Our honest 'Squire could scarcely sit, But when Sir Wag drew off the Sheath And, to his dying Day, he'd swear MORAL THE FIRST you may discover: MORAL THE SECOND-not so clear; WH THE CLIMACTERIC WHEN do the reasoning Powers decline? At Forty-Nine behoves it then To quit the Inkhorn and the Pen, In that thrice-favoured Northern Land, But chief he taught, by Day and Night, O'er-stepped the Limit now and then, He'd show unanswerably still The Years rolled on, and as they flew, Admirers had not long to wait; The last Book came at Forty-Eight, And should have been the Heart and Soul The Crown and Summit-of the whole. But now the oddest Thing ensued; 'Twas so insufferably crude, So feeble and so poor, 'twas plain The Writer's Mind was on the wane. E'en Friendship's self must hang the head, With fitting mortuary Rhyme A "Short Memoir," the Truth came out. He had been older than he knew. MORAL. To estimate your Worth, |