We bask in friendship's beam, And when malignant cares assail, And fortune's fickle favours fail, We find 'tis but a dream!

We search for idle joy; Intemp'rance leads to sure decay, The brightest prospects fade away, The sweetest soonest cloy.

How frail is beauty's bloom! The dimpled cheek-the sparkling eye, Scarce seen, before their wonders fly To decorate a tomb!

Then since this fleeting breath

Is but the zephyr of a day,

Let conscience make each minute gay, And brave the shafts of death!

And let the gen'rous mind, With pity view the erring throng, Applaud the right, forgive the wrong, And feel for all mankind.

For who, alas! shall say, "To-morrow's sun shall warmer glow, And o'er this gloomy vale of woe

Diffuse a brighter ray."

INGRATITUDE OF THE GREAT.

"To starve and hope; or, like cameleons, fare
On ministerial faith, which means but air.”

SAVAGE.

ALL the great are not great Lords, but they all have the same faults, with very little exception; and that of believing that all things are subservient to them, is not the least common among them Hence the ingratitude with which they usually pay for the services done them. The profound sentiment of their importance, cleaving to them all, makes them in reality believe, that they do honour to their inferiors in admitting them to their acquaintance, (even when they have need of them,) and this distinction they expect will compensate. for every sacrifice.

There was one of these with whom I passed much of my life. I had opportunities to render him very considerable services, whose value could not be es-timated in gold, of which, however, he offered me some, though with moderation enough, and which I constantly refused. His credit at court furnished him with the means of acknowledging my services in a manner more delicate,. more worthy of his own rank, and more useful to me; he neglected these. One day, he said to me in great secrecy, "Mr. Dyou know I do not like Mr. (he had lived many years in his service and confidence). I have asked.

for a place for him, to get handsomely rid of him.” It will be easily supposed that I did not say all E thought of this confidence.

Another great man, charged with an important affair, obtained permission from the court to name me his deputy, that he might have nothing to do. The business occupied me fully for eighteen months, during which I received no salary from my principal although his was very great. When I had finished the affair, the secretary of state, in whose department it was, said to me, "We are much pleased with you: we wish you to be so with us: name a sum for your recompence, and I will speak to the king." I replied I wished for no more than my expenditure during the time, which amounted to 500-" That is not sufficient," returned the minister, " demand1000l. and come back in three days." Extremely gratified with the transaction, I communicated the news to my principal. What did he do? He hastened to the minister, assured him that 500l. was sufficient for the service, that I was very moderate, and would be well satisfied with that sum. Though I felt all the meanness of this proceeding, yet I never gave reason to Lord *** to think that I was informed of it.

Although rather confined to a circumscribed sphere, fortune once threw in my way an opportunity, which I did not neglect, of rendering a pleasing service to a nobleman of distinguished rank. Fiveyears afterwards this nobleman became prime minister. I repeatedly left my name at his door. I

addressed myself to him by letter and called again; but still no answer or admission. When he ceased to be at the head of affairs he often walked about the streets of London, and visited the booksellers' shops. I frequently met him; and I must do him the justice to say, he always did me the honour to take off his hat; and sometimes favoured me with the salutation of "How do you do?" never failing to say how happy he was to find me in good health, Nearly fifteen years thus elapsed, when he had once more occasion for my services; and invited me to dine with him but the object he had desired being accomplished, we immediately returned to our accustomed civilities of the hat, and passing compliments in the street. I avoid mentioning the nature of the services I rendered this nobleman. I could relate many other traits of ingratitude as remarkable as these I have already cited, but I forbear to dwell any longer on so disagreeable a subject..

ORIGIN OF SHAKSPEARE'S JUBILEE.

"Come, each Muse, and sister Grace,
Loves and Pleasure hither come;

Well you know this happy place,

Avon's banks were once your own."

GARRICK'S ODE,

SOME time previously to the celebration of this jubilee, a certain clergyman had purchased a pro

perty in and about the town of Stratford, in which the house and grounds where Shakspeare resided were included. In the garden belonging to this house was a remarkable mulberry tree, planted' by Shakspeare's own hands, and which the inhabitants looked up to with a kind of religious veneration. The purchaser, however, finding this tree overshadowed his house, and neither dreading the wrath of the offended Muses, nor himself possessing any reverence for our great dramatic bard, one unlucky night most sacrilegiously cut it down.

The alarm of this atrocious deed soon spread throughout the town and the adjacent village. Not the extinction of the vestal fire at old Rome; nor the stealing of the Palladium from Troy, could have struck with more grief and astonishment the ancient inhabitants of those places respectively, than were now occasioned in the neighbourhood in question. The nien, women, and children, of the town of Stratford, gathered round the house in successive crowds, beheld the fallen tree with sighs and tears, and almost vowed to sacrifice the offender to the injured manes of the immortal planter. In short, such a tumultuous spirit of revenge was excited, that the culprit very prudently quitted the town at once; and the inhabitants came to a resolution, "never more to admit any of the same family, or even of the same name, to reside among them."

The mulberry tree was instantly purchased by a carpenter in the neighbourhood, who cut it up, and retailed it, in relics of various shapes; as stand