The sower’s hopes: their trees o’erladen scarce
Their fruit sustain: no sickness thins the folds:
The finny swarms of ocean crowd the shores,
And all are rich and happy for his sake.
Cowper.
[59] Reflects the father’s face.] Montesquieu remarks: “The people mentioned by Pomponius Mela (the Garamantes) had no other way of discovering the father but by resemblance. Pater est quem nuptiæ demonstrant.” But this uncertain criterion was considered as infallible generally by the ancients.
She whom no conjugal affections bind,
Still on a stranger bends her fickle mind:
But easy to discern the spurious race,
None in the child the father’s features trace.