See there, untouch'd your tulips ftrown,
For I devour'd the roots alone!

At this, the Gard'ner's paffion grows;
From oaths and threats he fell to blows;
The ftubborn brute the blows fuftains,

Affaults his leg and tears the veins.

Ah, foolish fwain, too late you

find

That fties were for fuch friends defign'd!

Homeward he limps with painful pace,

Reflecting thus on past disgrace;

Who cherishes a brutal mate

Shall mourn the folly foon or late.

FABLE

W

FABLE XLIX.

The MAN and the FLE A.

HETHER on earth, in air, or main,

Sure ev'ry thing alive is vain!

Does not the hawk all fowls furvey,

As deftin'd only for his prey?

And

And do not tyrants, prouder things,

Think men were born for flaves to kings?
When the crab views the pearly ftrands,

Or Tagus, bright with golden fands,
Or crawles befide the coral grove,

And hears the ocean roll above;

Nature is too profuse, says he,

Who gave all these to pleasure me!
When bord'ring pinks and rofes bloom,
And ev'ry garden breathes perfume,
When peaches glow with funny dyes,
Like Laura's cheek, when blushes rife;
When with huge figs the branches bend;
When clusters from the vine depend:
The fnail looks round on flow'r and tree,
And cries, All these were made for me!

What dignity's in human nature,

Says Man, the most conceited creature,

As from a cliff he caft his eye,

And view'd the fea and arched sky!
The fun was funk beneath the main,

The moon, and all the ftarry train
Hung the vaft vault of heav'n. The Man
His contemplation thus began.

When I behold this glorious show,

And the wide watry world below,

The fcaly people of the main,

The beafts that range the wood or plain,

The wing'd inhabitants of air,

The day, the night, the various year,
And know all these by heav'n defign'd

As gifts to pleasure human kind,
I cannot raise my worth too high;

Of what vaft confequence am I!

Not of th' importance you fuppofe, Replies a Flea upon his nofe:

Be

Be humble, learn thyfelf to fcan;

Know, pride was never made for man.
'Tis vanity that fwells thy mind.

What, heav'n and earth for thee defign'd!
For thee! made only for our need;

That more important Fleas might feed.