36
AMYNTAS.
Strangely they speak, and answer to the speaker;
Not giving back the mutilated word,
As echo answers in the rural shade;
But fully they return it; and they add,
(Surprizing to relate!) words of their own.
The tables, and the chairs, the beds, and curtains,
All implements of that inchanted palace,
Articulate, and speak with restless tongue.
There, lies, in shape of little playful children,
Hover, and sport, inspiring ticked tales:
Nay; if a person, speechless from the womb,
Should chance to enter there, his organ straight
Would by the devilish magick be unloosed;
Spite of himself, he'd in a moment catch
The voluble infection of the place.
But these are the least evils thou may'st meet:
Thou may'st of human figure be deprived;
May’st pass into a melancholy willow,
Into à plaintive stream, or sighing flame.
Such was the lesson gloomy Mopsus gave me.
I to the city went, not without fear,
Not giving back the mutilated word,
As echo answers in the rural shade;
But fully they return it; and they add,
(Surprizing to relate!) words of their own.
The tables, and the chairs, the beds, and curtains,
All implements of that inchanted palace,
Articulate, and speak with restless tongue.
There, lies, in shape of little playful children,
Hover, and sport, inspiring ticked tales:
Nay; if a person, speechless from the womb,
Should chance to enter there, his organ straight
Would by the devilish magick be unloosed;
Spite of himself, he'd in a moment catch
The voluble infection of the place.
But these are the least evils thou may'st meet:
Thou may'st of human figure be deprived;
May’st pass into a melancholy willow,
Into à plaintive stream, or sighing flame.
Such was the lesson gloomy Mopsus gave me.
I to the city went, not without fear,
My
