Where, Sir, is all this dainty cheer? Nor turkey, goose, nor hen is here. These are the phantoms of your brain, And your sons lick their lips in vain.
Oh gluttons! says the drooping sire,
Restrain inordinate desire :
Your liq'rish taste you shall deplore,
When peace of conscience is no more.
Does not the hound betray our pace,
And gins and guns destroy our race?
Thieves dread the searching eye of
pow'r,
And never feel the quiet hour.
Old age (which few of us shall know)
Now puts a period to my woe.
Would you true happiness attain,
Let honesty your passions rein;
So live in credit aud esteem,
And the good name you lost redeem.
The counsel's good, a Fox replies,
Could we perform what you advise.
Think what our ancestors have done
A line of thieves from son to son!
To us descends the long disgrace,
And infamy hath mark'd our race.
Though we, like harmless sheep, should
feed,
Honest in thought, in word, and deed,
Whatever hen-roost is decreas'd,
We shall be thought to share the feast.
The change shall never be believ'd:
A lost good name is ne'er retriev'd.
Nay, then, replies the feeble Fox,
(But hark! I hear a hen that clocks)
Go, but be mod'rate in your food;
A chicken, too, might do me good.
The Setting-Dog and the Partridge. THE ranging Dog the stubble tries, And searches ev'ry breeze that flies: The scent grows warm; with cautious fear He creeps and points the covey near. The men, in silence, far behind, Conscious of game, the net unbind.
A Partridge, with experience wise,
The fraudful preparation spies:
She mocks their toils, alarms her brood:
The covey springs, and seeks the wood.
But ere her certain wing she tries,
Thus to the creeping Spaniel cries:-
Thou fawning slave to man's deceit !
Thou pimp of luxury, sneaking cheat!
Of thy whole species the disgrace;
Dogs should disown thee of their race!
For, if I judge their native parts,
They're born with open, honest hearts;
And, ere they serv'd man's wicked ends,
Were gen'rous foes, or real friends.
When thus the Dog, with scornful
smile:-
Secure of wing, thou dar'st revile.
Clowns are to polish'd manners blind;
How ignorant is the rustic mind!
My worth sagacious courtiers see,
And to preferment rise, like me.
The thriving pimp, who beauty sets,
Hath oft enhanc'd a nation's debts:
Friend sets his friend, without regard,
And ministers his skill reward.
Thus train'd by man, I learn'd his ways,
And growing favour feasts my days.
I might have guess'd, the Partridge said, The place where you were train'd and fed: Servants are apt, and, in a trice,
Ape to a hair their master's vice.
You came from Court, you say. Adieu!
She said, and to the covey flew.
FABLE XXXI.
The Universal Apparition.
A RAKE, by ev'ry passion rul'd,
With ev'ry vice his youth had cool'd:
Disease his tainted blood assails;
His spirits droop, his vigour fails;
With secret ills at home he pines,
And, like infirm old age, declines.
As, twing'd with pain, he pensive sits, And raves, and prays, and swears, by fits, A ghastly Phantom, lean and wan, Before him rose, and thus began:
My name, perhaps, hath reach'd your
Attend, and be advis'd by Care.
Nor love nor honour, wealth nor pow'r,
Can give the heart a cheerful hour,
When health is lost. Be timely wise:
With health all taste of pleasure flies.
Thus said, the Phantom disappears.
The wary counsel wak'd his fears:
He now from all excess abstains,
With physic purifies his veins,
And, to procure a sober life,
Resolves to venture on a wife.
But now again the Sprite ascends;
Where'er he walks, his ear attends;
Insinuates that beauty's frail,
That perseverance must prevail;
With jealousies his brain inflames,
And whispers all her lovers' names.
In other hours she represents
His household charge, his annual rents,
Increasing debts, perplexing duns,
And nothing for his younger sons.
Straight all his thoughts to gain ho
turns,
And with the thirst of lucre burns.
But when possess'd of Fortune's store,
The Spectre haunts him more and more;
Sets want and misery in view,
Bold thieves, and all the murd'ring crew;
Alarms him with eternal frights;
Infests his dream, or wakes his nights.
How shall he chase this hideous guest?
Pow'r may, perhaps, protect his rest.
To pow'r he rose. Again the Sprite
Besets him morning, noon, and night;
Talks of Ambition's tott'ring seat;
How Envy persecutes the great;
Of rival hate, of treach'rous friends,
And what disgrace his fall attends.
The Court he quits, to fly from Care,
And seeks the peace of rural air:
His groves, his fields, amus'd his hours;
He prun'd his trees, he rais'd his flow'rs.
But Care again his steps pursues;
Warns him of blasts, of blighting dews,
Of plund'ring insects, snails, and rains,
And droughts that starv'd the labour'd
plains.
Abroad, at home, the Spectre's there:
In vain we seek to fly from Care.
At length he thus the Ghost address'd :—
Since thou must be my constant guest,
Be kind, and follow me no more;
For Care, by right, should go before.
FABLE XXXII.
The two Owls and the Sparrow.
TWO formal Owls together sat, Conferring thus in solemn chat:
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