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Each little mischief gain'd him praise;
How pretty were his fawning ways!

The wind was south, the morning fair,
He ventures forth to take the air:
He ranges all the meadow round,
And rolls upon the softest ground;
When near him a Chameleon seen,
Was scarce distinguish'd from the green.
"Dear emblem of the flattering host!
What, live with clowns! a genius lost!
To cities and the court repair;

A fortune cannot fail thee there :
Preferment shall thy talents crown;
Believe me, friend; I know the town."
"Sir," says the sycophant, "like you,
Of old, politer life I knew:

Like you, a courtier born and bred,
Kings lean'd their ear to what I said:
My whisper always met success;
The ladies praised me for address:
I knew to hit each courtier's passion,
And flatter'd every vice in fashion:
But Jove, who hates the liar's ways,
At once cut short my prosperous days,
And, sentenced to retain my nature,
Transform'd me to this crawling creature.
Doom'd to a life obscure and mean,
I wander in the silvan scene:
For Jove the heart alone regards;
He punishes what man rewards.—1

(1) Compare 1 Sam. xvi. 7.

How different is thy case and mine?
With men at least you sup and dine;
While I, condemn'd to thinnest fare,
Like those I flatter'd, feed on air."1

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(1) The raillery at court sycophants naturally pervades our poet's writings, who had suffered so much from them: here, however, he intimates something more, namely, the apposite dispensations to men's acts, even in this world. The crafty is taken in his own guile, the courtier falls by his own arts, and the ladder of ambition only prepares for the aspirant a further fall.

"Unde altior esset

Casus, et impulsæ præceps immane ruinæ."-Juvenal.

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THE MOTHER, THE NURSE, AND THE FAIRY.

"GIVE me a son!"-The blessing sent,

Were ever parents more content?
How partial are their doting eyes!
No child is half so fair and wise.1

Wak'd to the morning's pleasing care,
The Mother rose, and sought her heir:
She saw the Nurse like one possest,

With wringing hands and sobbing breast.

(1) "I never yet saw that father who, let his son be never so decrepit or scaldpated, would not own him not but that, unless he were totally besotted and blinded with his paternal affection, he does not well enough discern his defects, but because, notwithstanding all his faults, he is still his."-MONTAIGNE.

"Sure some disaster has befell: Speak, Nurse; I hope the boy is well."

"Dear Madam, think not me to blame;
Invisible the Fairy came:

Your precious babe is hence convey'd,
And in the place a changeling laid.
Where are the father's mouth and nose?
The mother's eyes, as black as sloes?
See, here, a shocking awkward creature,
That speaks a fool in every feature."

"The woman's blind," the Mother cries,
"I see wit sparkle in his eyes."

"Lord, Madam, what a squinting leer!
No doubt the Fairy hath been here.”
Just as she spoke, a pigmy sprite
Pops through the keyhole swift as light;
Perch'd on the cradle's top she stands,
And thus her folly reprimands.

"Whence sprung the vain conceited lie,
That we the world with fools supply?
What! give our sprightly race away
For the dull helpless sons of clay !—
Besides, by partial fondness shown,
Like you, we dote upon our own.
Where yet was ever found a Mother
Who'd give her booby for another?

And should we change with human breed,
Well might we pass for fools indeed."1

(1) The application of this fable is two-fold; for whilst it slightly touches, by inference, the shortsightedness of human wishes, it also alludes to the false judgment which parental fondness forms, of juvenile error. The severe sarcasm passed by the fairy upon mortal infirmity, is as true, as the readiness with which we allow a reason to operate in our own case, and forbid it in another's, is frequent. Johnson's famous paraphrase upon the tenth Satire of Juvenal, is verv concurrent with this fable.

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As Jupiter's all-seeing eye

Survey'd the worlds beneath the sky;
From this small speck of earth were sent
Murmurs and sounds of discontent;

For every thing alive complain'd
That he the hardest life sustain'd.1

Jove calls his eagle. At the word
Before him stands the royal bird.

The greatest portion of religious service which Heaven receives," says the sincerest act of our devotion is-complaint.".

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