Their Toil is common, common is their Sleep;
They fbake their Wings when Morn begins to peep;
Rufh through the City Gates without Delay,
Nor ends their Work but with declining Day.
Thus, having spent the last Remains of Light,
They give their Bodies due repofe at Night:
When hollow Murmurs of their Ev'ning Bells
Difmifs the fleepy Swains, and toll 'em to their Cells.
When once in Bed their weary Limbs they steep,
No buzzing Sounds diflurb their golden Sleep,
'Tis facred all! Nor dare they fray
When Rain is promis'd, or a stormy Day;
But near the City Walls their Wat'ring take,
Nor forage far, but fhort Excurfions make.
And as when empty Barks on Billows float,
With fandy Ballet Sailors trim the Boat;
So Bees bear Gravel-Stones, whofe poizing Weight
Steers thro' the whistling Winds their fieady Flight.
But what's more frange, their modeft Appetites,
Averfe from Venus, fly the nuptial Rites.
No Luft enervates their heroick Mind;

Nor waste their Strength on wanten Womankind:
But in their Mouths refide their genial Pow'rs,
They gather Children from the Leaves and Flow'rs.
And oft on Rocks their tender Wings they tear,
And fink beneath the Burden which they bear :
Such Rage of Honey in their Bofom beats,
And fuch a Zeal they have for flow'ry Sweets.
Thus thro' the Race of Life they quickly run,
Which in the Space of feven fhort Years is done,
Th'immortal Line in fure Succeffion reigns,
The Fortune of the Family remains,
And Grandfires Grandfons the long Lifts contains.
Befides, not Egypt, India, Media, more,
With fervile Love their Idol King adore :

}

While he furvives, in Concord and Content
The Commons live, by no Divifions rent,

But the great Monarch's Death diffolves the Govern

ment.

All goes to Ruin: They themselves contrive
To rob the Honey, and fubvert the Hive.
Then fince they share with Man one common Fate,
In Health and Sickness, and in Turns of State,
Obferve the Symptoms when they fall away,
And languifh with infenfible Decay :

They change their Hue, with haggard Eyes they ftare,
Lean are their Looks, and fhagged is their Hair;
And Crowds of Dead, that never must return
To their lov'd Hives, in decent Pomp are born :
Their Friends attend the Hearfe, the next Relations

Kifs my A--- is no Treafon : Or, an Hiftorical and Critical Differtation upon the ART of Selling Bargains.

I

The

PREFACE.

Make my Reader the Compliment of a Preface, that he may not think I defigned him an Affront in the Title Page; otherwife I might have ventured to fut this little Treatife into his Hands without farther Ceremony. For as I can affure him that I have taken feme Pains to write upon this Subject with as much Decency, as the Nature of it would conveniently bear; fo I flatter myself, that when he has diligently confidered the Performance, he will have the Candour to acknowledge, that he has really Bought a Bargain.

Kifs my A--- is no Treafon, &c.

TH

HO' the Controverfy concerning antient and modern Learning has fo long and fo happily employed fo many able Pens; yet the Subject is fo far from being exhaufted, that, in fome Points, it has been very little touched upon, and in others not all. An Inftance in the former Kind is that noble Branch of the Mathematicks, the Science of

De

Decyphering; of the Original of which the World knows no more at prefent, than that one. Author has fathered it upon Dr. Wallis, and another has given us his WORD, that it was in Being many Hundred Years before the Doctor, was born. But to whomfoever the Honour of the Invention may belong, I will venture to affirm, that our modern Professors of 1 that Art have far exceeded all that ever went before them, or can at prefent pretend to vie with them! in any Nation.

A Point not once hitherto touched upon is the Art of Selling Bargains, of which I will endeavour in the enfuing Treatife to give my Reader full and ample Satisfaction. And it upon the whole I fhall be found to declare upon this Queftion for the Moderns, I hope it will appear to be done without the leaft Degree or Favour of Partiality; fince it would be an high Abfurdity, whilst I am difcourfing of Bargains, to be guilty myfelf of any unfair Deal-ing.

1

To fhew that I have no Manner of Prejudice against the Antients, I freely allow the Invention of Acrofticks to be theirs. I acknowledge, that they have happily fucceeded in publishing moft ingeni-ous Pieces under the feveral Shapes of Eggs,. Hatchets, Wings, and Altars, Nor do I know,. that any Modern has pretended to vie with them in fome of thefe Particulars; the latter Ages not having been able to produce one Oviparous Writer,, or Dedalus in Print. The Altar indeed has been well enough, imitated by many Authors of Monumental Infcriptions, in what they call Lapidary Verfes; that is, in Lines of unequal and uncertain Length, in which the Compofer has his full Liber-ty, provided he takes fpecial Care to avoid all Approaches towards either Metre or Rhyme. These Kerfes thus written, and tranfmitted to a skilfuli

G. 5

1

Engra

Engraver, and fafely lodged in a Place not exposed to Wind or Weather, may be legible to a good Eye as long as the Materials on which they are infcribed shall faft; and may serve in due Time to display the Reading of an itinerant Herald, and the Integrity of an Editor of Marbles, with Corrections and Amend

ments.

Puns alfo I grant to be venerably antient, and to have flourished as much in the Heat of the Carthaginian or Punick Wars as they did throughout the peaceful Reign of the firft Monarch of Great-Britain. As far as we can judge from the few Remains of that early Age, there were as many Puns then made, and as good ones, and as bad, as have been made at any Time fince. It must be confeffed

that our famous Universities have, with a laudable Emulation, endeavoured to excel in this, as well as in all other Kinds of Learning; but whether they have herein attained to the Perfection of Rome or Athens, or whether either of them has come fomewhat nearer to it than the other, it is befide my prefent Purpose to determine.

As for Bargains, I am clearly of Opinion, that they are of modern Date. For if they had been antiently in Ufe, is it not ftrange that we have no Remains of that Piece of Ingenuity tranfmitted to us by antient Writers; no Rules laid down about it intheir Treatifes of Oratory; no Inftances of it in their Dramatick Compofitions; nay, no Word, either in the Greek or Latin Tongue, to give it a Name! The like Obfervations might be made with regard to the Writings in most of the modern Languages; our Neighbours having fo little either of the Thing or Name, that they cannot with any Shew of Juflice claim the Honour of the Invenfion. I need not infift, that it interferes with the Gravity of the Spaniards, the Delicacy of the French,

and