TO THE

FA BL E S.

PART THE FIRST.

The SHEPHERD and the PHILOSOPHER.

EMOTE from cities liv'd a Swain,

His head was filver'd o'er with age,
And long experience made him fage;

In fummer's heat and winter's cold
He fed his flock, and penn'd the fold;
His hours in chearful labour flew,

Nor

envy nor ambition knew ;

His wifdom and his honest fame

Through all the country rais'd his name.
A 5

A deep

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.

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 vaft fenfe of PLATO weigh'd?
Hath SOCRATES thy foul refin'd,"
And haft thou fathom'd TULLY's mind ?
Or, like the wife ULYSSES thrown
By various fates on realms unknown,
Haft thou through many cities ftray'd,
Their customs, laws, and manners weigh'd ?

The Shepherd modeftly reply'd.
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 disguise,
He cheats the most difcerning eyes:
Who by that fearch fhall wifer grow,
When we ourfelves 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

INTRODUCTIO N. II

Who can obferve the careful ant,
And not provide for future want?
My dog (the truftieft of his kind)
With gratitude inflames my mind:
I mark 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 ev'ry 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 over-bear.
Can grave and formal pafs for wife,
When men the folemn owl despise?
My tongue within my lips I rein;
For who talks much, muft talk in vain.
We from the wordy torrent fly:
Who liftens to the chatt'ring 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

But envy, calumny, and spite,
Bear ftronger venom in their bite.
Thus ev'ry object of creation
Çan furnish hints to contemplation;
And from the most minute and mean
A virtuous mind can morals glean,

Thy fame is juft, the fage replies;
Thy virtue proves thee truly wife.
Pride often guides the author's pen,
Books as affected are as men :
But he who ftudies nature's laws,
From certain truth his maxims draws;
And those, without our schools, fuffice
To make men moral, good, and wife.

TO

WILLIAM

DUKE OF CUMBERLAND.

FABLE I

The LION, the TYGER, and the TRAVELLER,

CCEPT, young PRINCE, the moral lay,
And in these tales mankind furvey;

With early virtues plant your breast,
The fpecious arts of vice deteft.

Princes, like beauties, from their youth
Are ftrangers to the voice of truth;
Learn to contemn all praise betimes;
For flattery's the nurse of crimes:
Friendship by fweet reproof is shown,
(A virtue never near a throne);
In courts fuch freedom must offend,
There none presumes to be a friend.
To those of your exalted station
Each courtier is a dedication.
Muft I too flatter like the reft,

And turn my morals to a jest?

The

E