COMMON SENSE AND GENIUS.

While I touch the string,

Wreathe my brows with laurel,

For the tale I sing

Has, for once, a moral.

Common Sense, one night,

Tho’ not used to gambols,

Went out by moonlight,

With Genius, on his rambles.

While I touch the string, etc.

Common Sense went on,

Many wise things saying;

While the light that shone

Soon set Genius straying.

One his eye ne'er raised

From the path before him;

T'other idly gazed

On each night-cloud o'er him.

While I touch the string, etc.

So they came, at last,

To a shady river;

Common Sense soon past,

Safe, as he doth ever;

While the boy, whose look

Was in Heaven that minute.

Never saw the brook,

But tumbled headlong in it!

While I touch the string, etc.

How the Wise One smiled,

When safe o'er the torrent,

At that youth, so wild,

Dripping from the current!

Sense went home to bed;

Genius, left to shiver

On the bank,‘ tis said,

Died of that cold river!

While I touch the string, etc.