What bleffings must attend the nation
Under this good administration!"

He faid. A Goofe, who distant stood,
Harangu'd apart the cackling brood:

"Whene'er I hear a knave commend,

He bids me fhun his worthy friend.

What praise! what mighty commendation !
But 'twas a Fox who spoke th' oration.
Foxes this government may prize,
As gentle, plentiful, and wife;
If they enjoy the fweets, 'tis plain
We Geefe muft feel a tyrant-reign.

What havock now fhall thin our race,
When every petty clerk in place,

To prove his tafte, and feem polite,

30

35

40

Will feed on Geese both noon and night!”.

FABLE VIII.

THE LADY AND THE WASP.

WHAT whifpers must the Beauty bear!
What hourly nonsense haunts her ear!
Where'er her eyes dispense their charms,
Impertinence around her swarms.

Did not the tender nonfenfe ftrike,
Contempt and fcorn might look diflike;
Forbidding airs might thin the place,
The flightest flap a fly can chace:

But who can drive the numerous breed?
Chace one, another will fucceed.

IO

Who

Who knows a fool, must know his brother;
One fop will recommend another:

And with this plague she's rightly curst,
Because the liften'd to the first.

As Doris, at her toilette's duty,
Sat meditating on her beauty,
She now was penfive now was gay,
And loll'd the fultry hours away.

As thus in indolence the lies,
A giddy Wasp around her flies.
He now advances, now retires,

Now to her neck and cheek aspires.
Her fan in vain defends her charms;
& Swift he returns, again alarms;
For by repulfe he bolder grew,

Perch'd on her lip, and fipt the dew.

15

20

25

She frowns; she frets. "Good Gods! fhe cries,

Protect me from these teazing flies!

Of all the plagues that Heaven hath fent,

A Wafp is most impertinent."

39

The hovering infect thus complain'd;

"Am I then flighted, fcorn'd, difdain'd?
Can fuch offence your anger wake?

'Twas beauty caus'd the bold mistake.

Those cherry lips that breathe perfume,

35

That cheek fo ripe with youthful bloom,
Made me with strong defire pursue
The fairest peach that ever grew."

Strike him not, Jenny, Doris cries,
Nor murder Wafps like vulgar flies;

40

For

For though he's free (to do him right),
The creature's civil and polite."

In ecftafies away he posts;

Where'er he came, the favour boats;

Brags how her sweetest tea he fips,

45

And fhows the fugar on his lips.

The hint alarm'd the forward crew;

Sure of fuccefs, away they flew :
They share the dainties of the day,
Round her with airy mufic play:

50

And now they flutter, now they reft,
Now foar again, and fkim her breast.

Nor were they banish'd, till fhe found
That Wafps have ftings, and felt the wound.

THE BULL AND THE MASTIFF.

EEK you to train your favourite boy?

SEE

Each caution, every care employ ;

And, ere you venture to confide,

Let his preceptor's heart be try'd:

Weigh well his manners, life, and scope;
On thefe depends thy future hope.

As on a time, in peaceful reign,
A Bull enjoy'd the flowery plain,
A Maftiff pafs'd; inflam'd with ire,
His eye-balls fhot indignant fire.

He foam'd, he rag'd with thirst of blood.
Spurning the ground, the monarch stood,

5

10

And

And roar'd aloud: " Sufpend the fight;
In a whole skin go fleep to-night:

Or tell me, ere the battle rage,
What wrongs provoke thee to engage?
Is it ambition fires thy breaft,

Or avarice, that ne'er can reft?
From thefe alone unjustly fprings
The world-deftroying wrath of kings."
The furly Maftiff thus returns:
"Within my bofom glory burns.
Like heroes of eternal name,
Whom poets fing, I fight for fame.
The butcher's fpirit-stirring mind
To daily war my youth inclin'd;
He train❜d me to heroic deed,

Taught me to conquer, or to bleed."

"Curs'd Dog, the Bull reply'd, no more

I wonder at thy thirst of gore;

For thou (beneath a butcher train'd, ·
Whofe hands with cruelty are ftain'd,
His daily murders in thy view)

Muft, like thy tutor, blood pursue. ·

15

20

30

Take, then, thy fate." With goring wound 35
At once he lifts him from the ground:
Aloft the sprawling hero flies,

Mangled he falls, he howls, and dies.

FABLE

FABLE X.

THE ELEPHANT AND THE BOOKSELLER.

THE man who with undaunted toils

Sails unknown feas to unknown foils,
With various wonders feafts his fight:
What ftranger wonders does he write!
We read, and in defcription view
Creatures which Adam never knew;
For, when we rifk no contradiction,
It prompts the tongue to deal in fiction.
Those things that startle me or you
I grant are ftrange; yet may be true.
Who doubts that Elephants are found
For fcience and for fense renown'd?
Borri records their ftrength of parts,
Extent of thought, and skill in arts;
How they perform the law's decrees,
And fave the ftate the hangman's fees;
And how by travel understand

The language of another land.

5

10

15

Let thofe, who question this report,

To Pliny's ancient page refort.

How learn'd was that fagacious breed!

20

Who now (like them) the Greek can read?
As one of thefe, in days of yore,
Rummag'd a fhop of learning o'er,
Not like our modern dealers, minding
Only the margin's breadth and binding,

25

A book