A Turkey, tir'd of common food,
Forfook the barn, and fought' the wood;
Behind her ran an infant train,
Collecting here and there a grain.
Draw near, my birds, the mother cries,
This hill delicious fare fupplies;
Behold the bufy Negroe race,
See, millions blacken all the place!
Fear not.
Like me with freedom eat;
An Ant is most delightful meat.
How blefs'd, how envy'd were our life,
Could we but 'fcape the poult'rer's knife!
But man, curs'd man, on turkeys preys,
And Christmas fhortens all our days:
Sometimes with oyfters we combine,
Sometimes affift the fav'ry chine.
From the low peasant to the lord,
The Turkey smokes on ev'ry board.
Sure men for gluttony are curs'd,
Of the fev'n deadly fins the worst.
An Ant, who climb'd beyond her reach,
Thus anfwer'd from the neighb'ring beech:
Ere you remark another's fin,
Bid thy own confcience look within;
Controul thy more voracious bill,
Nor for a breakfaft nations kill,
The FATHER and JUPITER.
A FABLE. [GAY.]
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 wearies heav'n with prayers.
Jove nods affent. Two hopeful boys
And a fine girl reward his joys.
Now, more folicitous he
And fet their future lives in view,
He faw that all refpect 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 fav'rite boy,
All fortune's richeft gifts enjoy.
My next with ftrong ambition fire:
May favour teach him to afpire;
Till he the step of pow'r afcend,
And courtiers to their idol bend.
With ev'y grace, with ev'ry charm,
My daughter's perfect features arm.
If heav'n approve, a Father's blefs'd,
Jove fmiles, and grants his full request.
The firft, a mifer at the heart,
Studious of ev'ry griping art,
Heaps hoards on hoards with anxious pain,
And all his life devotes to gain.
He feels no joy, his cares increafe,
He neither wakes nor fleeps in peace;
In fancy'd want (a wretch compleat)
He ftarves and yet he dares not eat.
The next to fudden honours grew:
The thriving art of courts he knew:
He reach'd the height of power and place;
Then fell, the victim of difgrace.
Beauty with early bloom fupplies
His daughter's cheek, and points her eyes..
The vain coquette each fuit difdains,
And glories in her lover's pains.
With age fhe fades, each lover flies,
Contemn'd, forlorn, fhe pines and dies..
When Jove the Father's grief furvey'd,,
And heard him Heav'n and Fate upbraid;
Thus fpoke the God. By outward fhow,,
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 reft.
The CUR, the HORSE, and the SHEPHERD's
HE lad, of all-fufficient merit,
THE
With modefty ne'er damps his fpirit ;;
Prefuming on his own deferts,
On all alike his tongue exerts ;,
His noify jokes at random throws,
And pertly fpatters friends and foes;
In wit and war the bully race
Contribute to their own difgrace.
Too late the forward youth fhall find
That jokes are fometimes paid in kind;
Or if they canker in the breast,
He makes a foe who makes a jeft.
A Village-cur, of fnappish race,
The perteft puppy of the place,
Imagin'd that his treble throat
Was blefs'd with mufic's fweetest note;
In the mid road he bafking lay,
The yelping nufance of the way;
For not a creature paft along
But had a fample of his fong.
Soon as the trotting fteed he hears,
He starts, he cocks his dapper ears;
Away he fcours, affaults his hoof;
Now near him fnarls, now barks aloof;
With thrill impertinence attends;
Nor leaves him till the village ends.
It chanc'd, upon his evil day,
A Pad came pacing down the way:
The Cur, with never-ceafing tongue,
Upon the paffing trav'ler fprung.
The horse, from fcorn provok'd to ire,
Flung backward; rolling in the mire,
The Puppy howl'd, and bleeding lay;
The Pad in peace purfu'd his way.
A Shepherd's dog, who faw the deed,
Detefting the vexatious breed,
Bespoke him thus. When coxcombs prate,
They kindle wrath, contempt, or hate;
Thy teazing tongue had judgment ty'd,
Thou hadft not, like a Puppy, dy'd.
A FABLE. [GAY.]
Know you Lawyers can, with ease,
Twift words and meanings as you please; That language, by your skill made pliant, Will bend to favour ev'ry client;
That 'tis the fee directs the fenfe,
To make out either fide's pretence.
When you perufe the clearest case,
You fee it with a double face:
For fcepticifm's your profeffion;
You hold there's doubt in all expreffion.
Hence is the bar with fees fupply'd,
Hence eloquence takes either fide.
Your hand would have but paltry gleaning,
Could every man exprefs his meaning.
Who dares prefume to pen a deed,
Unless you previously are fee'd?
'Tis drawn; and, to augment the coft,
In dull prolixity ingroft.
And now we're well fecur'd by law,
Till the next brother find a flaw.
Read o'er a Will. Was't ever known,
But could make the Will your own
For when you read, 'tis with intent
To find out meanings never meant.
Since things are thus, fe defendendo,
I bar fallacious innuendo.
Sagacious PORTA's fkill could trace
Some beaft or bird in ev'ry face.
The head, the eye, the nofe's fhape,
Prov'd this an
owl, and that an ape.
When, in the fketches thus defign'd,
Refemblance brings fome friend to mind,
You fhew the piece, and give the hint,
And find each feature in the print;
Só monftrous-like the portrait's found,
All know it, and the laugh goes round.
Like him I draw from gen'ral nature;
Is't I or you then fix the fatire?
So, Sir, I beg you fpare your pains
In making comments on my ftrains.
All private flander I deteft,
I judge not of my neighbour's breaft:
Party and prejudice I hate,
And write no libels on the state.
Shall not my fable cenfure vice,
Because a knave is over-nice?
And, left the guilty hear and dread,
Shall not the decalogue be read ?!
If I lafh vice in gen'ral fiction,
Is't I apply, or felf-conviction?
Brutes are my theme. Am I to blame,
If men in morals are the fame ?
I no man call an ape or afs;
'Tis his own confciente holds the glafs.
Thus void of all offence I write :
Who claims the fable, knows his right.
A Shepherd's Dog, unfkill'd in fports,
Pick'd up acquaintance of all forts:
Among the reft a Fox he knew;
By frequent chat their friendship grew.
Says Reynard, 'Tis a cruel cafe,
That man fhould ftigmatize our race.
No doubt, among us rogues you find,
As among dogs and human kind
And yet (unknown to me and you)
There may be honeft men. and true..
Thus flander tries, whate'er it can,.
To put us on the foot with man.
Let my own actions recommend ;
No prejudice can blind a friend:
You know me free from all difguife;
My honour as my life I prize.
By talk like this, from all miftrust
The dog was cur'd, and thought him juft
As on a time the Fox held forth.
On confcience, honefty, and worth,
Sudden he stopt; he cock'd his ear;
Low dropt his brushy tail with fear..
Blefs us! the hunters are abroad.
What's all that clatter on the road?
Hold, fays the Dog, we're fafe from harm,
'Twas nothing but a falfe alarm,
At yonder town 'tis market-day
Some farmer's wife is on the way;
'Tis fo (I know her pye-ball'd mare)
Dame Dobbins with her poultry-ware.
Reynard grew huff. Says he, This fneer.
From you I little thought to hear:
Your meaning in your looks I fee.
Pray what's dame Dobbins, friend, to me?
Did I e'er make her poultry thinner?
Prove that I owe the dame a dinner.
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