"Good sir, the boat has lost her trim, You must not sit a-lee!" With smiling face, and courteous grace, The middle seat took he. But still, by constant quiet growth, Each neighbour wight, to left and right, Was thrust against the side. Lord! how they chided with themselves, To see him grow so monstrous now, Or every brow a dew-drop stood, Loud laugh'd the Gogmagog, a laugh "When first I came, my proper name ETCHING MORALIZED. TO A NOBLE LADY. "To point a moral."-JOHNSON. FAIREST Lady and Noble, for once on a time, Not described by the Countess of Wilton. An Art not unknown to the delicate hand And which now your own feminine fantasy wins, Yet oh! that the dames of the Scandalous School Would but use the same acid, and sharp-pointed tool, That are plied in the said operations— Oh! would that our Candours on copper would sketch! For the first of all things in beginning to etch Are-good grounds for our representations. Those protective and delicate coatings of wax, For why? like some intricate deed of the law, Should the ground in the process be left with a flaw, Aquafortis is far from a joker; And attacking the part that no coating protects, Will turn out as distressing to all your effects As a landlord who puts in a broker. Then carefully spread the conservative stuff, To repel a destructive so active ; For in Etching, as well as in Morals, pray note Thus the ground being laid, very even and flat, And then smoked with a taper, till black as a hat, Still from future disasters to screen it, Just allow me, by way of precaution, to state, You must hinder the footman from changing your plate, Nor yet suffer the butler to clean it. Nay, the Housemaid, perchance, in her passion scrub, May suppose the dull metal in want of a rub, Like the Shield which Swift's readers re member Not to mention the chance of some other mishaps, Such as having your copper made up into caps To be worn on the First of September. But aloof from all damage by Betty or John, Yet gently, and not with a needle too keen, So in worldly affairs, the sharp-practising man But, perhaps, without tracing at all, you may choose To indulge in some little extempore views, Like the older artistical people; For example, a Corydon playing his pipe, In a Low Country marsh, with a Cow after Cuyp, And a Goat skipping over a steeple. A wild Deer at a rivulet taking a sup, Like the columns of certain diurnals; Architectural study-or rich Arabesque- Near to Naples, or Venice, or Florence; Like the Children by Reynolds or Lawrence. But whatever the subject, your exquisite taste For suppose that the tool be imperfectly set, Over many weak lengths in your line you will fret, Like a pupil of Walton and Cotton, Who remains by the brink of the water, agape, |