"There have I feen fome active prig, "To fhew his parts, bestride a twig: "Lord! how the chattering tribe admire, "Not that he 's wifer, but he's higher:

All long to try the venturous thing (For power is but to have one's fwing); "From fide to fide he fprings, he fpurns,

And bangs his foes and friends by turns. "Thus, as in giddy freaks he bounces,

Crack goes the twig, and in he flounces ! "Down the fwift ftream the wretch is borne; "Never, ah never, to return!

"Zounds! what a fall had our dear brother; "Morbleu! cries one; and Damme ! t'other. The nations give a general fcreech; "None cocks his tail none claws his breech; Each trembles for the public weal, "And for a while forgets to fteal..

"A while, all eyes, intent and steddy, Purfue him, whirling down the eddy. "But, out of mind when out of view, << Some other mounts the twig anew; "And bufinefs, on each monkey-fhore, "Runs the fame track it went before."

FABLE S.

IN TWO PARTS.

Shall not my Fables cenfure vice, "Because a knave is over-nice?

If I lash vice in general fiction, "Is 't I apply, or felf-conviction? "Brutes are my theme. Am I to blame, "if men in morals are the fame? "I no man call or ape or afs;

""Tis his own confcience holds the glass. "Thus void of all offence I write : "Who claims the Fable, knows his right."

25 In fummer's heat, and winter's cold,
He fed his flock, and penn'd the fold;
His hours in cheerful labour flew,
Nor envy nor ambition knew;
His wifdom and his honeft fame
3 Through all the country rais'd his name
A deep Philofopher (whofe rules
Of moral life were drawn from schools)
The Shepherd's homely cottage fought,
And thus explor'd his reach of thought.

35

Whence is thy learning? hath thy toil
O'er books confum'd the midnight oil?
Haft thou old Greece and Rome furvey'd,
And the vast sense of Plato weigh'd?
Hath Socrates thy foul refin'd,

4 And haft thou fathom'd Tully's mind?
Or, like the wife Ulyffes, thrown,
By various fates, on realms unknown,
Haft thou through many cities ftray'd,
Their cuftoms, laws, and manners, weigh'd?
The fhepherd modeftly reply'd,

45

INTRODUCTION TO THE FABLES.

PART THE FIRST.

THE SHEPHERD, AND THE PHILOSOPHER.

REMOTE from cities liv'd a Swain,

Unvex'd with all the cares of gain; His head was filver'd o'er with age, And long experience made him fage;

I ne'er the paths of learning try'd;
Nor have I roam'd in foreign parts,
To read mankind, their laws and arts
For man is practis'd in difguife,

He cheats the most difcerning eyes:
Who by that. search shall wiser grow,
When we ourselves can never know ..
The little knowledge I have gain'd,
Was all from fimple Nature drain'd;
Hence my life's maxims took their rife,
Hence grew my fettled hate to vice.

The daily labours of the bee
Awake my foul to industry:
Who can obferve the careful ant,
And not provide for future want?
My dog (the trustieft of his kind)
With gratitude inflames my mind:
Imark his true, his faithful way,
And in my fervice copy Tray.
In conftancy and nuptial love,
I learn my duty from the dove.
The hen, who from the chilly air,
With pious wing, protects her care,
And every fowl that flies at large,
Inftructs me in a parent's charge.
From Nature, too, I take my rule.
To fhun contempt and ridicule.
I never, with important air,
In converfation overbear,
Can grave and formal pafs for wife,
When men the folemn owl defpife ♪
My tongue within my lips I rein;
For who talks much muft talk in vain.
We from the wordy torrent fly:
Who listens to the chattering pye?
Nor would I, with felonious flight,
By Stealth invade my neighbour's right.
Rapacious animals we hate :

Kites, hawks, and wolves, deferve their fate.
Do not we just abhorrence find
Against the toad and serpent-kind?

But Envy, Calumny, and Spite,

Bear stronger venom in their bite.

"Beneath thefe jaws what numbers fell."

60

TO HIS HIGHNESS

WILLIAM DUKE OF CUMBERLAND.

FABLE I.

ACCEPT, young Prince! the moral lay,

And in thefe TALES mankind furvey; With early virtues plant your breast, The fpecious arts of vice deteft.

Princes, like beauties, from their youth
Are strangers to the voice of Truth.
Learn to contemn all praise betimes,
"For flattery's the nurfe of crimes:

Friendship by fweet reproof is fhown
(A virtue never near a throne):
In courts fuch freedom must offend;
There none prefumes to be a friend.
To thofe of your exalted ftation,
Each courtier is a dedication.
Muft I, too, flatter like the reft,
And turn my morals to a jest?

The Mufe difdains to teal from thofe
Who thrive in courts by fulfome profe.

