Wide he displays; the spangled dew
Reflects his eyes and various hue.

His now-forgotten friend, a Snail,
Beneath his house, with slimy trail
Crawls o'er the grass, whom when he spies,
In wrath he to the gardener cries,
"What means yon peasant's daily toil,
From choking weeds to rid the soil?
Why wake you to the morning's care?
Why with new arts correct the year?
Why grows the peach with crimson hue
And why the plum's inviting blue?
Were they to feast his taste design'd,
That vermin of voracious kind?
Crush then the slow, the pilfering race,
So purge thy garden from disgrace."

"What arrogance!" the Snail replied, "How insolent is upstart pride!

Hadst thou not thus, with insult vain,
Provoked my patience to complain,
I had conceal'd thy meaner birth,
Nor traced thee to the scum of earth:
For scarce nine suns have waked the hours,
To swell the fruit, and paint the flowers,
Since I thy humbler life survey'd,
In base, in sordid guise array'd.

A hideous insect, vile, unclean,

You dragged a slow and noisome train,
And from your spider-bowels drew
Foul film, and spun the dirty clue.

I

own my humble life, good friend; Snail was I born, and Snail shall end.

And, what's a Butterfly? at best,
He's but a caterpillar drest;

And all thy race, a numerous seed,
Shall prove of caterpillar breed." 1

(1) The moral here, as usual placed at the commencement, directs our scorn to the vulgar pride and tyranny of upstart pretenders, in whom, like the ass in the lion's skin, the meanness of their original nature will peep out, in spite of all adventitious ornament of rank and fortune. Especially also is this manifested by such coxcombs against their former associates, upon whom they drop the dirt off their footsteps, as they ascend the ladder of ambition. The man of really high birth is characterised by condescension, affability, and regard for his inferiors, for he, like the oak, can stoop and regain his former attitude; but arrogance, cruelty, and injustice, stamp the parvenu, who, like the mushroom, of only a few hours' origin, does not possess the graceful elasticity of rank, and therefore cannot bend, but snaps asunder the instant he swerves out of the perpendicular line of starched pride and vulgar assumption. Vide the description of pride given by Ulysses. (Shakspear: Troilus and Cressida, Act ii. scene 3.)

THE husband thus reproved his wife:
"Who deals in slander, lives in strife.
Art thou the herald of disgrace,
Denouncing war to all thy race?
Can nothing quell thy thunder's rage,
Which spares nor friend, nor sex, nor age?
That vixen tongue of your's, my dear,
Alarms our neighbours far and near.

Good gods! 'tis like a rolling river,
That murmuring flows, and flows for ever!
Ne'er tired, perpetual discord sowing!
Like fame, it gathers strength by going."
"Hey-day," the flippant tongue replies,
"How solemn is the fool! how wise!
Is Nature's choicest gift debarr'd?-
Nay, frown not, for I will be heard.
Women of late are finely ridden,
A Parrot's privilege forbidden!
You praise his talk, his squalling song,
But wives are always in the wrong."
Now reputations flew in pieces

Of mothers, daughters, aunts, and nieces:
She ran the Parrot's language o'er,
Bawd, hussy, drunkard, slattern, whore;
On all the sex she vents her fury,
Tries and condemns without a jury.
At once the torrent of her words
Alarm'd cat, monkey, dogs, and birds;
All join their forces to confound her,
Puss spits, the monkey chatters round her;
The yelping cur her heels assaults:
The magpie blabs out all her faults;1
Poll, in the uproar, from his cage,
With this rebuke outscream'd her rage:
"A Parrot is for talking prized,
But prattling women are despised.
She who attacks another's honour,
Draws every living thing upon her:

(1) "It is better to dwell in the wilderness," says Solomon, "than with contentious and an angry woman." Prov. xxi. 19. See also Prov. xxv. 24.