What bleflings must attend the nation
Under this good administration !"
He faid. A Goose, who distant stood,
Harangu'd apart the cackling brood:
"Whene'er I hear a knave commend,
He bids me fhun his worthy friend.
What praife! 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 Geese must feel a tyrant-reign.
What havock now fhall thin our race,
When every petty clerk in place,
To prove his taste, and seem polite,
Will feed on Geefe both noon and night!"
HAT whispers must the Beauty bear!
What hourly nonsense haunts her ear!
Where'er her eyes difpenfe their charms,
Impertinence around her fwarms.
Did not the tender nonfense strike,
Contempt and feorn might look dislike;
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.
Who knows a fool, must know his brother;
One fop will recommend another :
And with this plague the 's rightly curft,
Because the liften'd to the first.
As Doris, at her toilette's duty,
Sate 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 Wafp 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.
She frowns; the frets. "Good Gods! fhe cries, Protect me from thefe teazing flies!
Of all the plagues that Heaven hath fent,
A Wafp is most impertinent."
The hovering infect thus complain'd;
"Am I then flighted, fcorn'd, disdain'd ? -
Can fuch offence your anger wake?
'Twas beauty caus'd the bold mistake..
Thofe cherry-lips that breathe perfunie,
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 ;
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 boasts;
Brags how her sweetest tea he fips,.
And fhows the fugar on his lips.
The hint alarm'd the forward crew;
Sure of fuccefs, away they flew :
They fhare the dainties of the day,
Round her with airy mufic play:
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
SEEK you to train your favourite boy?-
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 these 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 thirft of blood.
Spurning the ground, the monarch ftood,
And roar'd aloud: "Sufpend the fight;
In a whole fkin 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 besom 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
Take, then, thy fate." With goring wound,
At once he lifts him from the ground:
Aloft the fprawling hero flies,
Mangled he falls, he howls, and dies.
THE ELEPHANT AND THE BOOKSELLER.
HE 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 description view
Creatures which Adam never knew;
For, when we risk no contradiction,
It prompts the tongue to deal in fiction.
Thofe things that startle me or you
I grant are strange; yet may be true.
Who doubts that Elephants are found
For fcience and for fenfe renown'd?
Borri records their strength of parts,
Extent of thought, and skill in arts;
How they perform the law's decrees,
And fave the state the hangman's fees;
And how by travel understand
The language of another land.
Let thofe, who question this report,
To Pliny's ancient page refort.
How learn'd was that fagacious breed!
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,
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