He faw that all refpect and duty
Were paid to wealth, to power, and beauty.
Once more, he cries, accept my prayer;
Make my lov'd progeny thy care.
Let my firft hope, my fav'rite boy,
All fortune's richest gifts enjoy.
My next with ftrong ambition fire:
May favour teach him to afpire;
Till he the ftep of pow'r afcend,
And courtiers to their idol bend.
With ev'ry grace, with ev'ry charm,
My daughter's perfect features arm.
If Heav'n approve, a Father's bless'd.
Jove fmiles, and grants his full request.
The firit, a mifer at the heart,
Studious of ev'ry griping art,
Heaps hoards on hoards with anxious pain;
And all his life dévotes to gain.
He feels no joy, his cares encrease,
He neither wakes nor fleeps in peace;
In fancy'd want (a wretch compleat)
He ftarves, and yet he dares not eat.
The next to fudden honours grew :
The thriving art of courts he knew:
He reach'd the height of power and place;
Then fell, the victim of disgrace.
Beauty with early bloom fupplies
His daughter's cheek, and points her eyes.
The vain coquette each fuit difdains,
And glories in her lover's pains.
With age fhe fades, each lover flies,
Contemn'd, forlorn, fhe pines and dies.
When Jove the Father's grief furvey'd,
And heard him Heav'n and Fate upbraid,
Thus fpoke the God. By outward show,
Men judge of happiness and woe :
Shall ignorance of good and ill
Dare to direct th' eternal will ?
Seek virtue; and, of that poffeft,
To Providence refign the reft.
'H E learned, full of inward pride, The Fops of outward fhow deride: The Fop, with learning at defiance, Scoffs at the pedant, and the science : The Don, a formal, folemn ftrutter, Defpifes Monfieur's airs and flutter; While Monfieur mocks the formal fool, Who looks, and speaks, and walks by rule. Britain, a medley of the twain,
As pert as France, as grave as Spain;
In fancy wifer than the reft,
Laughs at them both, of both the jeft.
Is not the poet's chiming clofe
Cenfur'd by all the fons of profe?
While bards of quick imagination
Defpife the fleepy profe narration.
Men laugh at Apes, they men contemn;
For what are we, but Apes to them?
Two Monkeys went to Southwark fair,
No critics had a fourer air:
They forc'd their way through draggled folks,
Who gap'd to catch Jack-pudding's jokes ;
Then took their tickets for the show,
And got by chance, the foremost row.
To fee their grave, obferving face,
Provok'd a laugh through all the place.
Brother, fays Pug, and turn'd his head,
The rabble's monftrously ill-bred.
Now through the booth loud hiffes ran;
Nor ended till the fhow began.
The tumbler whirls the flip-flap round,
With fomersets he shakes the ground;
The cord beneath the dancer fprings;
Aloft in air the vaulter fwings;
Distorted now, now prone depends,
Now through his twisted arms afcends';
The crowd, in wonder and delight,
With clapping hands applaud the fight.
With fmiles, quoth Pug, if pranks like thefe The giant Apes of reafon please,
How would they wonder at our arts;
They must adore us for our parts.
High on the twig I've feen you cling;
Play, twift and turn in airy ring:
How can thofe clumfy things like me,
Fly with a bound from tree to tree?
But yet, by this applaufe, we find
Thefe emulators of our kind
Difcern our worth, our parts regard,
Who our mean mimics thus reward.
Brother, the grinning mate replies,
In this I grant that Man is wife.
While good example they purfue,
We must allow fome praife is due;
But when they ftrain beyond their guide,
I laugh to fcorn the mimic pride,
For how fantastic is the fight,
To meet men always bolt upright,
Because we fometimes walk on two!
I hate the imitating crew.
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