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!
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 saw that all respect 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 favourite boy,
All Fortune's richest gifts enjoy.
My next with ftrong ambition fire;
May favour teach him to afpire,
Till he the step 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 bless'd."
Jove fmiles, and grants his full request.
The first, a mifer 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 complete)
He ftarves, and yet he dares not eat.
The next to sudden honours grew;
The thriving art of courts he knew ;
He reach'd the height of power and place,
Then fell the victim of disgrace.
Beauty with early bloom supplies
His daughter's cheeks, and points her eyes.
The vain coquette each suit disdains,
And glories in her lovers' pains.
With age the fades, each lover flies;
Contemn'd, forlorn, fhe pines and dies.
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 th' eternal will?
Seek virtue; and, of that poffeft,
To Providence refign the rest."
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 speaks, 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 through 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, fays Pug, and turn'd his head, The rabble's monftroufly ill-bred."
Now through the booth loud hiffes ran,
Nor ended till the fhow began.
The tumbler whirls the flip-flap round,
With fomerfets he fhakes the ground;
The cord beneath the dancer springs;
Aloft in air the vaulter fwings;
Distorted now, now prone depends,
Now through his twisted arms afcends;
The crowd, in wonder and delight,
With clapping hands applaud the fight.
With fmiles, quoth Pug," If pranks like thefe 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 those 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 praise 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."
AN Owl of grave deport and mien,
Who (like the Turk) was feldom seen,
Within a barn had chofe his ftation,
As fit for prey and contemplation:
Upon a beam aloft he fits,
And nods, and feems to think by fits.
So have I feen a man of news
Or Poft-boy or Gazette peruse,
Smoke, nod, and talk with voice profound,
And fix the fate of Europe round.
Sheaves pil'd on fheaves hid all the floor:
At dawn of morn to view his ftore
The Farmer came. The hooting gueft
His felf-importance thus expreft:
"Reason in man is mere pretence :
How weak, how fhallow, is his fenfe!
To treat with fcorn the Bird of Night,
Declares his folly or his fpite.
Then, too, how partial is his praise !
The lark's, the linnet's, chirping lays
To his ill-judging ears are fine;
And nightingales are all divine:
But the more knowing feather'd race
See wisdom ftamp'd upon my face.
"Whene'er to vifit light I deign,
What flocks of fowl compofe my train!
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