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A wise man will hear, and increase learning, and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels: To understand a proverb (a parable) and the interpretation; the words of the wise, and their dark sayings. Prov. c. i, v. 5, 6.

INTRODUCTION.

Long e'er th'Ascréan bard had learnt to sing,
Or Homer's fingers touch'd the speaking string;
Long e'er the supplemental arts had found
Th'embroid'ry of auxiliary sound;
The heav'n-born Muse the paths of nature chose:
Emblems and Fables her whole mind disclose,
Victorious o'er the soul with energy of prose!

True Poetry, like Ophir's gold, endures
All trials, yet its purity secures;
Invert, dis-joint it, change its very name,
The essence of the thoughts remains the same.
Something there is, which endless charms affords;
And stamps the majesty of truth on words.

The Son of Gideon midst Cherizim's snow,
Unskill'd in numbers taught the stream to flow,
With conscious pride disdain'd the aids of art,
And pour'd a full conviction on the heart:
His cedar, fig-tree, and the bry'r convey
The highest notions in the humblest way .

In Nathan's Fable strong and mild conspire,
The suppliant's meekness and the poet's fire:
Till waken'd nature bade the tears to flow,
And David's muse assum'd the voice of woe .

The Wise, All-knowing Saviour of mankind
Mix'd ease with strength, and truth with emblem join'd:
Omniscience, vested with full pow'r to chuse,
O'erlooks the strong, nor does the weak refuse :

Leaves pageantry of means to feebler man,
And builds the noblest, on the plainest plan:
Divine simplicity the work befriends,
And humble causes reach sublimest ends.

True Flame of verse, O SANCTIFYING FIRE !
Warm not my genius, but my heart inspire!
On my cleans'd lips permit the coals to dwell
Which from thy altar on Isaiah fell !
Cancel the world's applause; and give thy grace
To me, the meanest of the tuneful race.
Teach me the words of JESUS to impart
With energy of pow'r, but free from art.
THY emanations light and heat dispense;
To sucklings speech, to children eloquence!—
Like Habakkuk , I copy, not indite;
Tim'rous like him, I tremble whilst I write!

But Jeremiah with new boldness sung,
When inspiration rush'd upon his tongue .
The pow'rs of sacred poesy were giv'n
By Him, that bears the signature of Heav'n .

Hesiod.

Jotham.

See the whole parable, Judg. C. ix, V. 7–21.

On this occasion David composed the 50th psalm.

It is the uniform doctrine of Scripture, “That flight shall perish from the swift, and the strong shall not strengthen his force, neither shall the mighty deliver himself.” Amos C. ii, V. 14.

Rom. C. xv, V. 16. 2 Thess. C. ii, V. 13. 1 Pet. C. i. V. 2.

Isaiah C. vi, V. 6.

Hab. C. ii, V. 2.

Jer. C. i, V. 6, &c. 8, 9.

John C. vi. Ver. 27.

PARABLE.

When vernal show'rs and sunshine had unbound
The frozen bosom of the torpid ground,
When breezes from the western world repair
To wake the flow'rs and vivify the air,
Th'industrious peasant left his early bed,
And o'er the fields his seeds for harvest spread.
With equal hand, and at a distance due,
(Impartially to ev'ry furrow true)
The life-supporting grain he justly threw .

As was the culture, such was the return;
Of weeds a forest, or a grove of corn .
But, where he dealt the gift on grateful soils,
Harvests of industry o'er-paid his toils.

Some seeds by chance on brashy grounds he threw,
And some the winds to flinty head-lands blew:
Sudden they mounted, pre-mature of birth,
But pin'd and sicken'd, unsupply'd with earth:
Whilst burning suns their vital juice exhal'd,
And, as the roots decay'd, the foliage fail'd.

Some seeds he ventur'd on ungrateful lands,
Tough churlish clays, and loose unthrifty sands;
The step-dame soil refus'd a nurse's care:
The plants were sickly, juiceless, pale, and bare.

