The New Hampshire Gazette And General Advertiser

Parnassian Spring.

The SENSIBLE WISH of DELIA.

When a nymph at her toilette
has spent the whole day,
Array'd in her lutestrings and feathers
too gay,
Her rival, the Butterfly, vain to excess,
May be justly more proud if there's
merit in dress;
The purple and gold in his plumage
display'd,
Than velvet's more soft and more gay
than brocade.
But of all this advantage of dress you
may see,
That the Butterfly still is less lov'd than
the Bee.
For the Bee, tho' he shines with no purple
and gold,
Yet, provides a good lodging to fence
from the cold.
For his honey we love him, in spite
of his sting,
And despise the gay insects that flutter
and sing.
From hence the coquettes this plain
lesson may find,
'That the useful alone are the lov'd of
mankind,
Let the foolish and vain at the toilette
still vie,
In a fruitless endeavour to rival a fly :
When, if they succeed, like a fly, for a
day,
By fools they'll be play'd with, and
then thrown away.
But let ME, like the Bee, ev'ry moment
improve,
And merit affection no time can remove.

DELIA.