[7] The golden-crested wren.

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RETROSPECTIVE GLEANINGS.

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POVERTY.


Owen Feltham says--"The poverty of a poor man is the least part of his
misery. In all the storms of fortune, he is the first that must stand
the shock of extremity. Poor men are perpetual sentinels, watching in
the depth of night against the incessant assaults of want; while the
rich lie strowd in secure reposes, and compassed with a large abundance.
If the land be ruffetted with a bloodless famine, are not the poor the
first that sacrifice their lives to hunger? If war thunders in the
trembling country's lap, are not the poor those that are exposed to the
enemy's sword and outrage? If the plague, like a loaded sponge, flies,
sprinkling poison through a populous kingdom, the poor are the fruit
that are shaken from the burdened tree; while the rich, furnished with
the helps of fortune, have means to wind out themselves, and turn these
sad indurances on the poor, that cannot avoid them. Like salt-marshes,
that lie low, they are sure, whenever the sea of this world rages, to be