falling about his Ears; and will find it cheaper to throw it quite down, and build it again from the Ground, perhaps upon a new Foundation, or at leaft in a new Form, which may neither be fo fafe nor fo convenient as the old.

FINIS.

A

T

HIS fingle Stick, which you now be hold ingloriously lying in that! neuglected Corner, I once knew.gina flourishing State in a Foreft; it was full of Sap, full of Leaves, and full of Boughs, but now in vain does the bufy Art of Man prét tend to vye with Nature, by tying a wither'd Bundle of Twigs to its faplefs Trunk: 'Tis now at beft but the Reverfe of what it was, a Tree turned up fide down, the Branches on the Earth, and the Root in the Air; 'tis now

C

handled

handled by every dirty Wench, condemned to do her Drudgery, and by a capricious kind of Fate, deftin'd to make other things Clean, and be Nafty it felf: At length, worn to the Stumps in the Service of the Maids, 'tis either thrown out of Doors, or condemned to the laft Ufe of Findling a Fire. When beheld this, I #ghid, and faid within my felf, Surely Mortal Man is a BROOM-STICK: Nature fent him into the World ftrong and lufty, in a thriving Condition, wearing his own Hair upon his Head, the proper Branches of this Reafoning Vegitable, till the Axe of Intemperance has lopp'd off his Green Boughs, and left him a Wither'd Trunk: He then flies to Art, and puts on a Periwig, valuing himself upon an unnatural Bundle of Hairs, all covered with Powder, that never grew on his Head; but now fhould this our Broom-flick pretend to enter the Scene, proud of thofe Birchen Spoils it never bore, and all covered with Duft, though the Sweepings of the fineft Lady's Chamber, we fhould be apt to ridicule and defpife its Vani ty. Partial Judges that we are of our own Ex cellencies, and other Mens Defaults!

-Burra Broomstick, perhaps you will fay, is an Emblem of a Tree ftanding lol its Head; and pray what is Man, but a toply turvy Creatare, his Animal Faculties perpetually mounted en bis Rational, his Head where, his Heels fhould be, groveling on the Earth! And yet With all his Faults, he fets up to be an unit verfal Reformer and Corrector of Abuses, a Ret mover of Grievances, rakes into every Sluts Corner of Nature, bringing hidden Corrupti ons to the Light, and raises a mighty Duft

where

where there was none before, fharing deeply all the while, in the very fame Pollutions he pretends to fweep away: His last Days are pent in Slavery to Women, and generally the leaft deferving; till worn to the Stumps, like his Brother Bezom, he is either kick'd out of Doors, or made ufe of to kindle Flames for o thers to warm themselves by.

M

E have juft Religion enough to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another.

REFLECT on Things paft, as Wars, Negotiations, Factions, &c. We enter fo little into thofe Interefts, that we wonder how Men could poffibly be fo bufy and concerned for things fo Tranfitory; look on the prefent Times, we find the fame Humour, yet wonder not at all.

A Wife Man endeavours by confidering all Circumftances to make Conjectures, and form Conclufions, but the fmalleft Accident intervening (and in the courfe of Affairs it is impoffible to foresee all) does often produce fuch Turns and Changes, that at laft he is juft as much in doubt of Events, as the moft ignorant and unexperienced Perfons.

POSITIVENESS is a good Quality for Preachers and Orators, because he that would ob

trude