30

What blessings must attend the nation
Under this good administration !”

He said. A Goose, who distant stood,
Harangu'd apart the cackling brood :

“ Whene'er I hear a knave commend,
He bids me fhun his worthy friend.
What praise ! what mighty commendation !
But 'twas a Fox who spoke th' oration.
Foxes this government may prize,
As gentle, plentiful, and wise ;
If they enjoy the sweets, 'tis plain
We Geese must feel a tyrant-reign.
What havock now shall thin our race,
When every petty clerk in place,
To prove his taste, and seem polite,
Will feed on Geese both noon and night !"

35

a

WHAT whispers must the Beauty bear!

!
What hourly nonsense haunts her ear!
Where'er her eyes difpense their charms, .
Impertinence, around her swarms.
Did not the tender nonsense strike,

5
Contempt and scorn might look dislike;
Forbidding airs might thin the place,
The lightest flap a fly can chace :
But who can drive the numerous breed :
Chace one, another will succeed.

Who

1

Who knows a fool, must know his brother;
One fop will recommend another :
And with this plague she 's rightly curst,
Because she listen'd to the first.
As Doris, at her toilette's duty; ·

is
Sate meditating on her beauty,
She now was pensive, now was gay,
And loll’d the sultry hours away.

As thus in indolence the lies,
A giddy Wasp around her flies.
He now advances, now retires,
Now to her neck and cheek afpires.
Her fan in vain defends her charms;
Swift he returns, again alarm3.;
For by repulse he bolder grew,

25 Perch'd on her lip, and fipt the dew:

She frowns; the frets. " Good Gods! she cries, Protect me from these teazing flies! Of all the plagues thrat Heaven hath sent, A Wasp is most impertinent.?!

30. The hovering infe&t thus complain'd; “ Am I then lighted, scorn'd, disdain'd ? Can such offence your anger wake ? 'Twas beauiy caus'd the bold mistake. Thofc.cherry-lips that breathe perfume,

35 That cheek so ripe with youthful bloom, Made me with strong desire pursue The fairest peach that ever grew.”

“ Strike him not, Jenny, Doris cries, Nor murder Wasps like vulgar files ;

40

لما

For

45

For though he 's free (to do him right),
The creature's civil and police.”
In ecstasies

away

he posts ;
Where'er he came, the favour boasts;
Brags how her sweetest tea he sips,
And shows the sugar on his lips.

The hint alarm'd the forward crew;
Sure of success, away they flew :.
They share the dainties of the day,
Round her with airy music play :
And now they flutter, now they reft,
Now soar again, and skim her breast.
Nor were they banith’d, till she found
That Wasps have stings, and felt the wound.

50

5

SEE

EEK you to train your favourite boy?:

Each caution, every care employ ;
And, ere you venture to confide,
Let his preceptor's heart be try'd :
Weigh well his manners, life, and scope ;.
On these depends thy future hope.

As on a tiine, in peaceful reign,
A Bull enjoy'd the flowery plain,
A Mastiff pass’d; inflam'd with ire,
His eye-balls shot indignant fire.
He foam’d, he rag'd with thirst of blood.

Spurning the ground, the monarch stood,

a

15

26

And roar'd aloud : Suspend the fight;
In a whole skin go fleep to-night:
Or tell me, cre the battle rage,
What wrong's provoke thee to engage ?
Is it ambition fires thy breast,
Or avarice, that ne'er can rest?
From thefe alone unjustly springs
The world-destroying wrath of kings."

The surly Mastiff thus returns :
“ Within my bofom glory burns.
Like heroes of eternal name,
Whom poets fing, I fight for fame.
The butcher's spirit-stirring mind
To daily war my youth inclin'd;
He train'd me to heroic deed,
Taught me to conquer, or to bleed.”

“ Curs’d Dog, the Bull reply'd, no more
I wonder at thy thirst of gore ;
For thou (beneath a butcher train'd,
Whose hands with cruelty are stain’d,
His daily murders in thy view)
Must, like thy tutor, blood pursue.
Take, then, thy fate." With goring wound
At once he lifts him from the ground:
Aloft the sprawling hero fies,
Mangled he falls, he howls, and dies.

35

FABLE

F A BL E

X.

THE ELEPHANT AND THE BOOKSELLER.

THE

'HE man who with undaunted toils

Sails unknown feas to unknown foils,
With various wonders feasts his fight :
What Itranger wonders does he write !
We read, and in description view

5
Creatures which Adam never knew;
For, when we risk no contradiction,
It prompts the tongue to deal in fiction.
Those things that startle me or you
I grant are ftrange; yet may be true.

16 Who doubts that Elephants are found For science and for sense renown's ? Borri records their strength of parts, Extent of thought, and skill in arts ; How they perform the law's decrees, And save the state the hangman's fees; And how by travel understand The language of another land. Let those, who question this report, To Pliny's ancient

page

resort. How learn’d was that sagacious breed ! Who now (like them) the Greek can read ?

As one of these, in days of yore, Rummag'd a shop of learning o'er, Not, like our modern dealers, minding 25 Only the margin's breadth and binding,

A book

15