But fhall I hide your real praife,

O tell you what a nation fays?
They in your infant bofom trace
The virtues of your royal race;
In the fair dawning of your mind,
Difcern you generous, mild, and kind:
They fee you grieve to hear diftrefs,
And pant al eady to redrefs.
Go on, the height of good attain,
Nor let a nation hope in vain:
For hence we justly may prefage
The virtues of a riper age.
True courage fhall your bufom fire,
And future actions own your fire.
Cowards are cruel; but the brave
Love mercy, and delight to fave.
A Tyger, roaming for his prey,
Sprung on a Traveller in the way,
The proftrate game a Lion fpies,
And on the greedy tyrant flies:

"True," fays the Man, the strength I faw "Might well the brutal nation awe; "But, fhall a monarch, brave, like you, "Place glory in fo falfe a view? "Robbers invade their neighbour's right. "Be lov'd; let justice bound your might. "Mean are ambitious heroes' boafts "Of wafted lands and flaughter'd hosts. "Pirates their power by murders gain; "Wife kings by love and mercy reign.

To me your clemency hath shown "The virtue worthy of a throne. "Heaven gives you power above the reft, "Like Heaven, to fuccour the distreft."

"The cafe is plain," the monarch faid; "Falfe glory hath my youth misled; "For beafts of prey, a fervile train, "Have been the flatterers of my reign.

"You reafon well. Yet tell me, friend, "Did ever you in courts attend?

For all my fawning rogues agree. "That human heroes rule like me."

FABLE II.

THE SPANIEL AND THE CAMELEON.

25 A SPANIEL, bred with all the care
That waits upon a favourite heir,
Ne'er felt Correction's rigid hand;
Indulg'd to difobey command,
In pamper'd eafe his hours were spent:
30 He never knew what learning meant.
Such forward airs, fo pert, fo fmart,
Were fure to win his lady's heart;
Each little mifchief gain'd him praife:
How pretty were his fawning ways!

65

༡༠

75

10

With mingied roar refounds the wood,

Their teeth, their claws, diftil with blood;

40 Was fcarce distinguish'd from the green,

"Dear emblem of the flattering hoft! *What, live with clowns! a genius loft, "To cities and the court repair; "A fortune cannot fail thee there: "Preferments fhall thy talents crown; "Believe me, Friend; I know the Town." Sir," fays the Sycophant, like you, Of old, politer life I knew: "Like you, a courtier born and bred, Kings lea'd their ear to what I faid. "My whifper always met fuccefs; "The ladies prais'd me for address. "I knew to hit each courtier's paffion, "And flattered every vice in fashion. "But Jove, who hates the liar's ways, "At once cut fhort my profperous days,

And, fentenc'd to retain my nature, "Transform'd me to this crawling creature, "Doom'd to a life obfcure and mean, "I wander in the fylvan fcene: "For Jove the heart alone regards;

He punithes what man rewards. "How different is thy cafe and mine! "With men at least you fup and dine; "While 1, condemn'd to thinnest fare, Like thofe I flatter'd, feed on air."

FABLE III.

AS Jupiter's all-feeing eye

Survey'd the worlds beneath the fky,
35 From this fmall speck of earth were sent
Murmurs and founds of difcontent;
For every thing alive complain'd,
That he the hardest life fuftain'd.
Jove calls his Eagle.
At the word,

40 Before him ftands the royal bird.
The bird, obedient, ftom Heaven's height,
Downward directs his rapid flight,
Then cited every living thing,
To hear the mandates of his king.

"Ungrateful creatures! whence arife
These murmurs which offend the fkies?
Why this diforder? fay the aufe;
For juft are Jove's eternal laws.

Your precious babe is hence convey'd, And in the place a changeling laid. Where are the father's mouth and nofe? The mother's eyes, as black as floes? See, here, a fhucking aukward creature, That speaks a fool in every feature!"

The Lion crav'd the Fox's art; The Fox the Lion's force and heart: The Cock implor'd the Pigeon's flight,

15

Whose wings were rapid, ftrong, and light: The Pigeon ftrength of wing defpis'd,

35

And the Cock's matchlefs valour priz❜d.

"The woman's blind, the mother cries; 1 fee wit fparkle in his eyes."

"Lord! Madam, what a fquinting leer! No doubt the fairy hath been here."

Just as the fpoke, a pigmy fprite

Pops through the key-hole f

.

Perch'd on the cradle's top
top h boards,

And thus her folly reprimand

"Whence fprung the vain conceited lye,

as light;

25

Thus, envious of another's ftate,
Each biam'd the partial hand of Fate.

The bird of Heaven then cry'd aloud:

"Jove bias difperfe the murmuring crowd; The God rejects your idle prayers,

40

Would ye,

rebellious Mutineers!

