[381] Mr. T. Gosling, in the Gent. Mag. Sept. 1790.
[382] The Philosophy of Nature.
THE PEARL.
A Persian Fable.
Imitated from the Latin of Sir W. Jones.
Whoe’er his merit underrates,
The worth which he disclaims creates.
It chanc’d a single drop of rain
Fell from a cloud into the main:
Abash’d, dispirited, amaz’d,
At last her modest voice she rais’d:
“Where, and what am I? Woe is me!
What a mere drop in such a sea!”—
An oyster yawning, where she fell,
Entrapp’d the vagrant in his shell;
In that alembic wrought—for he
Was deeply vers’d in alchemy—
This drop became a pearl; and now
Adorns the crown on George’s brow.