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But what in Bancok greater dash

Made 'mid the haut ton---lots of cash.

This scheme the father greatly charmed,
But most unqualified emotion

It

gave

his lady---quite alarmed

At the mere mention of the Ocean.*
N'importe; at Siam, to its shame,
Not oft the spouse consults his dame;
And with such warmth to the design
Did Fiam seriously incline;
Its nature, day by day revolving,
That thought at last became resolving.
He made with Hodges an agreement
About the profits of the thing;-
One-half was for the patriot's fee meant,
The other went to Chang and Ching.
He next on Hodges sought to play

(And did at length succeed) the attorney; And settled that the saint should pay

The whole expenses of the journey.

"Tis every where we see a sad age,
In Siam craft is quite an adage;
The cunning of those yellow fellows
Makes even Europeans jealous.

*The Siamese have a superstitious dread of going

"O'er the glad waters of the dark blue sea."

EUSEBIUS saith, that craft or fraud,

The pious cannot but applaud,

Declares-no doubt he's right about it—

Some scarce would be convinced without it.
And thus a good dose of deceiving,

. Makes physic' for the unbelieving ;*
Yet every soul in Siam is sick,

Tho' fed entirely on this physick.†

The bond completed, Fiam saw

'Twas made quite good in Bancok law;
Not doubting that, that law would tie 'em

As close in England as in Siam:
The thing was really now decreed.
Transportedly the twins agreed ;
For with a joyous, and a busy pate,
Each did the scenes described anticipate.
Nor think our sire, that with a stranger
He let his only sons depart,
Unheedful of their risk of danger,

Or nursing a Rousseau-like heart.
No-learn the mystery in my naming,
The Mercury of all nations, "Gaming."

* “Οτι δεήοει ποτὲ τῶ ψέυδει αντὶ φαρμάκου χρῆσθαί επὶ ὠφελέια τῶν δεομέ

VWV TOV TOLOÚTOV трóñоν.-Euseb. Præp. Evang. 1. xii. c. 31.

This doctrine of the piety of fraud is common among nearly all the primitive writers of the church.

+ The cunning and falsehood of the Siamese is a bitter subject of complaint with all their visitors.

Now, though at Bancok, as in London,
The laws forbid you to be undone :
No code, devised however cleverly,
Can bar one bent to play the Beverley.
So, by some Stukelys of the fashion,
Living like
other's cash on—

(And faith, the prettiest way to feast .)
Fiam had been most sadly fleeced.

Folks there, are now but slowly learning
That beautiful resource called "credit;"
And Fiam to the future turning,

Began to see good cause to dread it.
Yet for himself, foreboding smote

The doating father's heart less-ah! less
Than those who would not have a groat,

When left upon the world papa-less!
And there, where both reward and penance
Are held decreed to this world's tenants.*
Where every piece of luck that raises
One's fortune, but one's virtue praises;
And the calamities that dish us

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Are merely proofs that we are vicious ;-
'Twas clear, with such a faith, and nation
Our twin's peculiar situation,

* Rank in this life, is held by the Boudhists, as a proof of moral excellence in a former-so are all worldly blessings. In Siam and the Burman empire, a man acts as well as he can, in the hope of being made a lord after he dies-just as in certain other countries, a man acts as ill as he in the hope of being made a lord before that event.

can,

If coupled with an empty purse,

Would be esteemed no trivial curse;

And that the world would act most oddly,
If kind to sorrows so ungodly.

This foresight then, had made the father
Yield to the patriot's scheme,-nay, rather
A project that at once appeared
To cure the very ills he feared,

The fortune he had lost replace,

Rob his boy's doom of its disgrace,

And make them, with such slender labours,
Quite independent of their neighbours,
He deemed so strangely happy, that
He gave the honour to the Nat.*

Nay, to nought less he could compare it,

Than to the might of those who muse On man in the Zadumaharit,+

And stand three leagues—without their shoes!
Thus, to his guest his sons committing,

You'll own in Fiam not unfitting.
No hardness of the heart betraying,
But a sire's anxious care displaying.

Not so his neighbours !-long and loud
Tattled the fashionable crowd:

* Nat-Superior beings in the Boudhist religion.

The Nat of the Zadumaharit are of the most exalted order; their height is half a juzana; a juzana being six Burma leagues, and four

ratoen.

They were so shock'd, they scarce could speak,

Especially, of course, the women all;
They'd always thought him very weak,
But this was absolutely criminal.
What, send away one's sons from home,
On bits of wood o'er waves to roam!
Travel, indeed!-what for?-was not
All wisdom centered in one spot?
All virtue, learning, bliss, pomp, show,
All with which Boudha could supply 'em,
To see, hear, taste, enjoy, and know,

-Were they not all confined to Siam?
Travel, indeed-with such a fellow too,
Whose skin was any thing but yellow too!-

While thus his friends-(friends are so moral
About our acts!)-with Fiam quarrel,
We'll listen to our brothers, walking
Alone, and close engaged in talking.
A wild design is their's, I ween,
Pray Heaven, it ripen to a scene.

"I hear," quoth Chang, "the sorcerer's art

66

Surpasseth Reason's cramp'd believing ; "And-just look round, Ching!—for my part,

"I dare say, there is some deceiving; "Yet, ere our land, our home we change, "Launch in a scheme that seems so strange,

"Trust hope, and life to fortune frail,

"And with our guest, in short, set sail,

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