By the DEATH of the DUKE REGENT of FRANCE.
OW vain are mortal man's endeavours?
(Said, at dame. Elliot's *, mafter Travers),
Good Orleans dead f in truth 'tis hard:
Oh, may all statesmen die prepar'd!
I do forefee (and for fore-feeing
He equals any man in being) *
The army ne'er can be difbanded.
-I with the King were fafely landed.
Ah, friends! great changes threat the land;
All France and England at a stand!
There's Meroweis - mark! ftrange work!
And there's the Czar, and there's the Turk;
The Pope
An India merchant by,
Cut fhort the fpeech with this reply:
"All at a stand? You fee great changes?
“Ah, Sir! you never saw the Ganges.
"There dwell the nations of Quidnunki's
"(So Monomotapa calls monkies):
A coffee-houfe near St. James's.
C-4
"On either bank, from bough to bough,
They meet and chat (as we may now). Whispers go round, they grin, they shrug, "They bow, they fnarl, they fcratch, they hug; "And, just as chance or whim provoke them,
They either bite their friends, or ftroke them.
"There have I feen fome active prig,
"To fhew his parts, beftride a twig:
"Lord! how the chattering tribe admire,
"Not that he 's wifer, but he's higher.:
"All long to try the venturous thing
is but to have one's fwing);
"(For power
From fide to fide he springs, he spurns,
"And bangs his foes and friends by turns.
"Thus, as in giddy freaks he bounces,
"Crack goes the twig, and in he flounces !
"Down the swift ftream the wretch is borne;
"Never, ah never, to return!
"Zounds! what a fall had our dear brother;
"Morbleu! cries one; and Damme! t'other.
"The nations give a general fcreech;
"None cocks his tail, none claws his breech; "Each trembles for the public weal,
"And for a while forgets to fteal.
"A while, all eyes, intent and fieddy, "Pursue him, whirling down the eddy. "But, out of mind when out of view, "Some other mounts the twig anew; "And business, on each monkey-fhore, "Runs the fame track it went before."
"Shall not my Fables cenfure vice,
"Because a knave is over-nice ?
"If I lash vice in general fiction,
"Is 't I apply, or self-conviction?
"Brutes are my theme. Am I to blame,,
"If men in morals are the fame ?
"I no man call or ape or afs;
"'Tis his own conscience holds the glass.
"Thus void of all offence I write :
"Who claims the Fable, knows his right.'
INTRODUCTION TO THE FABLES.
THE SHEPHERD AND THE PHILOSOPHER.
EMOTE from cities liv'd a Swain,
Unvex'd with all the cares of gain;
His head was filver'd o'er with age,
And long experience made him fage;
In fummer's heat, and winter's cold,
He fed his flock, and penn'd the fold;;
His hours in cheerful labour flew,
Nor envy nor ambition knew;
His wisdom and his honest fame
Through all the country rais'd his name.
A deep Philofopher (whofe rules
Of moral life were drawn from schools)
The Shepherd's homely cottage fought,
And thus explor'd his reach of thought.
Whence is thy learning? hath thy toil
O'er books confum'd the midnight oil? :
Haft thou old Greece and Rome furvey'd,
And the vaft fenfe of Plato weigh'd?
Hath Socrates thy foul refin'd,.
And haft thou fathom'd Tully's mind ?
Or, like the wife Ulyffes, thrown,
By various fates, on realms unknown,
Haft thou through many cities ftray'd,
Their customs, laws, and manners, weigh'd?
The Shepherd modeftly reply'd,
I ne'er the paths of learning try'd ;
Nor have I roam'd in foreign parts,
To read mankind, their laws and arts;
For man is practis'd in disguise,
He cheats the most difcerning eyes:
Who by that fearch fhall wifer
grow,
When we ourselves can never know?
The little knowledge I have gain'd, -
Was all from-fimple Nature drain'd;
Hence my life's maxims took their rise,
Hence grew my settled hate to vice.
The daily labours of the bee
Awake my foul to industry:
Who can obferve the careful ant,
And not provide for future want?
My dog (the trustieft of his kind)
With gratitude inflames my mind:
I mark his true, his faithful way,
And in my fervice copy Tray.
In conftancy and nuptial love,
I learn my duty from the dove.
The hen, who from the chilly air,
With pious wing, protects her care,
And every fowl that flies at large,.
Inftructs me in a parent's charge..
From Nature, too, I take my rule,
To fhun contempt and ridicule.
I never, with important air,
In converfation overbear.
Can grave and formal pafs for wife,
When men the folemn owl defpife?
My tongue within my lips I rein;
Rapacious animals we hate :
Kites, hawks, and wolves, deferve their fate.
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