Page:The works of Anna Laetitia Barbauld volume 1.djvu/140

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56
AN INVENTORY OF THE FURNITURE


A Juvenal to hunt for mottos;
And Ovid's tales of nymphs and grottos.
The meek- robed lawyers, all in white;
Pure as the lamb, at least, to sight.
A shelf of bottles, jar and phial,
By which the rogues he can defy all,—
All filled with lightning keen and genuine,
And many a little imp he'll pen you in;
Which, like Le Sage's sprite, let out,
Among the neighbours makes a rout;
Brings down the lightning on their houses,
And kills their geese, and frights their spouses.
A rare thermometer, by which
He settles, to the nicest pitch,
The just degrees of heat, to raise
Sermons, or politics, or plays.
Papers and books, a strange mixed olio,
From shilling touch to pompous folio;
Answer, remark, reply, rejoinder,
Fresh from the mint, all stamped and coined here;