LONDON LYRICS,
PROVERBS.
My good Aunt Bridget, spite of age,
Versed in Valerian, Dock, and Sage,
Well knew the Virtues of herbs;
But Proverbs gain'd her chief applause,
"Child," she exclaimed, "respect old saws,
And pin your faith on Proverbs."
Thus taught, I dubb'd my lot secure;
And, playing long-rope, "slow and sure,"
Conceived my movement clever;
When lo! an urchin by my side
Push'd me head foremost in, and cried—
"Keep Moving," "Now or Never,"
At Melton, next, I join'd the hunt,
Of bogs and bushes bore the brunt,
Nor once my courser held in;
But when I saw a yawning steep,
I thought of "Look before you leap,"
And curb'd my eager gelding.
While doubtful thus I rein'd my roan,
Willing to save a fractured bone,
Yet fearful of exposure,
A sportsman thus my spirit stirr'd—
"Delays are dangerous;"—I spurr'd
My steed, and leap'd th' enclosure.
I ogled Jane, who heard me say
That "Rome was not built in a day,"
When lo: Sir Fleet O'Grady
Put this, my saw, to sea again,
And proved, by running off with Jane,
"Faint heart ne'er won fair Lady."
Aware "New Brooms sweep clean," I took
An untaught tyro for a cook,
(The tale I tell a fact is)
She spoilt my soup; but, when I chid,
She thus once more my work undid,
"Perfection comes from Practice."
Thus, out of every adage hit,
And, finding that ancestral wit
As changeful as the clime is:
From Proverbs, turning on my heel,
I now cull Wisdom from my seal,
Who's motto's "Ne quid nimis."