FABLE V.

THE WILD BOAR AND THE RAM.

AGAINST an elm a sheep was ty'd,

The butcher's knife in blood was_dy'd ;
The patient flock, in filent fright,
From far beheld the horrid fight.
A favage Boar, who, near them stood,
Thus mock'd to fcorn the fleecy brood.
"All cowards fhould be ferv'd like you.
See, fee, your murderer is in view:
With purple hands, and reeking knife,
He strips the skin yet warm with life.
Your quarter'd fires, your bleeding dams,
The dying bleat of harmless lambs,
Call for revenge. O ftupid Race!
The heart that wants revenge is base.".
"I grant, an ancient Ram replies,
We bear no terror in our eyes;
Yet think us not of foul fo tame,
Which no repeated wrongs inflame;
Infenfible of every ill,

Because we want thy tusks to kill.
Know, thofe, who violence purfue,.

Give to themselves the vengeance due;

For in these maffacres they find

The two chief plagues that waste mankind. ́
Our skin supplies the wrangling bar,

It wakes their flumbering fons to war;
And well revenge may reft contented,

Since drums and parchment were invented.""

The Mifer, trembling, lock'd his cheft;
The Vifion, frown'd, and thus addrefs'd:
"Whence is this vile ungrateful rant,
Each fordid rafcal's daily cant?
Did I, bafe wretch corrupt mankind?
The fault's in thy rapacious mind.
Because my bleffings are abus'd,

5 Muft I be cenfur'd, curs'd, accus'd?
Ev'n virtue's felf by knaves is made
A cloak to carry on the trade;
And Power (when lodg'd in their poffeffion)
Grows tyranny, and rank oppression.

10 Thus, when the villain crams his cheft,
Gold is the canker of the breaft;
'Tis avarice, infolence, and pride,
And every fhocking vice befide:
But, when to virtuous hands 'tis given,
15 It bleffes, like the dews of Heaven:
Like Heaven, it hears the orphan's cries,
And wipes the tears from widows' eyes.
Their crimes on gold fhall Mifers lay,
Who pawn'd their fordid fouls for pay
20 Let bravoes, then, when blood is fpilt,
Upbraid the paffive (oul with guilt."

?

30

35

FABLE VI.

THE MISER AND PLUTUS.

THE wind was high, the window shakes,,

With fudden ftart the Mifer wakes:
Along the filent room he stalks,
Looks back, and trembles as he walks.
Each lock and every bolt he tries,
In every creek and corner pries;
Then opes the cheft with treasure ftor'd,
And ftands in rapture o'er his hoard.
But now, with fudden qualms poffeft,
He wrings his hands, he beats his breast;
By confcience ftung, he wildly ftares,
And thus his guilty fou! declares:

"Had the deep earth her fores confin'd,
This heart had known sweet peace of mind.
But virtue 's fold. Good Gods! what price
Can recompenfe the pangs of vice!
O bane of good! feducing cheat,
Can man, weak man, thy power defeat?
Gold banish'd honour from the mind,
And only left the name behind;
Gold fow'd the world with every ill;
Gold taught the murderer'a fword to kill a
'Twas gold inftructed coward-hearts
In treachery's more pernicious arts.
Who can recount the mifchiefs o'er?
Virtue refides on earth no more!"
He fpoke, and figh'd. In angry mood
Plutus, his god, before him stood.

THE LION, THE FOX, AND THE GEESE.

ALION, tir'd with state-affairs,

Quite fick of pomp, and worn with cares,
Refolved (remote from noife and ftrife)
In peace to pass his latter life.

It was proclaim'd; the day was fet;
Behold the general council met.
The Fox was viceroy nam'd. The crowd
To the new regent humbly bow'd.
Wolves, bears, and mighty tigers, bend,
And strive who most fhall condescend.
5 He ftraight affumes a folemn grace,
Collects his wifdom in his face.
The crowd admire his wit, his sense;
Each word hath weight and confequence.
The flatterer all his art difplays:
10 He who hath power is fure of praise.
A Fox ftept forth before the reft,
And thus the fervile throng addrest:

"How vaft his talents, born to rule, And train'd in Virtue's honeft school! 15 What Clemency his temper fways!

How uncorrupt are all his ways!
Beneath his conduct and command,
Rapine fhall cease to waste the land.
His brain hath ftratagem and art;

20 Prudence and mercy his heart.
What bleffings muff gaind the nation
Under this good admi
favation !"

25

He faid. A Goofe, who diftant ftood, Harangu'd apart the cackling brood: "Whene'er I hear a knave commend,

He bids me fhun his worthy friend.
What praife! what mighty commendation!
But 'twas a Fox who spoke th' oration.