Prescribes her duties, or directs her choice;

Yet, timely provident, she hastes away

To snatch the blessings of a plenteous day;

When fruitful Summer loads the teeming plain,

She crops the harvest, and she stores the grain.

How long shall sloth usurp thy useless hours,

Unnerve thy vigour, and enchain thy powers?

While artful shades thy downy couch enclose,

And soft solicitation courts repose,

Amidst the drowsy charms of dull delight,

Year chases year with unremitted flight,

Till Want now following, fraudulent and slow,

Shall spring to seize thee, like an ambush’d foe.

From this hubbub of words pass to the original. ‘Go to the Ant, thou Sluggard, consider her ways, and be wise: which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest. How long wilt thou sleep, O Sluggard? when wilt thou arise out of thy sleep? Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep. So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth, and thy want as an armed man.’ Proverbs, chap. vi.

One more quotation, and I have done. It is from Cowper’s Verses supposed to be written by Alexander Selkirk:

Religion! what treasure untold

Resides in that heavenly word!

More precious than silver and gold,

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