My words, in common acceptation,
Could never give this provocation.
No lamb (for aught. I ever knew),
May be more innocent than you."
At this, gall'd Reynard winc'd, and swore
Such language ne'er was given before.
"What's lamb to me? this faucy hint Shows me, bafe Knave, which way you fquint. If th' other night your master loft
Three lambs, am I to pay the cost?
Your vile reflections would imply
That I'm the thief. You Dog, you lye.".
"Thou knave, thou fool! (the Dog reply'd)
The name is juft, take either fide;
Thy guilt these applications speak:
Sirrah, 'tis confcience makes you squeak."
So faying, on the Fox he flies:
The felf-convicted felon dies.
THE VULTURE, THE SPARROW, AND OTHER BIRDS.
To a Friend in the Country.
RE I begin, I must premise,
Our ministers are good and wife;
So, though malicious tongues apply,
Pray what care they, or what care I?
If I am free with courts, be 't known,
I ne'er prefume to mean our own.
If general morals feem to joke
On minifters, and fuch-like folk,
A captious fool may take offence;
What then? He knows his own pretence.
I meddle with no ftate-affairs,
But fpare my jeft to fave my ears.
Our prefent fchemes are too profound,
For Machiavel himself to found:
To cenfure them I 'ave no pretenfion;
I own they're paft my comprehenfion.
You fay your brother wants a place, ('Tis many a younger brother's cafse); And that he very foon intends
To ply the court, and teaze his friends.
If there his merits chance to find
A patriot of an open mind,
Whose conftant actions prove him just
To both a king's and people's truft,
May he, with gratitude, attend,
And owe his rife to fuch a friend!
You praife his parts, for bufinefs fit,
His learning, probity, and wit;
But thofe alone will never do,
Unless his patron have them too.
I 'ave heard of times (pray God defend us !
We're not fo good but he can mend us)
When wicked minifters have trod
On kings and people, law and God ;
"With arrogance they girt the throne,
And knew no intereft but their own.
Then virtue, from preferment barr'd,
Gets nothing but its own reward.
gang of petty knaves attend 'em,
With proper parts to recommend 'em.
Then, if his patron burn with luft,
The first in favour's pimp the first.
His doors are never clos'd to fpies,
Who cheer his heart with double lyes;
They flatter him, his foes defame,
So lull the pangs of guilt and shame.
If schemes of lucre haunt his brain,
Projectors fwell his greedy train;
Vile brokers ply his private ear
With jobs of plunder for the year;
All confciences must bend and ply;
You must vote on, and not know why:
Through thick and thin you must go on;
One fcruple, and your place is gone.
Since plagues like these have curs'd a land,
And favourites cannot always ftand,
Good courtiers fhould for change be ready,
And not have principles too steady;
For, fhould a knave engross the power,
(God fhield the realm from that sad hour!)
He must have rogues or flavish fools;
For what's a knave without his tools?
Wherever those a people drain,
And strut with infamy and gain,
I envy not their guilt and state,
And fcorn to fhare the public hate.
Let their own fervile creatures rife,
By screening fraud, and venting lyes;
Give me, kind Heaven, a private station *,
A mind ferene for contemplation :
Title and profit I refign;
The post of honour shall be mine.
My Fable read, their merits view,
Then herd who will with fuch a crew.
In days of yore (my cautious rhymes
Always except the present times)
A greedy Vulture, skill'd in game,
Inur'd to guilt, unaw'd by shame,
Approach'd the throne in evil hour,
And step by step intrudes to power:
When at the royal Eagle's ear,
He longs to cafe the monarch's care.
The monarch grants. With pride elate,
Behold him minifter of ftate!
Around him throng the feather'd rout;
Friends must be ferv'd, and fome muft out:
Each thinks his own the beft pretension ;
This afks a place, and that a penfion.
The Nightingale was set aside.
A forward Daw his room fupply'd.
"This bird (fays he), for business fit,
Hath both fagacity and wit:
With all his turns, and shifts, and tricks,
He's docile, and at nothing flicks :
-When impious men bear fway,
The poft of honour is a private ftation. ADDISON.
Then with his neighbours one so free
-At all times will connive at me."
The Hawk had due diftinction fhown,
For parts and talents like his own.
Thousands of hireling Cocks attend him,
As bluftering bullies, to defend him.
At once the Ravens were discarded,
And Magpies with their posts rewarded.
Those fowls of omen I deteft,
That pry into another's nest.
State-lyes muft lofe all good intent,'
For they forefee and croak th' event.
My friends ne'er think, but talk by rote,
Speak what they 're taught, and so to vote.
"When rogues like thefe (a Sparrow cries)
To honours and employments rife,
I court no favour, afk no place;
From fuch, preferment is disgrace.
Within my thatch'd retreat I find
(What these ne'er feel) true peace of mind."
By judging men by what they feem.
To birth, wealth, power, we should allow
Precedence, and our lowest bow :
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