How weak is pride! returns the sire: All fools are vain when fools admire! But know, what stupid asses prize Lions and noble beasts despise.

FABLE XX.

THE OLD HEN AND THE COCK.

RESTRAIN your child; you'll soon believe
The text which says we sprung from Eve.
As an old Hen led forth her train,
And seem'd to peck to show the grain,
She rak'd the chaff, she scratch'd the ground,
And glean'd the spacious yard around:
A giddy chick, to try her wings,
On the well's narrow margin springs,
And prone she drops. The mother's breast
All day with sorrow was possest.

A Cock she met; her son she knew;
And in her heart affection grew.

My Son, says she, I grant your years
Have reach'd beyond a mother's cares.
I see you vig'rous, strong, and bold;
I hear with joy your triumphs told.
'Tis not from Cocks thy fate I dread;
But let thy ever-wary tread
Avoid yon well; that fatal place
Is sure perdition to our race.

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Print this my counsel on thy breast;
To the just Gods I leave the rest.

He thank'd her care; yet day by day
His bosom burn'd to disobey,

And ev'ry time the well he saw,
Scorn'd in his heart the foolish law:
Near and more near each day he drew,
And long'd to try the dang'rous view.
Why was this idle charge? he cries;
Let courage female fears despise.
Or did she doubt my heart was brave,
And therefore this injunction gave?
Or does her harvest store the place,
A treasure for her younger race?
And would she thus my search prevent?
I stand resolv'd, and dare th' event.

Thus said, he mounts the margin's round,
And pries into the depth profound.
He stretch'd his neck: and from below
With stretching neck advanc'd a foe:
With wrath his ruffled plumes he rears,
The foe with ruffled plumes appears:
Threat answer'd threat; his fury grew;
Headlong to meet the war he flew;
But when the wat'ry death he found,
He thus lamented as he drown'd:

I ne'er had been in this condition,
But for my mother's prohibition.

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FABLE XXI.

THE RATCATCHER AND CATS.

THE rats by night such mischief did,
Betty was ev'ry morning chid:

They undermin'd whole sides of bacon,
Her cheese was sapp'd, her tarts were taken;
Her pasties, fenc'd with thickest pastę,
Were all demolish'd and laid waste:
She curs'd the Cat for want of duty,
Who left her foes a constant booty,
An engineer, of noted skill,
Engag'd to stop the growing ill.

From room to room he now surveys

Their haunts, their works, their secret ways;
Finds where they 'scape an ambuscade,
And whence the nightly sally's made.
An envious Cat, from place to place,
Unseen, attends his silent pace :
She saw that, if his trade went on,
The purring race must be undone;
So secretly removes his baits,
And ev'ry stratagem defeats.

Again he sets the poison'd toils,
And Puss again the labour foils.

What foe (to frustrate my designs) My schemes thus nightly countermines?

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Incens'd, he cries, this very hour
The wretch shall bleed beneath my pow'r.

So said, a pond'rous trap he brought,
And in the fact poor Puss was caught,
Smuggler, says he, thou shalt be made
A victim to our loss of trade.

The captive Cat, with piteous mews,
For pardon, life, and freedom sues.
A sister of the science spare;
One int'rest is our common care.
What insolence! the Man reply'd:
Shall cats with us the game divide ?
Were all your interloping band
Extinguish'd, or expell'd the land,
We Ratcatchers might raise our fees,
Sole guardians of a nation's cheese!

A Cat, who saw the lifted knife,
Thus spoke, and sav'd her sister's life.

In ev'ry age and clime we see
Two of a trade can ne'er agree.

Each hates his neighbour for encroaching;
'Squire stigmatizes 'Squire for poaching;
Beauties with beauties are in arms,
And scandal pelts each other's charms;
Kings, too, their neighbour kings dethrone,
In hope to make the world their own:
But let us limit our desires,

Not war like beauties, kings, and 'squires;

For tho' we both one prey pursue,
There's game enough for us and you.

FABLE XXII.

THE GOAT WITHOUT A BEARD.

'Tis certain that the modish passions
Descend among the crowd like fashions.
Excuse me then, if pride, conceit,
(The manners of the fair and great)
I give to monkeys, asses, dogs,
Fleas, owls, goats, butterflies, and hogs.
I say that these are proud: what then?
I never said they equal men.

A Goat (as vain as Goat can be)
Affected singularity:

Whene'er a thymy bank he found,

He roll'd upon the fragrant ground,
And then with fond attention stood,
Fix'd o'er his image in the flood.

I hate my frowzy beard, he cries,
My youth is lost in this disguise.
Did not the females know my vigour,

Well might they loathe this rev'rend figure.
Resolv'd to smooth his shaggy face,
He sought the barber of the place.
A flippant monkey, spruce and smart,
Hard by, profess'd the dapper art;
Volume III.

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