thee-and a wig!
How small, indeed!—for speak the truth I must;
Wigs turns to dusters, and man turns to dust.
THE EMPLOYMENTS OF DEATH.*
1. I BRING down to an equal state
The counselor and the advocate,
The shepherd and the gentleman,
The banker and the citizen,
The mistress and her waiting maid,
The niece, her aunt-a wrinkled jade-
The abbot and the monk so lowly,
The little clerk and canon holy.
I never hesitate, and wonder
What people I shall make my plunder.
2. I take one in his hour of grief;
Another, in a space as brief,
When he is ripe with joy and glee,
Gets a terrible cuff from me.
I take one as he lifts his head,
Another, when he goes to bed;
The well man and the sick I borrow,
The one to-day-the other to-morrow.
3. One, when with sleep his brain is muddy,
Another, in his brownest study;
One, in a gormandizing mood,
Another, famishing for food.
I seize one while he utters prayer,
Another, just about to swear;
*From the New England Magazine; being a translation from the French of Jacques Jacques.
384 OLDHAM'S AMUSING AND INSTRUCTIVE READER.
One, at his table richly spread,
Between the white wine and the red;
Another, in his oratory,
Who gives to God all praise and glory.
4. I frighten one away from life
The very day he gets a wife;
Another, with deep sorrow bowed,
To see his loved one in her shroud.
One a walking, another a prancing,
One a playing, another a dancing;
One who is eating, but never a thinking,
Another, who eats not, but always is drinking;
One, who pays for his purchases quick,
Another, who pays not, but goes upon tick.
5. One, who gathers the golden grain,
That summer strews on the fertile plain;
Another, who reaps the loaded vine,
When autumn sunbeams softly shine;
One, who raises the lusty cry
Of "buy my new Almanacs, come and buy!"
6. Another-but I need not tell
What every hour can witness well.
I take him who by begging lives,
Alike with him who freely gives.
The patient I deprive of motion,
The day he drinks a healing potion;
And, more than all, the doctor dies,
With a huge fee before his eyes!
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