have been strongly brandied, they appeared to require that a translator should infuse a spirit of his own into them, in order to adapt them for the English palate. The critic, I fear, will decide that, in seeking to improve, I have only adulterated them.
Yriarte was a voluminous author, and attempted almost every kind of poetical composition; but his writings seldom rise above mediocrity, and are distinguished rather by judgment and good taste than by force and originality. Next to his Literary Fables, a didactic poem on Music, which, I believe, has been translated into English, enjoys the highest celebrity.
Liverpool.R. R.
I. THE ELEPHANT AND THE BEASTS.
An elephant, in ages far-gone,
When beasts could speak a sort of jargon,
Observing with disapprobation
The vices of the brute creation,
Determined in his zeal to call
A meeting, and reform them all.
They met; when, having duly bow'd
His trunk to greet the gaping crowd,
He spouted forth, with mighty strength
Of lungs, a speech of mighty length,
A speech which, like a practised orator,
He had composed and got memoriter,
For speakers of the greatest note
At times extemporize—by rote.
Each fault and folly, which of late
Had sapp'd the morals of the state,
Pert ignorance, destructive sloth,
Malignant envy, worse than both,
Hypocrisy and affectation,
And pride, that oversteps its station—
All these, and more than I have time
To recapitulate in rhyme,
He stigmatized with all the fire
And freedom of a preaching friar.
—The virtuous portion of the crew
(But these, alas, were very few!)
Received with open acclamation
The honest elephant's oration.
The gentle lambkin skipt with glee,
And blithely humm'd the busy bee;
The faithful dog, the patient steer,
The dove, the emmet, and the deer,
By different tokens of applause
Evinced their zeal in virtue's cause;
The meek ass, with a joyous bray,
Approved the speech, and, strange to say,
The horse assented by a—nay.
—But others, though they felt within
A shrinking consciousness of sin,
Express'd their auger that the elephant
Should utter charges so irrelevant.
The tiger gnash'd his teeth and growl'd,
The wolf in savage concert howl'd;
The serpent shot his venom'd fang,
And hiss'd throughout the long harangue;
So foul a libel on a bird
The vulture vow'd was never heard;
The toad refused to stay—the snail
And locust followed in his trail;
And reynard fled, as if a pack
Of dogs were yelping at his back;
The monkey, mounting at a jump
Upon the dromedary's hump,
Amused the groundlings with grimace,
And mock'd the speaker to his face;
While gnat and hornet, wasp and drone
Reviled him in an under-tone.
But high above the jarring host
The elephant maintain'd his post,
As unconcern'd as if the brutes
Had been a company of mutes;
And thus, with unabated force,
At length concluded his discourse:
"My observations, I protest,
However pointedly express'd,
Were universally address'd—
Address'd alike to every one,
But personally aimed at none.
The few whose consciences are clear,
Have nothing to resent or fear;
While such as choose to take offence
By misinterpreting my sense,
Convict themselves, and merely show
How well they merited the blow."
My fables, in their application
Refer to every age and nation;
For authors, just as dull and vain
As any who abound in Spain,
Have perpetrated prose and rhyme
In every land, in every time.
But, though I solemnly disclaim
All personality of aim,
If any scribbler, conscience-smitten,
Should wince at aught that I have written—
Should find, in short, the cap to fit,
The fool is welcome unto it.
II. THE SILKWORM AND THE SPIDER.
One day, as a silkworm slowly spun
Its delicate threads in the noon-tide sun,
