Virtue! rejoin'd the fneering bird,

Where did you learn that gothick word?
Since I was hatch'd I never heard

That virtue was at all rever'd.

But fay it was the antients' claim,
Yet moderns difavow the name.
Unless, my dear, you read romances,
I cannot reconcile your fancies.
Virtue in fairy tales is seen

To play the goddess, or the queen;
But what's a queen without the pow'r,
Or beauty, child, without a dow'r?
Yet this is all that virtue brags;
At beft 'tis only worth in rags.
Such whims my very heart derides,
Indeed you make me burft my fides,
Truft me, Mifs Bee-to fpeak the truth,
I've copied man from earliest youth;
The fame our tafte, the fame our school,
Paffion and appetite our rule;

And call me Bird, or call me finner,
I'll ne'er forego my fport or dinner.

A prowling Cat the miscreant spies,
And wide expands her amber eyes.
Near and more near Grimalkin draws,
She wags her tail, protends her paws;
Then fpringing on her thoughtless prey,
She bore the vicious bird away.

Thus in her cruelty and pride,

The wicked, wanton Sparrow dy'd.

That true Virtue confifts in Action, and not in Specu

L

ABOUR entitles man to eat,

The idle have no claim to meat.

This rule must every station fit,

Because 'tis drawn from facred writ.

And yet, to feed on fuch condition,

Almoft amounts to prohibition.

Rome's priesthood wou'd be doom'd, I fear,
To eat foup maigre all the year.

And

And wou'd not Oxford's cloister'd fon

By this hard ftatute be undone?

In truth, your poet, were he fed

No oft'ner than he earns his bread,
The vengeance of this law wou'd feel,
And often go without a meal.

It seem'd a Scholar and his Cat
Together join'd in focial chat.
When thus the letter'd youth began-
Of what vaft confequence is man!
Lords of this nether globe we shine,
Our tenure's held by right divine.
Here independence waves its plea,
All creatures bow the vaffal knee.
Nor earth alone can bound our reign,

Ours is the empire of the main.

True-man's a fovereign prince-but say,

What art fuftains the monarch's fway.

Say from what fource we fetch supplies,

'Tis here the grand enquiry lies.

Strength is not man's-for strength must suit
Beft with the ftructure of a brute.

Nor

Nor craft nor cunning can fuffice,
A fox might then difpute the prize.
Tq God-like Reason 'tis we owe
Our ball and fceptre here below.

Now your affociate next explains
To whom precedence appertains.
And fure 'tis easy to divine

The leaders of this royal line.
Note that all tradesmen I attest

But petty princes at the beft.
Superior excellence you'll find
In thofe, who cultivate the mind.
Hence heads of colleges, you'll own,
Tranfcend th' affeffors of a throne.
Say, Evans, have you any doubt?
You can't offend by speaking out.

With vifage placid and fedate,

Pufs thus addrefs'd her learned mate.

We're told that none in Nature's plan Difputes pre-eminence with man.

But this is ftill a dubious cafe

To me, and all our purring race.

We

We grant indeed to partial eyes
Men may appear fupremely wife.
But our fagacious rabbies hold,
That all which glitters is not gold.
Pray, if your haughty claims be true,
Why are our manners ap'd by you?
Whene'er you think, all Cats agree,
You shut your optics, just as we.
Pray, why like Cats fo wrapt in thought,
If you by Cats were never taught?
But know, our tabby schools maintain

Worth is not center'd in the brain.

Not that our fages thought despise—
No-but in action virtue lies.

We find it by experience fact,
That thought muft ripen into act;
Or Cat no real fame acquires,

But virtue in the bud expires.
This point your orchard can decide-
Obferve its gay autumnal pride.

For trees are held in high repute,
Not for their bloffoms, but their fruit.

If