THE BULL AND THE MASTIFF.
SEEK
EEK you to train your fav'rite boy?
Each caution, ev'ry 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 depend thy future hope.
As on a time, in peaceful reign,
A BULL enjoy'd the flow'ry 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,
And roar'd aloud-Suspend the fight
In a whole skin, go, sleep to-night;
Or tell me, ere the battle rage,
What wrongs provoke thee to engage ?
Is it ambition fires thy breast;
Or avarice, that ne'er can rest?
From these alone unjustly springs
The world-destroying wrath of kings.
The surly MASTIFF thus returns-
Within my bosom glory burns.
Like heroes of eternal name,
Whom poets sing, I fight for fame :
The butcher's spirit-stirring mind
To daily war my youth inclin'd;
He train❜d me to heroic deed,
ught me to conquer or to bleed.
Curst 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 flies; Mangled, he falls, he howls, and dies.
THE ELEPHANT AND THE BOOKSELLER.
THE man who with undaunted toils,
Sails unknown seas to unknown soils,
With various wonders feasts his sight;
What stranger wonders does he write?
We read, and in description view
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 strange, yet may be true.
Who doubts that ELEPHANTS are found
For science and for sense renown'd?
BORRI records their strength of parts,
Extent of thought, and skill in arts;
How hey 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
Only the margin's breadth and binding;
A book his curious eye detains,
Where, with exactest care and pains,
Were ev'ry beast and bird pourtray'd,
That e'er the search of man survey'd;
Their natures and their pow'rs were writ,
With all the pride of human wit.
The page he with attention spread,
And thus remark'd on what he read :-
Man with strong reason is endow'd;
A beast scarce instinct is allow'd.
But let this author's worth be try'd,
'Tis plain that neither was his guide.
Can he discern the diff'rent natures,
And weigh the pow'r of other creatures,
Who by the partial work hath shown
He knows so little of his own?
How falsely is the SPANIEL drawn !
Did MAN from him first learn to fawn?
A DOG proficient in the trade!
He the chief flatt'rer NATURE made!
Go, MAN, the ways of courts discern,
You'll find a SPANIEL still might learn.
How can the Fox's theft and plunder
Provoke his censure or his wonder?
From COURTIERS' tricks and LAWYERS' arts,
The Fox might well improve his parts.
The LION, WOLF, and TYGER's brood,
He curses for their thirst of blood:
But is not MAN to MAN a prey?
BEASTS kill for hunger, MEN for pay.
The BOOKSELLER, who heard him speak, And saw him turn a page of GREEK, Thought, what a genius have I found! Then thus addrest, with bow profound :—
Learn'd sir, if you'd employ your pen
Against the senseless sons of men,
Or write the history of SIAM,
No man is better pay than I am;
Or, since your're learn'd in GREEK, let's see― Something against the TRINITY.
When, wrinkling with a sneer his trunkFriend, quoth the ELEPHANT, you're drunk: E'en keep your money, and be wise;
Leave man on man to criticise;
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