FABLE XXXVIII.
The TURKEY and the ANT.
IN other men we faults can dry's their eye,
Each little fpeck and blemish 'find ;-
To our own stronger errors blind.
A Turkey, tir'd of common food,
Forfook the barn, and fought the wood;
Behind her ran her infant train,
Collecting here and there a grain.
Draw near, my birds, the mother cries,
This hill delicious fare fupplies;
Behold the bufy Negro race,
See, millions blaken all the place!
Fear not.
Like me with freedom eat;
An Ant is moft 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 oifters we combine;
Sometimes affift the favoury chine.
From the low peafant 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 clim'd beyond her reach,
Thus answer'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 breakfast nations kill.
FABLE XXXIX.
The FATHER and JUPITER.
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 worries heav'n with prayers. Jove nods affent. Two hopeful boys And a fine girl reward his joys.
Now, more folicitous he grew,
And fet their future lives in view:
He saw 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 richest gifts enjoy.
My next with ftrong ambition fire:
May favour teach him to afpire ;
"Till he the step of power afcend,
And courtiers to their idol bend.
With ev'ry 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 every griping art,
Heaps hoards on hoards with anxious pain,
And all his life devotes to gain.
He feels no joy, his cares increase,
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 disdains,
And glories in her lover's pains.
With age. fhe fades, each lover flies,
Contemn'd, forlorn, the 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 show,
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..
FABLE XLVII.
The COURT of DEATH
DEATH, on a folemn night of state,
In all his pomp of terrors fate :
The attendants of his gloomy reign,
Diseases dire, a ghaftly train,
Crowd the vast court.
A voice thus thunder'd from the throne.
This night our minifter we name,
Let ev'ry fervant fpeak his claim;
Merit shall bear this ebon wand.
All, at the word, ftretch'd forth their hand..
Fever, with burning heat possest,
Advanc'd, and for the wand addreft.
I to the weekly bills appeal,
Let thofe exprefs my fervent zeal;
On ev'ry flight occafion near,
With violence I perfevere.
Next Gout appears with limping pace,
Pleads how he shifts from place to place;
From head to foot how fwift he flies,
And ev'ry joint and finew plys;
Still working when he feems fuppreft;
A moft tenacious ftubborn guest.
A haggard spectre from the crew
Crawls forth, and thus afferts his due.
'Tis I who taint the fweeteft joy,
And in the shape of love destroy:
My fhanks, funk eyes, and nofelefs face,
Prove my pretenfion to the place.
Stone urg'd his ever-growing force.
And, next, Confumption's meagre corfe,
With feeble voice, that scarce was heard,
Broke with fhort coughs, his fuit preferr❜d.
Let none object my ling'ring way,
I gain, like Fabius, by delay;
Fatigue and weaken ev'ry foe
By long attack, fecure though flow.
Plague reprefents his rapid power,
Who thinn'd a nation in an hour.
All spoke their claim, and hop'd the wand. Now expectation hufh'd the Band, When thus the monarch from the throne. Merit was ever modeft known. What, no phyfician fpeak his right! None here? But fees their toils requite. Let then Intemp'rance take the wand, Who fills with gold their zealous hand.
You, Fever, Gout, and all the reft,
(Whom wary men, as foes, deteft),
Forego your claim; no more pretend:
Intemp'rance is esteem'd a friend;
He shares their mirth, their focial joys,
And, as a courted gueft, deftroys.
The charge on him moft justly fall,
Who finds employment for you all..
[By Dr. THOMAS PARNELL.]
AR in a wild, unknown to public view,
From youth to age a rev'rend Hermit grew; The mofs his bed, the cave his humble cell, His food the fruits, his drink the chryftal well: Remote from man, with God he pafs'd the days, Pray'r all his bus'nefs, all his pleasure praife. A life fo facred, fuch ferene repofe,
Seem'd heav'n itfelf; 'till one fuggeftion rose,
That vice fhou'd triumph, virtue vice obey,
This fprung fome doubt of providence's fway:
His hopes no more a certain profpect boaft,
And all the tenour of his foul is loft:
So when a smooth expanfe receives impreft
Calm nature's image on its watry breast,
Down bend the banks, the trees depending
grow,
And fkies beneath with anfw'ring colours glow:
But if a ftone the gentle fcene divide,
Swift ruffling circles curl on ev'ry fide,
And glimmering fragments of a broken fun,
Banks, trees, and fkies, in thick disorder run.
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