FOR CHILDREN. 225

Forth skipped the cat, not now replete,

As erst, with airy self-conceit,

Nor in her own fond apprehension

A theme for all the world’s attention :

But sober, modest, cured of all

Her notions so fantastical ;

And wishing for her place of rest

Anything rather than a chest.

Then stepped the poet into bed

With this reflection in his head :—
MORAL.

Beware of too sublime a sense
Of your own worth and consequence !
The man who dreams himself so great, .
And his importance of such weight,
That all around in all that’s done,
Must move and act for him alone,
Will learn in school of tribulation,
The folly of his expectation.
Cowper.

REASONS FOR MIRTH.

THE sun is careering in glory and might,

Mid the deep blue sky and the clouds so bright;
The billow is tossing its foam on high,

And the summer breezes go lightly by ;

The air and the water dance, glitter, and play—
And why should not I bu as merry as they ?

The linnet is singing the wild wood through,
The fawn’s bounding footsteps skim over the dew