IN

XXXIX.

The TURKEY and the ANT.

N other men we faults can spy,
And blame the mote that dims their eye;
Each little fpeck and blemish find,
To our own ftronger errors blind.

A Turkey, tir'd of common food,
Forfook the barn, and fought the wood;
Behind her ran her infant train,
Collecting here and there a grain.

Draw near, my birds, the mother cries,
This hill delicious fare fupplies;
Behold the bufy Negro race,

See, millions blacken all the place;
Fear not. Like me with freedom' eat;
An Ant is moft delightful meat.
How bleft, how envy'd were our life,
Could we but 'fcape the poult'rer's knife!
But man, curft man, on Turkeys preys,
And Christmas fhortens all our days;
Sometimes with oyfters we combine,
Sometimes affift the fav'ry chine.
From the low peafant to the lord,
The Turkey fmokes on ev'ry board.
Sure men for gluttony are curst,
Of the feven deadly fins the worst.

An Ant, who climb'd beyond his reach, Thus anfwer'd from the neighb'ring breach:

'Ere you remark another's fin,

Bid thy own confcience look within;
Controul thy own voracious bill,

Nor for a breakfast nations kill.

TH

XL. The FATHER and JUPITER.

HE Man to Jove his fuit preferr'd,
He begg❜d a Wife,-his prayer was heard:
Jove wonder'd at his bold addreffing,
For how precarious is the bleffing!

And ENTERTAINING FABLES.
A Wife he takes. And now for heirs
Again he worries Heaven with prayers.
Jove nods affent. Two hopeful boys
And a fine girl reward his joys.

་

Now more folicitous he grew,
And fet their future lives in view;
He faw that all refpects 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 first hope, my fav'rite boy,
All Fortune's richeft gifts enjoy;
My next with ftrong ambition fire,
May favour teach him to afpire,
'Till he the ftep of power afcend,
And courtiers to their idol bend.
With every grace, with every charm,
My daughter's perfect features arm:
If Heaven approve, a Father's blest,
Jove fmiles, and grants him his request.
The firft, a miler at the heart,
Studious of every griping art,

Heaps hoards on hoards with anxious pain,
And all his life devotes to gain.
He feels no joy, his cares increase,
He neither wakes nor fleeps in peace;
In fancy'd want, (a wretch compleat)
He starves, and yet he dares not eat.

The next to fudden honours grew,...
The thriving arts of courts he knew;
He reach'd the height of power and place,
Then fell the victim of difgrace.

Beauty, with early bloom fupplies
His daughter's cheek, and points her eyes:
The vain coquette each fuit difdains,
And glories in her lovers' pains;
With age the fades, each lover flies,
Contemn'd, forlorn, the pines and dies.

1631

When

164

SELECT MORAL

When Jove the Father's grief furvey'd,
And heard him Heaven 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 the eternal will?
Seek virtue; and of that poffeft,
To Providence refign the rest.

TH

XLI. The TWO MONKEYS.

HE learned, full of inward pride,
The fops of outward fhow deride;
The fop, with learning at defiance,
Scoffs at the pedant and the fcience:
The Don, a formal, folemn ftrutter,
Defpifes Monfieur's airs and flutter;
While Monfieur mocks the formal fool,
Who looks, and fpeaks, 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 close
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 thro' 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,

Brother, fays Pug, and turn'd his head, The rabble's monft'roufly ill-bred.

Now thro' the booth rude hiffes ran,
Nor ended till the fhow began.

The tumbler whirls the flip-flap round,
With fommerfets he fhakes the ground;
The cord beneath the dancer fprings;
Aloft in air the vaulter fwings,
Distorted now, now prone depends,
Now thro' his twisted arms afcends;
The crowd, in wonder and delight,
With clapping hands applaud the fight.
With fmiles, quoth Pug, if pranks like these
The giant apes of reafon pleafe,

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 thefe 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 pursue,
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.

XLII. The

164

SELECT MORAL

When Jove the Father's grief furvey'd,
And heard him Heaven 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 the eternal will?
Seek virtue; and of that poffeft,
To Providence refign the reft.

T

XLI. The Two MONKEYS.

HE 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 fpeaks, 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 thro' draggled folks,
Who gap'd to catch Jack Pudding's jokes;
Then took their tickets for the thow,
And got by chance the foremost row..

To fee their grave, obferving face,
Provok'd a laugh through all the place..

Brother,