Now see these wretches in disgrace,
Stript of their treasures, power, and place;
View 'em abandon'd and forlorn,
Exposed to just reproach, and scorn.
What now is all your pride, your boast?
Where are your slaves, your flattering host?
with applause?
What tongues now feed you
Where are the champions of your cause?
Now e'en that very fawning train,
Which shared the gleanings of your gain,
Press foremost who shall first accuse
Your selfish jobs, your paltry views,
Your narrow schemes, your breach of trust,
And want of talents to be just.
What fools were these amidst their power!
How thoughtless of their adverse hour!
What friends were made? A hireling herd,
For temporary votes preferr'd.
Was it these sycophants to get,
Your bounty swell'd a nation's debt?
You're bit, for these, like Swiss, attend-
No longer pay, no longer friend.1
The lion is (beyond dispute)
Allow'd the most majestic brute;
His valour and his generous mind
Prove him superior of his kind:
(1) Witness the fall of all great men, not only as with Cæsar, after death"Now lies he there, and none so poor to do him reverence!"but also upon their dismission from power, whether it be Wolsey or Sejanus, the cry from all the satellites, who run from the setting sun to greet a newer planet, is
Dum jacet in ripâ, calcemus Cæsaris hostem."-Juv. Sat. X.
Yet to jackals (as 'tis averr'd)
Some lions have their power transferr'd,
As if the parts of pimps and spies
To govern forests, could suffice.
Once, studious of his private good,
A proud Jackal oppress'd the wood;
To cram his own insatiate jaws,
Invaded property and laws.
The forest groans with discontent,
Fresh wrongs the general hate, foment.
The spreading murmurs reach'd his ear;
His secret hours were vex'd with fear.
Night after night, he weighs the case,
And feels the terrors of disgrace.
"By friends," says he, “I'll guard my seat, By those, malicious tongues defeat;
I'll strengthen power by new allies,
And all my clamorous foes, despise."
To make the generous beasts his friends,
He cringes, fawns, and condescends;
But those repulsed his abject court,
And scorn'd oppression to support.
Friends must be had, he can't subsist-
Bribes shall new proselytes, enlist.
But these, nought weigh'd in honest paws;
For bribes, confess a wicked cause:
Yet think not every paw withstands
What hath prevail'd in human hands.
A tempting turnip's silver skin
Drew a base Hog through thick and thin:
Bought with a Stag's delicious haunch,
The mercenary Wolf was staunch:
The convert Fox grew warm and hearty,
A pullet gain'd him to the party:
The golden pippin in his fist,
A chattering Monkey join'd the list.1
But soon, exposed to public hate,
The favourite's fall redress'd the state.
The Leopard, vindicating right,
Had brought his secret frauds to light.
As rats, before the mansion falls,
Desert late hospitable walls,
In shoals the servile creatures run,
To bow before the rising sun.
The Hog with warmth express'd his zeal,
And was for hanging those that steal;
But hoped, though low, the public hoard
Might, half a turnip, still afford.
Since saving measures were profest,
A lamb's head, was the Wolf's request.
The Fox submitted, if to touch
A gosling would be deem'd too much?
The Monkey thought his grin and chatter,
Might ask a nut, or some such matter.
"Ye hirelings, hence!" the Leopard cries,
"Your venal conscience I despise :
He who the public good intends,
By bribes, needs never purchase friends.
Who acts this just, this open part,
Is propt by every honest heart.
Corruption now too late has show'd
That bribes are always ill-bestowed:
(1) So true is it "that every one has his price indeed, I find that the most sterling, certainly the most vociferous, virtue, is that which has never been tested.
By you, your bubbled master's taught,
Time-serving tools, not friends, are bought."1
(1) Dishonesty is always insecure, and the dealer with knaves; for falsehood is never sure that these last have not, like Snake, in the "School for Scandal," "received a greater bribe for speaking the truth." The hypocrisy with which each venal rogue rails against wickedness, yet allows a "fiat" to his own sins; the severity, too, with which, as Lear says, "the usurer hangs the cozener," or attacks the very faults in another, which are rampant in self, are human to a hair, and now as ever,
"Clodius accusat mæchos, Catilina Cethegum." Honesty, indeed, is the best policy in every case, but especially for courtiers and ministers of state, since the quality being least expected in them, would, when employed, serve to mask their designs, better than all the arts of deception, since who would ever suspect them of speaking the truth?
TO THE REV. DR. SWIFT, DEAN OF ST. PATRICK'S.
THOUGH Courts the practice disallow,
A friend at all times I'll avow.
In politics I know 'tis wrong-
A friendship may be kept too long;
And what they call the prudent part,
Is to wear interest next the heart:
As the times take a different face,
Old friendships should to new, give place.
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