Moral emblems, with aphorisms, adages, and proverbs, of all ages ...

EVERY ONE TO HIS OWN CALLING,
You'll find the Proverb juft and good,
Whate'er the bird in fhape or fize.
Thofe which a hook'd fharp beak have got,
Are for the moft part Birds of Prey,
And bent alone on War, they wot
No note of fong or minftrelfy.
Whene'er near rivers, lake or flood
You chance a flat-beak'd bird to meet,
From groping in the flufh and mud,
Be fure his voice is never fweet.
The birds with longer flute-like beak,
Might more be thought to fong inclin'd,
But in their thrumming note and fhriek,
jl No turn for melody you'll find.
h
I therefore
fay,
as far as fize
And fhape of beak, nor fear
proteft,
That of all birds beneath the fkies,
The little beaks they fing the beft.
JE'en thus among mankind, we fee,
I- God gives the little now and then,
Z '.
^
! A
Which
talent rare and quality
He gives not to bigger men.
Of little beaks, what bird like he
Which night-thro' fings in wood and dale ?
That feather'd Soul of Harmony,
That little beak, the Nightingale !
And would you feek a tuneful throat,
You'll find throughout the feather'd throng,
The greater beak the harfher note,
The fmaller beak the fweeter fong.
As with the Fowls of earth and air,
Not fo with Man he hath no beak,
But in his mouth beyond compare
The nobler Godlike power to fpeak !
And when he fpeaks in fpirit kind,
What note of bird more foftly fweet
To breathe the mufic of the mind,
When kindred hearts and fpirits meet !
ANVD THE OX TO THE PLOUGH.
214