IN Fable all things hold discourse;
Then Words, no doubt, must talk of course.
Once on a time, near Cannon-row,

Two hostile adverbs, Ay and No,
Were hastening to the field of fight,
And front to front stood opposite.
Before each general join'd the van,
Ay, the more courteous knight, began:-

"Stop, peevish Particle! beware!
I'm told you are not such a bear,
But sometimes yield when offer'd fair.
Suffer yon folks awhile to tattle-
"Tis we who must decide the battle.
Whene'er we war on yonder stage,
With various fate and equal rage,
The nation trembles at each blow
That No gives Ay, and Ay gives No;
Yet, in expensive long contention,
We gain nor office, grant, nor pension.
Why, then, should kinsfolk quarrel thus?
(For two of you make one of us.)
To some wise statesman let us go,

Where each his proper use may know:
He may admit two such commanders,

And make those wait who served in Flanders.
Let's quarter on a great man's tongue,
A treasury-lord, not Master Young.
Obsequious at his high command,
Ay shall march forth to tax the land;
Impeachments, No can best resist,
And Ay support the Civil List:
Ay, quick as Cæsar, wins the day,
And No, like Fabius, by delay.
Sometimes in mutual sly disguise,

Let Ay's seem No's, and No's seem Ay's;
Ay's be, in courts, denials meant,
And No's, in bishops give consent."
Thus Ay proposed-and, for reply,
No, for the first time, answer'd "Ay!"

They parted with a thousand kisses,

And fight e'er since for pay, like Swisses.1

(1) This fable, some allusions in which are to persons and topics wholly ephemeral, takes for its common point of moral, partly the importance of assenting at the right time, and partly, in a satirical view, the venal use of the particles of concurrence and opposition, made by courtiers and statesmen. How "No" wins, like Fabius, by delay, is proved in the Parliamentary history of facttious opposition even to our day; and the method, in which, by a trickery of words, great men's professions, like the witches of Macbeth, "keep the word of promise to the ear and break it to the hope," is touched upon; as also the "Nolo episcopar," or courteous falsehood of the bishops, who thereby disclaim the desire of that mitre, they have frequently gone through so much mire, to obtain !

Yet the importance of the word "No," though negatively expressive, is positively great. How often does temptation solicit the young! How often does habit crave of the old! How often does expediency ask the courtier to sacrifice truth, or deceit importune the wise, to wink at fallacious imposture! "It is only for this once," says sin to the first; "I have done it so often," it urges on the second; "Would you not go a little out of your way, for such a result? it inquires of the third; "After all, is it not as each may consider it for himself?" it pleads with the fourth. And to each question the heart, if young, murmurs,if old 'in vice, braves out,-an "Ay!"- and moral integrity, prudence, wisdom, truth, vanish and fall, unsupported by that pillar of the character-the conscientious disclaimer, "No!"