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Still shall each returning season
Sufficient for our wishes give ;
For we will live a life of reason,
And that's the only life to live.

Through youth and age in love excelling,
We'll hand in hand together tread;
Sweet-smiling peace shall crown our dwelling,
And babes, sweet-smiling babes, our bed.

How should I love the pretty creatures,
While round my knees they fondly clung;
To see them look their mother's features,
To hear them lisp their mother's tongue.

And when with envy time transported,
Shall think to rob us of our joys,
You'll in your girls again be courted,
And I'll go wooing in my boys.

UNKNOWN.

THE VICAR OF BRAY.

Nichols, in his Select Poems, says that the Song of the Vicar of Bray" was written by a soldier in Colonel Fuller's troop of Dragoons, in the reign of George I."

IN

N good King Charles's golden days,
When loyalty no harm meant,
A zealous high-church-man I was,
And so I got preferment.

To teach my flock I never miss'd,
Kings are by God appointed;
And damn'd are those that do resist,
Or touch the Lord's Anointed.
And this is law, I will maintain,
Until my dying day, sir,

That whatsoever king shall reign,
I'll be the Vicar of Bray, sir.

When Royal James obtain'd the crown,
And popery came in fashion,
The penal laws I hooted down,
And read the Declaration :

The Church of Rome I found would fit

Full well my constitution;
And had become a Jesuit,

But for the Revolution.
And this is law, etc.

When William was our King declar'd,
To ease the nation's grievance,
With this new wind about I steer'd
And swore to him allegiance:

Old principles I did revoke,

Set conscience at a distance ;*
Passive obedience was a joke,
A jest was non-resistance.
And this is law, etc.

When gracious Anne became our queen,
The Church of England's glory,
Another face of things was seen,
And I became a tory!

Occasional conformists base,

I damn'd their moderation;

And thought the church in danger was,

By such prevarication.

And this is law, etc.

When George in pudding-time came o'er, And moderate men looked big, sir,

I turn'd a cat-in-pan once more,

And so became a whig, sir,

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While they can keep possession: For in my faith and loyalty,

I never more will faulter,

And George my lawful king shall be
Until the times do alter.

And this is law, I will maintain,
Until my dying day, sir,
That whatsoever king shall reign,
I'll be the Vicar of Bray, sir.

MY GRANDMOTHER.

(SUGGESTED BY A PICTURE BY MR. ROMNEY.)

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