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joie et de tendresse Remplir tous ses instans: Eh gai! c'est la sagesse Du gros Roger-Bontemps. Dire au ciel: Je me fie, Mon pere, a ta bonte; De ma philosophie Pardonne le gaite; Que ma saison derniere Soit encore un printemps; Eh gai! c'est la priere Du gros Roger-Bontemps. Vous pauvres pleins d'envie, Vous riches desireux, Vous, dont le char devie Apres un cours heureux; Vous qui perdrez peut-etre Des titres eclatans, Eh gai! prenez pour maitre Le gros Roger-Bontemps. JOLLY JACK. When fierce political debate Throughout the isle was storming, And Rads attacked the throne and state, And Tories the reforming, To calm the furious rage of each, And right the land demented, Heaven sent us Jolly Jack, to teach The way to be contented. Jack's bed was straw, 'twas warm and soft, His chair, a three-legged stool; His broken jug was emptied oft, Yet, somehow, always full. His mistress' portrait decked the wall, His mirror had a crack; Yet, gay and glad, though this was all His wealth, lived Jolly Jack. To give advice to avarice, Teach pride its mean condition, And preach good sense to dull pretence, Was honest Jack's high mission. Our simple statesman found his rule Of moral in the flagon, And held his philosophic school Beneath the "George and Dragon." When village Solons cursed the Lords, And called the malt-tax sinful, Jack heeded not their angry words, But smiled and drank his skinful. And when men wasted health and life, In search of rank and riches, Jack marked aloof the paltry strife, And wore his threadbare breeches. "I enter not the church," he said, "But I'll not seek to rob it;" So worthy Jack Joe Miller read, While others studied Cobbett. His talk it was of feast and fun; His guide the Almanack; From youth to age thus gayly run The life of Jolly Jack. And when Jack prayed, as oft he would, He humbly thanked his Maker; "I am," said he, "O Father good! Nor Catholic nor Quaker: Give each his creed, let each proclaim His catalogue of curses; I trust in Thee, and not in them, In Thee, and in Thy mercies! "Forgive me if, midst all Thy works, No hint I see of damning; And think there's faith among the Turks, And hope for e'en the Brahmin. Harmless my mind is, and my mi
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