erious things,
That serve at once for jackets and for wings.
Age, that enfeebles other men's designs,
But heightens thine, and thy free draught refines.
In several ways distinct you make us feel--
_Graceful_ as Raphael, as Watteau _genteel_.
Your lights and shades, as Titianesque, we praise;
And warmly wish you Titian's length of days.

[Footnote 1: Illustrations of the British Novelists.]

[Footnote 2: Peter Wilkins.]

* * * * *

TO A FRIEND ON HIS MARRIAGE.

What makes a happy wedlock? What has fate
Not given to thee in thy well-chosen mate?
Good sense--good humor;--these are trivial things,
Dear M----, that each trite encomiast sings.
But she hath these, and more. A mind exempt
From every low-bred passion, where contempt,
Nor envy, nor detraction, ever found
A harbor yet; an understanding sound;
Just views of right and wrong; perception full
Of the deform'd, and of the beautiful,
In life and manners; wit above her sex,
Which, as a gem, her sprightly converse decks;
Exuberant fancies, prodigal of mirth,
To gladden woodland walk, or winter hearth;
A noble nature, conqueror in the strife
Of conflict with a hard discouraging life,
Strengthening the veins of virtue, past the power
Of those whose days have been one silken hour,
Spoil'd fortune's pamper'd offspring; a keen sense
Alike of benefit, and of offence,
With reconcilement quick, that instant springs
From the charged heart with nimble angel wings;
While grateful feelings, like a signet sign'd
By a strong hand, seemed burn'd into her mind.
If these, dear friend, a dowry can confer
Richer than land, thou hast them all in her;
And beauty, which some hold the chiefest boon,
Is in thy bargain for a make-weight thrown.

* * * * *

[In a leaf of a quarto edition of the "Lives of the Saints, written
in Spanish by the learned and reverend father, Alfonso Villegas,
Divine, of the Order of St. Dominick, set forth in English by John
Heigham, Anno 1630," bought at a Catholic book-shop in Duke Street,
Lincoln's Inn Fields, I found, carefully inserted, a painted flower,
seemingly coeval with the book itself; and did not, for some time,
discover that it opened in the middle, and was the cover to a very
humble draught of a St. Anne, with the Virgin and Child; doubtless
the performance of some poor but pious Catholic, whose meditations