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ADVERTISEMENT.

HESE FABLES were finish'd by Mr. GAY, and intended for the press, a short time before his death; when they were left, with his other papers, to the care of his noble friend and patron the Duke of QUEENSBERRY. His Grace has accordingly permitted them to the prefs, and they are here printed from the orginals in the author's own hand-writing. We hope they will please equally with his former FABLES, though moftly on fubjects of a graver and more political turn. They will certainly fhew him to have been (what he esteemed the best character) a man of a truely honeft heart, and a fincere lover of his country.

PART THE SECOND.

FABLE I

The DOG and the Fox.

I

TO A LAWYER.

Know you Lawyers can, with ease,

Twist words and meanings as you please;

That language, by your skill made pliant,
Will bend to favour ev'ry client;
That 'tis the fee directs the fense,
To make out either fide's pretence.
When you perufe the clearest cafe,
You fee it with a double face:

For fcepticifm's your profeffion;

You hold there's doubt in all expreffion.
Hence is the bar with fees fupply'd,

Hence eloquence takes either fide.
Your hand would have but paltry gleaning,

Could ev'ry man exprefs his meaning.
Who dares prefume to pen a deed,

Unless you previously are feed?

'Tis drawn; and, to augment the coft,
In dull prolixity ingroft.

And now we're well fecur'd by law,
Till the next brother find a flaw.

Read o'er a Will. Was't ever known,

But

you could make the Will your own?
For when you read, 'tis with intent
To find out meanings never meant,
Since things are thus, fe defendendo,
I bar fallacious innuendo.

Sagacious PORTA's skill could trace
Some beast or bird in ev'ry face.
The head, the eye, the nofe's fhape,
Prov'd this an owl, and that an ape..
When, in the sketches thus defign'd,
Refemblance brings fome friend to mind,
You fhew the piece, and give the hint,
And find each feature in the print;
So monftrous-like the portrait's found,
All know it, and the laugh goes round.
Like him I draw from gen'ral nature;
Is't I or you then fix the satire?

So, Sir, I beg you spare your pains

In making comments on my

All private flander I deteft,

ftrains.

I judge not of my neighbour's breaft::
Party and prejudice I hate,

And write no libels on the state..

Shall

Shall not my

fable cenfure vice,

Because a knave is over-nice ?

And, left the guilty hear and dread,
Shall not the decalogue be read?
If I lash vice in gen'ral 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 an ape or afs;

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

A fhepherd's Dog, unskill'd in fports,
Pick'd up acquaintance of all forts:
Among the reft a Fox he knew ;
By frequent chat their friendship grew.
Says Renard, 'Tis a cruel cafe,
That man should stigmatize our race.
No doubt, among us rogues you find,
As among Dogs and human kind;
And yet (unknown to me and you)
There may be honeft men and true.
Thus flander tries, whate'er it can,
To put us on the foot with man.
Let my own actions recommend;
No prejudice can blind a friend:

You