THE MOUSE IN AN ANNUAL.

Dear Thomas! didst thou never pop
Thy head into a tinman's shop?
There, Thomas, didst thou never see,
-'Tis but by way of simile,-
A squirrel spend his little rage
In jumping round a rolling cage?
The cage, as either side turned up,
Striking a ring of bells at top?

Moved in the orb, pleased with the chimes,

The foolish creature thinks he climbs.
But here, or there, turn wood or wire,

He never gets two inches higher.

So fares it with those merry blades
Who frisk it under Pindus' shades;

In noble songs, and lofty odes,
They tread on stars and talk with gods.
Still dancing in an airy round,

Still pleased with their own verses' sound,
Brought back, how fast soe'er they go,
Always aspiring, always low.

THE ASS AND THE LION.

A CONCEITED ass had once the impudence to bray forth some contemptuous speeches against the lion. The suddenness of the insult, at first raised some emotions of wrath in his breast; but turning his head, and perceiving whence it came, they immediately subsided; and he very sedately walked on, without deigning to honour the contemptible creature, even with so much as an angry word.

THE OAK AND THE SYCAMORE.

A SYCAMORE grew beside an oak; and being not a little elevated by the first warm days in spring, began to shoot forth his leaves apace, and to despise the naked oak for insensibility and want of spirit. The oak, conscious of the superiority of his nature, made this philosophical reply: "Be not, my friend, so much delighted with the first precarious address of every fickle zephyr. Consider, the frosts may yet return; and if thou covetest an equal share with me in all the glories of the rising year, do not afford them an opportunity to nip thy beauties in their bud. For myself, I only wait to see this genial warmth a little confirmed: and whenever that is the case, I shall perhaps display a majesty that will not easily be shaken. But the tree which appears too forward to exult in the first favourable glance of spring, will ever be the readiest to droop beneath the frowns of winter."