On trodden paths a casual portion fell:
Condemn'd in scanty penury to dwell,
And half-deny'd the matrix of a cell;
While other seeds, less fortunate than they,
Slept—starv'd and naked on the hard high-way,
From frosts defenceless, and to birds a prey.
Here daws with riotous excesses feed,
And choughs, the cormorants of grain, succeed;
Next wily pigeons take their silent stand,
And sparrows last, the gleaners of the land.

Another portion mock'd the seedsman's toil,
Dispens'd upon a rich, but weedy soil:
Fat unctuous juices gorg'd the rank-fed root;
And plethories of sap produc'd no fruit.
Hence, where the life-supplying grain was spread,
The rav'nous dock uprears its miscreant-head;
Insatiate thistles, tyrants of the plains;
And lurid hemlock, ting'd with pois'nous stains.

What these might spare, th'incroaching thorns demand;
Exhaust earth's virtue, and perplex the land .

At last, of precious grain a chosen share
Was sown on pre-dilected land with care:
[A cultur'd spot, accustom'd to receive
All previous aids that industry can give;]
The well-turn'd soil with auburn brightness shone,
Mellow'd with nitrous air and genial sun:
An harmony of mold, by nature mixt!
Not light as air, nor as a cement fix'd:
Just firm enough t'embrace the thriving root,
Yet give free expanse to the fibrous shoot;
Dilating, when disturb'd by lab'ring hands,
And smelling sweet, when show'rs refresh the lands.
Scarce could the reapers' arms the sheaves contain,
And the full garners swell'd with golden grain;
[Unlike the harvests of degen'rate days,]
One omer sown, one hundred-fold repays:

Rich product, to a bountiful excess;—
Nor ought we more to ask, nor more possess!
The harvest overcomes the reapers' toil:
So feeble is the hind, so strong the soil .

Man's Saviour thus his Parable express'd:
He that hath ears to hear, may feel the rest.

“Bless God, who hath given thee the two Denarii, namely, the Law and the Gospel, in recompense for thy submission and labour.” Chrysost. Hom. in Luc. C. 10.

They that fear the Lord are a sure seed, and they that love him an honourable plant: They that regard not the law, are a dishonourable seed: they that transgress the commandments, are a deceivable seed. Ecclus. C. x, V. 19.

Brasby lands, in an husbandry-sense, signify lands that are dry, shallow, gravelly, and pebbly. Such sort of grounds the old Romans called glareous:

—Jejuna quidem clivosi glarea ruris.
Virg. Georg. II.

See Hosea C. x, V. 4 and 8.

Imbecillior colonus quàm ager. Columella.

INTERPRETATION.

The gift of Knowing is to all men giv'n ;
All know, but few perform, the will of Heav'n;
They hear the sound, but miss the sense convey'd,
And lose the substance, whilst they view the shade.

When specious doctrines hover round a mind
Which is not vitally with Heav'n conjoin'd,

The visionary objects float and pass
Transient as figures, gliding o'er a glass:
Each but a momentary visit makes,
And each supplies the place, the last forsakes.—
Satan for ever fond to be employ'd,
[And changing minds ev'n ask to be destroy'd ,]
Marks well th'infirm of faith; and soon supplies
Phantoms of truth, and substances of lyes:
Killing the dying, he a conquest gains;
And, from a little, steals the poor remains.
Reason, man's guardian, by neglect, or sleep
Loses that castle, he was meant to keep.

The seeds upon a flinty surface cast,
Denote the worldly-wise, who think in haste:

Who change, for changing's sake, from right to wrong,
Constant to nothing, and in nothing long;
To-day they hear the word of God with joy,
To-morrow they the word of God destroy;
Indiff'rent, to assert, or to deny:
With zeal they flatter, and with zeal decry.
Such is the Fool of Wit! who strives with pains
To lose that paradise the peasant gains.—
Whenever adverse fortune choaks the way,
When danger threats, or clouds o'er-cast the day,
This plant of casualty, unfix'd at root,
Shakes with the blast, and casts his unripe fruit;
But, when the storms of poverty arise,
And persecution ev'ry virtue tries,
Mindless of God, and trusting to himself ,
He strands Heav'n's freightage on a dang'rous shelf.

