The Wheeling repository — Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.], 1807-06-04 00:00:00, page 1

WHEELING REPOSITORY.
• (Vol. I.) Tii ursday, 4th June, 180*7; (No. 14.)
OR IGINA L POE TR T.
Literary Fables.
Translated from the Spanish of
Thomas De Yriarte,
By an Inhabitant of Wheeling.
fable v.
The tivo Parrots and the Magpie.
From Saint Domingo once, a dame
Took two pet-parrots home to Spain ;
But it so chanced (and may again)
i he tongues they spoke were not the
[same.
One finely jabber’d Spanish, while
French only fill’d the other’s mouth ;
For they had liv’d, one north, one south,
And learnt the language of the isle.
In a balcony, it appears,
Tiie lady now her parrots fix’d,
V/iicre soon their French and Spanish,
Became a babel to one’s ears, [mix’d,
For chattering oft, with little wit,
Each marr’d her native dialect;—
Yet did they not, perhaps, suspect
The French and Spanish paid for it.
I'hc French bird stole,—the story says—
From time to time, a word or two ;
The Spaniard pilfer’d not a few,—
Nay ’tis asserted, many a phrase.
The mistress separated them,
When the French parrot, with th’alarm,
Resolv’d to remedy the harm,
And every Spaniciem condemn.
Not so the other. Still she claim’d
That gibberish she had learnt bv heart;
My which it seems, in many a part,
The true Castilian tongue was maim’d.
She carried things to such exir< mcs,
As to bawl out for pease in French ;
When a learn’d magpie, from *he^»e;ic/i,
Express’d his scorn ii\ horse-laugh
.<►’ [screams:
But with a calm and brazen brow,
The pat rol said (which, bv the
Was doing honour to the Fie)
•• I am no purist such as thou.”
II ow aptly does the moral strike ?
*IWrots tfnd men—are much dike.
The Happy Man;
Or the Art of living, in any condition,
with Content.
An Erie Poem, in txiv Book:.
Book I.-§ 7—19.
7. The old man stopped ; and the
count, with fresh ardour, assured his
sister that it behoved them to examine
this matter further, since there could not
possibly have happened an adventure
more suitable to them. Having noticed
the two strangers, that were on the way,
in search of him, Misano* (for this was
his name) immediately left his spade,
and descended to receive them, civilly
offering, for their accommodation,what
ever his age and miserable condition
might afford.
8. Miserable condition 1 exclaimed So
phia, with surprise. How is it, then, that
thou appearest so cheerful and so con
tented ? Art not thou he who, just now,
was singing, that he possessed the foun
tain of joy within himself, and that he
had possessed it without knowing it ?
9. Thou art in the right, answered he.
The folly of an old man, who has been
accustomed to keep company with stocks
and stones, led him into a blunder, as
soon as he found it necessary to address
persons with respect. I called my con
dition miserable, because it is common
for others to do so : I see the error of
the expression, and correct it by saying,
that if in my happy stale I can serve
you, my joy and felicity will be much
heightened; inasmuch as it greatly tends
to a man’s comfort, to he capable of ren
dering other people happy.j “To ap
proach the Supreme Being by an iiwita
“ tion of Him who is the fountain and
“ original source of all true felicity,
“ makes us, in a certain manner, parti
“ cipators of the divine nature ; and, ac
cording to my understanding, he imi
* V" aflnrnrd name, tor his proper ti;’me wis
U adjliui (the third) He w^e king of Poland
two e bet wren the • e'cni of M<ecp*
lau- III hi- father, and of Lt Iku-, bis coufin
A. D, uoj.
f N hil j* Ido divifturn babet herao, quam
be j 11 a cere- Gr?g v,
“ tates him very nobly, who contributes
“ to the happiness of others.”*
10. Thou canst not be furnished with
a better opportunity, said the count.-— ’
By this time they had reached the top
of the mountain, where Misano placed,
seats for them, under an arbour which
resembled a very neat dressing room.
There the long vine shoots, which hung
around, formed a canopy; the grass, in
bright verdure, served as a carpet; and
the skirting was a pallisade, in which
the blushing and twining snail-flowers
matted together in fragrant textures,
with the tendrils of the bell-bind, creep
ing over head, framed a tent curtain,
which kept out the sun, and skreened
the company from his sultry annoyance.
Here, upon sophas of fresh and tender
guinea-grass, Misano received his ho
nourable guests.
11. l liey were enraptured at wnat*
they saw and heard, and thought it wort*
derful, that Misano should have found,
in such an abode of solitude and want,
that happiness, which they, with much
solicitude, had been seeking all their
lives, in vain.
12. Of all that can be desired, in the
world, to live happily, said the count, I
have had a share ; yet never did I pass
a single day perfectly pleased. I have
travelled from city to city, from king
dom to kingdom, from clime to clime,
in constant pursuit of the image of hap
piness, and have never been able to o
vertake it. To me, it was like the sha
dow, which, the faster we run after it,
the more it strives to slip away from us:
and I had formed an opinion,that a state
# A critic under the fignature** EI Filofofo
Ineognito,” cenfcuee the fentenee marke-' with
inverted comma*, comparing it with wta (ac
cording to tIns writer, Mifano has fomewherer
faid. v:z “ that in order to be happy, it was
nec^fftry to feifc? the fpadc, and betake one's
fef to the mnurvain,” icc* This is an unfup-*
p irtahle allegation; for Mifano in no place,
I throughnu* t' e work, aflents to a propofitum
I of hi. kind; rather, cootrar-w fe, he fay* “that
he war. hippy on the mountain, and in order
to be more happy he abandoned the fpadc
and fo*feok tve mountain,” See B xv. j i&t
and B xxtv $ 36,