“Oh, Sir,” said William, “the song is not worth your hearing.”
G. Why not, it pleases you, so perhaps it may please me. What was it about?
J. It was a song which one of our cousins taught us yesterday.
G. How does it begin?
William then sang the first verse of a song. It was foolish though not wicked.
G. I am sorry it is not about something better. God has given you a good voice, and a good memory. Cannot you employ them better?
W. Why, Sir, there is no harm in the song. Surely we may sing sometimes.
G. Yes, my boy, singing is as lawful to man as to the lark yonder: but ought not the songs we sing to be different from those of a bird?
J. O, Sir, the birds sing because they are pleased. I do not know that they mean any thing. They sing to amuse themselves.
G. Well, but we have sense and reason which birds have not. Should not our songs be different from theirs?