Averse to learn, and more averse to bear,
He sinks, the abject victim of despair!

The men of pow'r and pomp resemble seeds
Sown on rich earth, but choak'd with thorns and weeds.
Religion strikes them, but they shun the thought;
Behold the profit, and yet profit nought.
Heav'n's high rewards they silently contemn,
And think the present world suffices them.
Mean-while ambition leads the soul astray,
Far from its natal walk, th'ethereal way;
Int'rest assassins friendship ev'ry hour,
Truth warps to custom, conscience bends to pow'r,
Till all the cultivating hand receives
Is empty blossom, and death-blasted leaves.
Idiots in judgment; baffled o'er and o'er;
Still the same bait, still circumvented more;
Self-victims of the cunning they adore!

Wise without wisdom, busy to no end;
Man still their foe, and Heav'n itself no friend!

The chosen seed, on cultur'd ground, are they
Who humbly tread the evangelic way.
The road to heav'n is uniform and plain:
All other paths are serpentine and vain.
The true disciple takes the word reveal'd,
Nor rushes on the sanctuary conceal'd,
Whilst empty reas'ners emptiest arts employ;
Nothing they build, and all things they destroy!
The Provident of Heav'n unlocks his store,
To cloathe the naked, and to feed the poor:
To each man gen'rous, and to each man just,
Conscious of a depositary trust.
Patient of censure, yet condemning none:
Placid to all, accountable to One.
Ev'n in prosperity he fears no loss,
Expects a change, and starts not at the Cross.

All injuries by patience he surmounts;
All suff'rings God's own med'cines he accounts :
Studious of good, and penitent for ill,
Still short of grace, yet persevering still;
As just and true as erring nature can,
[For imperfection sets its stamp on man.]
Heav'n marks the saint, her mansions to adorn,
And, having purg'd the chaff, accepts the corn.

“To sin against knowledge is a greater offence than an ignorant trespass; in proportion as a fault, which is capable of no excuse, is more heinous than a fault which admits of a tolerable defence.” J. Mart. Resp. ad Orthod.

“Ignorance will not excuse sin, when it is a sin in itself.” Anon. Vet.

He that is idle tempts Satan to set him to work.” Chrysost. Hom.

Pious Jeremy Taylor once said to a Lady, “Madam, if you do not employ your children, the Devil will.” The Son of Sirach gives also the following advice: “Send thy Son to labour, that he be not idle; for idleness teacheth much evil.” C. xxxiii, V. 27.

“We are all careful about small matters, and negligent in the greatest; of which this is the reason, we know not where true felicity is.” St. Hieron.

The Preacher writes beautifully upon this subject. Ecclus. C. ii.

“My son, if thou come to serve the Lord, prepare thy soul for trial. Set thy heart aright, and constantly endure, and make not haste in in time of trouble,” i.e. be not impatient to get over thy trouble. “Cleave unto him, and depart not away, that thou mayest be increased at thy last end. Whatsoever is brought upon thee take chearfully, and be patient when thou art changed to a low estate. For gold is tried in the fire, and acceptable men in the furnace of adversity. —Look at the generations of old, and see, did ever any trust in the Lord and was confounded? Or did any abide in his fear and was forsaken? Or whom did he ever despise, that called upon him? For the Lord is full of compassion and mercy; He forgiveth sins, and saveth in time of affliction.—Wo be to the sinner that goeth two ways,” i.e. that hath recourse to man as well as God. “Wo unto him that is faint-hearted; for he believeth not, therefore shall he not be defended. Wo unto you that have lost patience: What will ye do when the Lord shall visit you?—They that fear the Lord will say, We will fall into the hands of the Lord, and not into the hands of men: For as his majesty is, so is his mercy.”

In like manner St. Chrysostom informs us, “That, in proportion as God adds to our tribulation, He adds likewise to our retribution.”